He was requested to explain reports in theIndependent newspaper Tuesday. "Documents leaked by the US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden," writes the newspaper ,"show that GCHQ is, together with the US and other key partners, operating a network of electronic spy posts from diplomatic buildings around the world, which intercept data in host nations."
But of specific concern is the suggestion that GCHQ is operating "its own covert listening station within a stone’s throw of the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, and Ms Merkel’s offices in the Chancellery, using hi-tech equipment housed on the embassy roof."
According to Spiegel Online (Google translation), "a small number of employees of the embassy is only concerned with the wiretap. They work accordingly disguised as diplomats, their true function is also unknown to most of their colleagues."
The Independent notes that a similar NSA listening post in the American embassy seems to have been shut down following revelations that the NSA had bugged Chancellor Merkel's mobile phone (based on heat maps from ARD Panorama). There is no indication on whether the British listening post remained active, but the newspaper notes, "According to one NSA document, Washington recently closed some of the 100 SCS [Special Collection Service] locations it operates in embassies around the world and transferred some of the work to GCHQ."
Comparisons are being drawn with the Devil's Mountain (Teufelsberg), an NSA listening post built on the top of World War II rubble during the Cold War, and designed to spy on East Germany. The current alleged GCHQ listening post, however, is designed to spy on friends.
There is increasing concern in Europe over the extent of GCHQ surveillance. Snowden warned, in an earlier interview with the Guardian, "They [GCHQ] are worse than the US." The British government, however, has continually downplayed or simply ignored the Snowden revelations. "‘The first priority of a prime minister is to try to keep your country safe and that means not having some lah-dih-dah, airy-fairy view", said Cameron last month.
German Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, leading the negotiations on the EU's proposed General Data Protection Regulation, takes a stronger view. “If GCHQ runs a listening post on the top of the UK’s Berlin embassy, it is clearly targeting politicians and journalists. Do these people pose a threat?" he said to the Independent.
“The EU has asked David Cameron’s Government to explain the activities of GCHQ in Europe but it has declined to do so, saying it does not comment on activities in the interest of national security. This is hardly in the spirit of European co-operation. We are not enemies.”
But asked to respond, "Mr Cameron’s official spokesman said: 'We don’t comment on intelligence questions.'”
On Thursday the European Parliament's LIBE committee will hold the next session of its ongoing investigation into the Prism scandal. It will be particularly relevant to the current allegations. "The inquiry will focus on national programmes for mass surveillance in EU Member States and their compatibility with EU law as well as the role of Parliamentary oversight of intelligence services at national level in an era of mass surveillance," says a LIBE statement.
David Bickford, former legal director of MI5 and MI6, and Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, are slated to give an afternoon talk titled, "The situation in the United Kingdom." Albrecht's spokesperson told Infosecurity, "I am sure Jan Philipp Albrecht will ask about GCHQ´s alleged spying in Berlin," but added, "I do not think there will be special date for an inquiry focused on this topic."