US May Have Been Monitoring Merkel Since 2002

Even before she became president of Germany

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said Sunday that U.S. intelligence agencies broke German laws if they monitored cellphones in Germany, following a new report that the United States may have been monitoring Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone since 2002.

Merkel's communications may have been tapped even before she became leader of Germany in 2005, according to the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, citing a leaked National Security Agency document from former contractor Edward Snowden. Eavesdropping activities were run out of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin as well as in about 80 other embassies and consulates around the world, including 19 in Europe, the magazine reported, citing another document leaked by Snowden.