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Obama: 'Give Me Everything on Merkel'

POTUS knew of spying back in 2010.

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BERLIN/WASHINGTON (Rixstep) — Barack Obama keeps trying to wiggle out of the allegations regarding NSA espionage on foreign leaders; but he was briefed back in 2010 about their work on German chancellor Angela Merkel, and he ordered the NSA to report directly to him in the future, according to Bild.de.

'I want to know everything about her!' the POTUS is to have said.

Three Years in the Loop

Barack Obama has been in the loop about NSA spying on German chancellor Angela Merkel for three years. He has explicitly approved the programme. He has ordered the NSA to send all reports directly to him. But he told Merkel only recently that he knew nothing about it.

Obama is to have been personally briefed by Keith Alexander.

A senior official from the NSA said Obama wanted to know everything about Merkel, commenting 'who is this woman exactly'.

Not Just Her Cellphone - 18 NSA Agents in Berlin

And the spying wasn't limited to Merkel's mobile. The NSA were also able this past summer to hack into her secure phone.

'Nothing was hidden from the eavesdroppers', wrote Bild.de. 'There was only one line the NSA couldn't tap: the secure land line in the chancellery.'

NSA intelligence reports on Merkel didn't go to Fort Meade - they went to the White House. The reports were collated on the 4th floor of the US embassy in Berlin at Brandenburger Tor where the city's 18 NSA agents recorded and collected everything.

She's Not the First

The spying game against Germany didn't begin with Angela Merkel: her predecessor Gerhard Schröder was targeted by George W Bush because the latter wasn't pleased with the German's refusal to back the US invasion of Iraq. Schröder was convinced the NSA spied on him but couldn't prove it. The programme expanded when Merkel took over in 2005.