NSA Monitored Angela Merkel's Phone and 35 Other World Leaders

The Guardian newspaper reported, citing documents obtained from Edward Snowden, that the National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The leaked NSA memo, dated October 2006, revealed that senior U.S. government officials from the White House, State Department, and Pentagon provided more than 200 phone numbers of foreign politicians to the NSA for surveillance, with 35 of those belonging to world leaders.

The most prominent revelation concerned Angela Merkel, one of America’s closest allies. Reports indicated the NSA had been eavesdropping on Merkel’s personal cell phone, potentially for more than a decade, including during her meetings with other European leaders. Merkel personally called President Obama to express her outrage, making clear that if the reports were true, it would be “completely unacceptable” and represent a grave breach of trust between allied nations. In a public statement, Merkel declared that the spying allegations had “severely shaken” relations between Europe and the United States.

The NSA memo encouraged senior U.S. officials to share their contact lists and “rolodexes” so that phone numbers of foreign politicians could be added to surveillance target lists. This systematic approach to surveilling allied leaders sparked international outrage and triggered a major diplomatic crisis. European leaders, including French President François Hollande and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, also expressed fury over revelations that they too had been targets of NSA surveillance.

The scandal prompted urgent meetings at the European Union, with leaders demanding explanations from Washington and calling for new agreements to prevent intelligence overreach. Germany and Brazil sponsored a UN General Assembly resolution on digital privacy rights. The revelations fundamentally damaged trust between the United States and its closest allies, demonstrating that the NSA’s surveillance apparatus made few distinctions between adversaries and friends. The Obama administration offered carefully worded denials that Merkel was currently being monitored but did not address past surveillance, effectively confirming the reports.