'I Would Rather Wait': Merkel Remains Mum on NSA Spying
Despite intense political pressure, German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered no new details on the extent of NSA surveillance activities in Germany during a Friday press conference. She told reporters that her government is applying "appropriate pressure" on the Obama administration.
Often, Angela Merkel's final press conference before summer vacation is a pretty boring affair. But not this year. Around 250 journalists turned out Friday to pose questions to the German chancellor. And most had only one thing on their minds: spying on Germany by America's NSA intelligence agency and its possible cooperation with its German counterparts as part of the Prism program.
The press conference provided Merkel with a perfect opportunity to shed more light on the data scandal and to burnish a government image that has been tarnished since SPIEGEL reported earlier this month that the NSA has been spying on the European Union and monitoring up to a half-billion German communications connections each month.
But she didn't take advantage of it. Merkel told reporters it was "entirely impossible" to deliver an analysis of Prism, adding that those hoping for more on Friday would be disappointed. The only thing she offered was: "The work is not complete. It is ongoing."
Merkel likewise shied away from providing a concrete timeline for when results of the ongoing inquiry into Prism would be provided. Merkel said that a list of questions had been submitted to the United States and that they were waiting for answers. "We are applying the appropriate pressure," she said. "We have made clear that answering the catalogue of questions is important to us."
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/merkel-says-american-partners-need-time-to-clarify-spying-a-912067.html#ref=nl-international
