Airbus to press charges on NSA/BND spying claims

[reorg]

Source: Deutsche Welle

Date 30.04.2015

Airbus said on Thursday that it had formally requested information from the government in Berlin about how the US and German foreign intelligence services, the NSA and the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), spied on the aviation giant. Airbus told several news outfits that, following media reports suggesting Airbus was the target of industrial espionage, the company would be pressing charges against persons unkonw.

"We are aware that large companies in the sector, like ours, are targets of this espionage," the company said in a statement to French news agency AFP, after similar comments to German business daily Handelsblatt. "However, in this case we are alarmed because there is concrete suspicion of industrial espionage."

The company added, however, that it did not want to speculate on the information within this week's news reports: "We have asked the German government for information. We will now file a criminal complaint against persons unknown on suspicion of industrial espionage."

Airbus was reacting to reports in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper and Spiegel newsmagazine claiming that the NSA had asked its German equivalent, the BND, to spy not just on terror suspects in France, but also on Airbus, the French presidency and the European Commission. According to the reports, Airbus' Eurocopter helicopter subsidiary was also targeted - the French-based giant is a major player in both the military and commercial aviation markets.

Read more: http://www.dw.de/airbus-to-press-charges-on-nsa-bnd-spying-claims/a-18422548

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... This follows claims by German media outlets that the Chancellery, which oversees the BND, closed its eyes to NSA spying on German and European firms to ensure future receipt of US counterterrorism information in Berlin.

De Maiziere, who was Merkel's chancellery minister between 2005 and 2009, said on Wednesday the accusations were "untrue" and could be disproved by documents, which needed to remain secret. ...

http://www.dw.de/merkel-cabinet-pressed-on-nsa-bnd-spying/a-18418205

Germany's foreign intelligence service, BND, spied on top French officials as well as members of the European Commission on behalf of US spy agency NSA, according to reports in German daily "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and public broadcasters WDR and NDR.

In an article published on Thursday's front page, Süddeutsche claimed the BND's wiretapping center in Bad Aibling, south of Munich, was "abused" to help the NSA spy on "high-ranking French officials in the French Foreign Ministry, the Elysée Palace and the EU Commission." ...



http://www.dw.de/reports-bnd-helped-nsa-spy-on-france-eu-commission/a-18420019

[BelgianMadCow]

1. interesting!

thanks for posting!