BERLIN
The German Federal Parliament has announced a parliamentary committee to investigate how the U.S. National Security Agency carried out surveillance in Germany since 2002 will be formed on Thursday.
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) parliamentary group secretary general Michael Grosse-Brömer said from Berlin on Tuesday the committee will investigate “in what ways” and “to what extent” the NSA carried out its operations.
He said the committee will have eight members -- four from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), two of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and one of the Left Party and the Green Party -- and will begin work in early April.
The CDU deputy Clemens Binningerstrasse from the state of Baden-Württemberg will be the committee chairperson.
The U.S. surveillance of German leaders started in 2002 during the presidency of George W. Bush, including the monitoring of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who opposed supporting American military intervention in Iraq, according to German press reports.
The German authorities believe that the NSA’s suspected surveillance operation was controlled from a special facility at the U.S. embassy building in Berlin, which is only a kilometer from the Chancellery.
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