US likely to blame Germany for WWIII over spying row: Analyst

A political commentator has warned that Germany should be careful over the spying feud with the US because Washington is likely to blame Berlin for World War III as the European country was blamed for World War I and II.

“Germany has to be particularly careful because Germany was blamed for World War I, Germany was blamed for World War II, and now with its connivance with the United States, it looks like Germany would be blamed for World War III,” Anna O’Leary, a writer based in Listowel, Ireland, said in a phone interview with Press TV on Monday.

“It is time for Angela Merkel to take stock and to decide what way she is going to take Germany,” she added.

Elsewhere in her remarks, the analyst said German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “up in arms with America” over the National Security Agency’s spying on her and her country.

Last week, German police arrested a German intelligence employee suspected of spying for the United States.

Speaking at a news conference in China on Monday, Merkel said that if reports that the intelligence employee spied for the US are proven true, it would be a “clear contradiction” of trust between the two countries.

German prosecutors say the 31-year-old man allegedly sold 218 documents to the US between 2012 and 2014.

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel is up in arms with America and says it’s a clear contradiction of trust between allies for America has now been found buying information from a double agent in Germany which sold 218 classified German documents to the Americans,” O’Leary said.

“This revelation comes on the foot of many revelations made by Edward Snowed in the 200,000 of documents he leaked, and they are having a knock-on effect,” she said.

O’Leary added that after “the arrest of this German double agent, relations between the Unites States and Germany are further strained.”

“Going back, Siemens, the German engineering company, had information that would benefit the United States but they had nothing at all to do with security, and they were spied on,” she stated.

The most irritating part for Merkel was “to discover that her own cellphone had been monitored and spied on by the Americans for ten years,” O’Leary noted.

In an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel posted online on Monday, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the United States would never sign an agreement with any other country not to spy on them. “The US will never sign a no-spy agreement (as demanded by Germany) with any other countries, not with you, not with Britain or Canada.”

“Clearly, the United States has got no respect for its working allies. There is no honor among thieves,” O’Leary said.

She stated that Merkel would have been “particularly peeved” by spying on her cellphone for ten years the Americans have breached her personal privacy.

Relations between the two transatlantic partners turned sour after it was revealed that the NSA had been snooping on Merkel. Leaked documents also show the spy agency has conducted mass espionage activities on German citizens.

Global outrage over US government surveillance spiked after a confidential memo obtained from US surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA had illegally eavesdropped on the phone conversations of dozens of world leaders, including Merkel.