German Govt. summons envoy for clarification on American spying charge

The Angela Merkel-led government in Germany has summoned American Ambassador, John B. Emerson, to the Foreign Office here to clarify on reports of a spying operation reportedly ordered by the U.S. Government.

The summons was made after a German man was arrested this week on suspicion of passing secret documents to a foreign power, believed to be the United States.

The arrest came as Washington and Berlin were trying to put to rest a year of strains over the National Security Agency's monitoring of Germans' electronic data, including Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone, and just months after the collapse of an effort by Germany to strike a "no spy" accord with the White House.

While the White House and American intelligence officials refused to comment on the arrest, one senior American official said that reports in the German news media that the 31-year-old man under arrest had been working for the United States for at least two years "threaten to undo all the repair work" the two sides have been trying to achieve.

The arrested man, according to the New York Times, is said to be a mid-level employee of the Federal Intelligence Service, and was originally arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia.

But according to the news reports and the account of the American official, the man told his interrogators he had been working for the United States for some time.

The Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency both declined to comment on the allegations.