‘German chancellery exonerates secret services’

German secret services worked within the law, Roland Pofalla the chief of staff of the Chancellery and minister for special affairs, told a parliamentary committee on July 25. His comments come seven weeks after the first spying revelations by former CIA consultant, Edward Snowden.

"The protection of data was 100 per cent ensured and [Germany] did not communicate millions of data [files] to the American secret services," Pofalla told MPs.

Pofalla himself requested to give evidence to the committee, Der Spiegel and the daily Bild claiming that the German government collaborated with the NSA and was informed about PRISM as early as 2011.