Hillary: Surveillance on Merkel's phone was absolutely wrong

SPIEGEL: We actually wanted to talk about your book and not about the NSA, but since it became known on Friday that a member of the German intelligence agency was arrested who had admitted that he acted as a spy for a US intelligence service, the issue of the NSA has gained a new dimension. Given the tense political climate, do you believe the CIA could seriously come up with idea of infiltrating German intelligence?

Clinton: Well, I know that your government is conducting a criminal investigation, and we will learn more as the facts are developed. And I know nothing other than what I read. But clearly, we have to do a much better job in working together between Germany and the United States to sort out what the appropriate lines of cooperation are on intelligence and security. I think the cooperation is necessary for our security, but we don’t want to undermine it by raising doubts again and again. Clearly, the surveillance on Chancellor Merkel’s phone was absolutely wrong. The president said that. I think that he made it very clear it was unacceptable. Where are the lines on both sides? That’s what we have to work out.

SPIEGEL: Would you agree that acquiring a source within the German intelligence agency should be taboo for US intelligence services?

Clinton: I don’t want to give a general answer. There’s so much that goes on in intelligence circles. If we were to say no, under no circumstances, that you shouldn’t do that to us, we shouldn’t do that to you, what if a circumstance arises where it is conceivable that it would be in your interest and ours? The United States could never enter into a No-Spy agreement with any country — not you, not Britain, not Canada. But that doesn’t mean that within the intelligence and security institutions within our two countries, we shouldn’t have a much clearer idea of what is appropriate and what should not be done.