Postcard from... Berlin

The disclosure that US intelligence bugged Angela Merkel’s mobile telephone from a secret listening post on top of Berlin’s American Embassy provoked sharp criticism.

But that was soon followed by revelations that Britain’s GCHQ runs a similar listening post from the roof of its embassy. So it hardly comes as a surprise to learn that the UK and America are not the only ones spying.

According to German counter-espionage sources, everyone is doing it. The latest to fall under suspicion are the Russians who have a wooden structure on top of Moscow’s embassy nicknamed the “log cabin”.

Phone bugging is a very easy means of espionage and there is very little anyone can do to stop it. Nor can the embassies be legally obliged to dismantle their listening posts. They rate as ex-territorial enclaves with diplomatic status which are not subject to German law.

Polite requests that such structures should be removed are usually met with equally polite refusals. Germany’s politicians are now being equipped with encrypted mobile phones designed to make bugging impossible. All that’s missing now are disclosures about any spying practised by the Germans.