The US National Security Agency has been repeatedly embarrassed this year by details of its extensive surveillance operations exposed by Edward Snowden, the former contractor. None of these revelations is diplomatically as damaging as his disclosure that the NSA has listened for most of the past decade to the mobile phone conversations of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. The revelation has triggered deep anger in Berlin while the US has in effect admitted that the allegation is true.
今年,美國國家安全局(NSA)前合約員工愛德華•史諾登(Edward Snowden)披露了NSA大量監聽活動的細節,屢次令後者難堪。但說到對外交關係的破壞程度,史諾登披露的這一切細節都不及他曝光的另一件事:NSA在過去十年的大部分時間裏對德國總理安格拉•梅克爾(Angela Merkel)的手機通話進行了監聽。此事令德國政府大爲震怒,而美國也在事實上承認了上述指控屬實。