I hope she didn't believe him.

THE AMERICAN BLACK CHAMBER by Herbert O. Yardley.

The cryptographic unit of the State Department was dismantled in 1923 because "gentlemen don't read each other's mail." Fortunately, that mandate was ignored and the Japanese Purple Code and the German Ultra were broken.

Allies? Like the USSR and Germany in 1939... or the USSR and the USA and UK for a few years...

Gen. Mitchell was court-martialed for saying that the US would go to war against our friends, Japan. Japan was considered a westernized nation, as opposed the Yellow Peril from China, which which why the League of Nations gave to Japan the former Pacific colonies of Germany after WWI. Of course WWI is where Italy went from the ally of Germany to the ally of France.

Germany is not our ally. The geopolitical interests of Germany coincide with many of the geopolitical interests of the United States. Don't make more of the relationship than is there.

Germany, France, Botswana, Nepal,...

More to the point, do not confuse your own self-interest with the interests of the US government in Washington DC. The Cayman Islands might be YOUR friend. Germany may not be.

And finally, having worked for the Carl Zeiss Stiftung, I differentiate German individuals from the government of Germany.

If we are spying on the leader of Germany and others who are supposed to be on our side, why is it so hard to believe the NSA is tracking and spying on ordinary Americans?