Nobody should be surprised if the NSA targeted Putin beneficiary Gerhard Schröder's mobile phone

Two close friends.

German media report that the NSA may have monitored former German socialist leader Gerhard Schröder, when he was chancellor:

On Tuesday night, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and NDR reported that Schröder had appeared on the so-called National Sigint Requirement List, a list of people and institutions named for targetting by the intelligence agency whose telephone communications should be monitored. Schröder was reportedly assigned the number "388" in 2002, if not sooner.

The reports cite unnamed US government and NSA insider sources claiming that Schröder was declared a target for monitoring because of his critical position on US preparations for a war in Iraq. A person with knowledge of the action is quoted as saying that the US had reason to believe that Schröder would not help lead the alliance toward success.

If we consider Schröder's close personal relationship with the probably most corrupt dictator of our time, Vladimir Putin, it would have been a serious dereliction of duty NOT to target Schröder's mobile phone.