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The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) bugged the phone of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder from at least 2002, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday, compounding the most serious row between between the allies in a decade. The reason for the snooping was Social Democrat (SPD) Schroeder's opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq under then President George W. Bush, the Sueddeutsche daily said, citing U.S. government sources and NSA insiders. "We had reason to believe that (Schroeder) was not contributing to the success of the alliance," the newspaper quoted one person with direct knowledge of the monitoring as saying. Since then, it has been widely suspected in Germany that the NSA had bugged governments preceding Merkel's but this is the first concrete report that offers evidence and it stems from information from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.More...