The latest documents also point to a major NSA spy operation targeting European citizens. According to Der Spiegel, some 500 million unique communications are monitored in Germany alone each month. The revelations have sparked calls from some European diplomats to suspend trade talks as well as the sharing of information on bank transactions and flight passengers. The New York Times reports Snowden likely obtained access to the U.S. target list because his job for the contractor Booz Allen Hamilton was to help the NSA break into Internet and telephone communications worldwide.