Posted on 10/24/2013 12:30:47 PM PDT by Kaslin
According to The Guardian, the NSA has been monitoring the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another U.S. government department. This has all been revealed in documents provided by Edward Snowden.
The memo, given over by the whistleblower, shows that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments (meaning White House, Department of State and the Pentagon) to share their rolodexes so that they could add phone numbers of foreign politicians to their surveillance lists.
This same document also notes that one official in particular gave over 200 numbers, of which 35 belonged to world leaders. All of this comes about after yesterday’s phone call from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to President Obama. She accused the U.S. of tapping her cell phone. Later in the day White House press secretary Jay Carney released a statement saying that the U.S. is “not monitoring and will not monitor” Ms. Merkel’s communication activities. This did not satisfy Berlin, where they immediately pointed out that this did not clear up any possible spying in the past.
The memo, which was dated October 2006, told officials that their rolodexes would help agency surveillance. From this document it seems quite clear that this was not an isolated incident.
When The Guardian approached the Obama administration for answers, the White House simply responded with comments Jay Carney had made in today’s press conference saying, “The [NSA] revelations have clearly caused tension in our relationships with some countries, and we are dealing with that through diplomatic channels. These are very important relations both economically and for our security, and we will work to maintain the closest possible ties."
As more news develops all we know for sure is that this is bound to have major repercussions for our international relations. Trust is extremely important when dealing with foreign leaders and the last thing we need to be doing is jeopardizing that. Our allies are extremely important to our world standing and with our integrity being questioned, we must be aware of how this looks.
Now all we can wait on is to find who these leaders are and what kind of surveillance we got from them.
friends, not friens
Well the Germans wanted Obama, they got him.
And what they all have in common is that none of the 35 have consulted me. No wonder the world is so screwed up.
Someone needs to be monitoring Obama’s call and then expose to the world what he actually says and does . Out the guy already .
I’ve asked this before, and I’ll ask it again:
What happens when America is universally viewed as “the bad guy” and the world comes after us like we’re Nazi Germany or fascist Italy? At some point they’re going to get tired of our crap.
"Ooooh, Reggie, I love it when you talk dirty."
That arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is working on it. You can count on it.
Hope & change, yeah!
The world really loves us more with Obama in charge. Not.
Well, yeah, unlike spying on Americans, spying on world leaders probably IS in the NSA’s job description.
Welcome to the party, pal. They’ve been monitoring American citizens phone calls for years.
So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice.
They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.
With a lot more focus on the listening and learning... not so much on the trust.
Wow!
That’s just so....unexpected.
Only 35? They’ve been slacking.
Oh I get it. Blame Bush!
Wow.
What if NSA keeps it up and a foreign government decides they have had enough of Obama?
That is a scary thought.
LOL...Angela Merkel will not be amused. Wonder if they’ve been taping Queen Elizabeth, too?
Hopefully, Snowden will reveal BO’s birthplace at some point, and maybe throw in his college transcripts as well.
‘Barak...Barak... is that you? Get off the line before I release your college transcripts.’ Angela Merkel
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