Posted on 10/29/2013 12:43:29 PM PDT by lbryce
European lawmakers in Washington on Monday blasted the United States in the wake of reports of massive US surveillance activities against its allies, including alleged eavesdropping by US intelligence on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Confidence is vanished,” Elmar Brok, a German member of an EU Parliament delegation visiting the US capital this week, said after meeting with members of the US Congress on Monday to discuss the alleged surveillance, Reuters reported.
The White House has been scrambling into damage-control mode in the aftermath of the disclosures about the surveillance dragnet, including allegations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) tapped Merkel’s mobile phone and conducted extensive spying in Spain, Italy and France.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at the daily briefing Monday that US President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the surveillance program to be completed by the end of the year in an attempt to balance security needs against privacy concerns.
“We recognize there needs to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence,” Carney said.
Carney declined to discuss specific allegations regarding the US government snooping, saying Washington was discussing the matter with its allies through diplomatic channels. He said his readout from a phone call between Obama and Merkel last week that made it “clear that we do not and will not monitor the chancellor’s communications.”
Carney did not say whether the United States had monitored Merkel’s communications in the past.
Citing secret NSA documents, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday that the NSA had spied on Merkel’s mobile phone for more than 10 years and that her cell phone number had been on a special list of an NSA unit, the Special Collection Service (SCS), since 2002.
Citing unidentified US officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the White House ordered the NSA to halt the wiretapping of some 35 foreign leaders’ communications after it learned of the practice this summer.
On Sunday, the NSA denied a report in Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the agency’s director, Keith Alexander, told Obama about the surveillance targeting Merkel in 2010, CNN reported.
“Gen. Alexander did not discuss with President Obama in 2010 an alleged foreign intelligence operation involving German Chancellor Merkel, nor has he ever discussed alleged operations involving Chancellor Merkel,” NSA spokeswoman Vanee’ Vines was quoted by CNN as saying.
The European Parliament delegation met with US lawmakers behind closed doors Monday on Capitol Hill, a meeting that addressed restoring trust between Washington and its allies abroad, according to US Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
“It started to identify some of the differences that we have that we’re going to have to bridge. That’s a good thing,” Rogers was quoted by Reuters as saying. “That’s a good start and that’s why we’ve pledged to take a delegation back to Brussels to follow up on this conversation.”
Claude Moraes, a British member of the EU delegation who is leading the inquiry into mass US surveillance, said Monday that alleged US spying “is not a cosmetic situation for us,” ABC News reported.
“We believe that this disconnection that’s going on suggests that perhaps there isn’t sufficient [U.S.] appreciation … for the lack of privacy that EU citizens feel for this activity,” ABC News quoted Moraes as saying.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry said Monday that it had summoned the US ambassador to the country, James Costos, to clarify information relating to NSA surveillance activities.
The announcement followed a report by Spain’s El Mundo newspaper Monday stating that the NSA had monitored more than 60 million telephone conversations in Spain between Dec. 10 and Jan. 8. The reported was based on documents leaked by fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, El Mundo reported.
Snowden, a computer specialist and former NSA contractor, was the focus of international attention over the summer after he leaked classified evidence of US government surveillance programs to the media.
He fled to Hong Kong and then to Moscow, where he was granted temporary asylum in Russia in late July despite repeated extradition demands from Washington. He is now living at an undisclosed location in Russia.
Nevertheless, it presents the reality in which the global outcry against a man who campaigned for president in 2008 on a platform of vituperation, vilification of America's foreign policy initiatives that was blatantly embarrassing demonstrates the utter hypocrisy, certainly abject ineptitude, even deliberate, purposeful subversion he has brought to bear by his own nihilist volition.
The media in America is reporting this, right?
Just more friendships that he promised us.
Gosh, this guy has brought us so much love...
To the EU: Fine, the next time you Eurowimps face another Hitler, Stalin... STFU and don’t so much as give us a call.
Just follow the cheese eating surrender monkeys into battle but make sure you have your white flag.
If spying is a must then it MUST start at the top before it gets to the average citizen as after all, in spite of all we have been told how important government is, it is governments who are the killing machines and we need to know what these most dishonest leaders are plotting.
Damn George W!
Press that “RESET” button any time you’re ready.
Say Trust ‘Vanished’
Think the US and the USSR during WWII.
As much as I would like to bash Obama over this, Me thinks they doth protest too much.
” Eurowimps face another Hitler, Stalin”
Sadly it is us facing that threat, we may need the help, just sayin’....
So, according to the liars, it takes 2+ months to figure out what anybody under their direction is doing?
“Does Obama wipe his own ass?” - “Uh, I don't know, we'll appoint a panel to look into it.”
Do we still have to pay them foreign aid and rent for our bases?
The Euro Weenies don’t trust us (U.S.) any more? Well I don’t either.
What this is really all about is jealousy in the intelligence business. The euros are jealous of the status of the members of the "five eyes", particularly the junior members. The euros can never join this most exclusive alliance and they just can't stand it.
They don’t trust us! Let’s withdraw our troops before they change their minds.
And your allies not only know you spy but they know who those spies are.
It makes it handy for information to be passed "unofficially".
Why no old chap, we never would tell the Israelis that Iran just bought new software for their centrifuge that has a walloping big hole for hacking. But if I happened to be meeting with their "chief assistant to the assistant chief" and he just happened to read the papers on my desk that had that information while I stepped out to ask for a spot of tea to be brought in... that is not telling.
What you do not do is be clumsy or rude about it.
Obummer's people are clumsy, rude and stupid.
I could be wrong, but when I smell a rat it's usually a rat.
It’s because 0 doesn’t like Europe. They are colonialists. They came to this country and are White and mostly Christian.
He loves certain other countries. Hint: they are brown and violently anti-Christian. He goes there and bows down to them. He sends them as much money as he can.
Trust of my government is been erased out of me, too. Our government has gone to the dark side. It’s going to get worse, too. No one will stop it.
'Arab Spring' certainly one of the most utterly delusional, misguidedly fanciful terms conjured up by some schizophrenic dreamer, the likes of some Thomas L. Friedman doppleganger , is a glaring misnomer if ever there was one.
Thinking about your comment referring to the the US and USSR during World War 2, it made me realize how the media has always played this sort of game in getting the American people to look kindly on a ruthless dictator, bent on the destruction of the US, having committed genocide to numbers greater than what Hitler attained, because of our alliance with the USSR, conjuring up the same sort of endearingly cockamamie term as Uncle Joe (B-A-A-R-R-F-F-F-F)
Certainly spawned only from the mind of some obsequious left-wing, liberal Communist sycophantic boot licker.
Can you imagine Americans ever referring to Hitler as "Uncle Wolfie"?
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