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America’s top intelligence official acknowledged Tuesday that President Obama and other senior White House officials were well aware of U.S. surveillance activities targeting leaders of friendly foreign nations — a stark contradiction of the administration’s insinuation in recent days that the president was unaware of such spying....

The head of US intelligence has told lawmakers that discerning foreign leaders' intentions is a key goal of the nation's spying operations. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said such efforts were a "top tenet" of US intelligence policy. But he told the intelligence panel of the House of Representatives the US did not "indiscriminately" spy on nations. Mr Clapper was reacting to a growing international row over reports the US eavesdropped on foreign allies. "Leadership intentions is kind of a basic tenet of what we collect and analyse," Mr Clapper said, adding that foreign allies spy on US officials...

Critics demands answers from chairman Mike Rogers after claims that committee failed to share document before key vote The leadership of the House intelligence committee is under growing pressure to explain whether it withheld surveillance information from members of Congress before a key vote to renew the Patriot Act. A Republican congressman and government ethics watchdogs are demanding that the powerful panel's chairman, Mike Rogers of Michigan, responds to charges that the panel's leadership failed to share a document prepared by the justice department and intelligence community. The document was explicitly created to inform non-committee members about bulk collection of...

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