The US National Security Agency stopped tapping the phones of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders once the White House learnt about its activities. The media has shared more details on the federal government’s attitude towards massive surveillance.
Continue after the break.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the NSA program to bug phones of its ally leaders was scrapped as soon as the Obama administration got wind of it. However, it did not abort all surveillance programs since many of them benefited intelligence. The only fact that has been confirmed only the subsequent debugging of Merkel’s cell.
The Wall Street Journal also claims that Barack Obama was kept in the dark on the NSA programs targeting world leaders during his five-year presidency. According to the US paper, the NSA cannot inform the head of state about all of its numerous projects. Some of them are signed into force by the NSA chief and don’t need the president’s approval.
Last summer, UK and US media blew the lid off the spy agency’s total surveillance programs that were exposed in the classified documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The ensuing furor prompted the White House to open an internal investigation into the agency’s dealings that showed the NSA had monitored the phone calls of 35 foreign leaders.
NSA had tapped the phones of some 35 world leaders - report
The review showed that the NSA had tapped the phones of some 35 world leaders.
The White House ended programs tracking several of the leaders including Merkel, according to the Journal.
Some programs have been scheduled to end but have not yet been terminated, the Journal said.
Officials told the Journal that there are so many NSA eavesdropping operations that it would not have been practical to brief the president on all of them.
Obama was "briefed on and approved of broader intelligence-collection 'priorities,'" but deputies decided on specific intelligence targets, the Journal said.
"These decisions are made at NSA," the unnamed official told the Journal.
"The president doesn't sign off on this stuff."Ending a surveillance program is complicated because a world leader like Merkel may be communicating with another leader that Washington is monitoring, officials told the newspaper.
Germany's Bild am Sonntag weekly quoted US intelligence sources on Sunday as saying that NSA chief General Keith Alexander briefed Obama on the operation against Merkel in 2010.
In Washington, NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines denied the claim.
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," Vines said.
"News reports claiming otherwise are not true," she said.
The snooping allegations, based on documents leaked by fugitive former US defense contractor Edward Snowden, indicate that US spy agencies accessed the electronic communications of dozens of world leaders and likely millions of foreign nationals.
Germany may summon Edward Snowden as witness in Merkel phone tapping case
The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office may summon former CIA employee Edward Snowden to be a witness in the case of phone tapping against German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told the Deutschlandfunk radio on Sunday.
“If our suspicions prove correct and a case is opened, the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office will have to consider the possibility of interrogating Snowden as a witness,” she said, adding that there would be no major obstacles to that effect.
In that case, if Snowden came to Germany, the German government could defy Washington’s demand for his extradition, the minister said.
At the same time, Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger called for the speedy signing of an agreement with the United States which would rule out mutual espionage and be open for other countries to join in.
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said, for his part, that illegal phone tapping was a crime and that the culprits should be made accountable.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) denied German press reports on Sunday that President Barack Obama was personally informed in 2010 of US phone tapping against German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which may have begun as early as 2002. Bild am Sonntag newspaper quoted US intelligence sources as saying that NSA chief Keith Alexander had briefed Obama on the operation against Merkel.
General Keith 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 said.
"News reports claiming otherwise are not true."
German media said the phone tapping may have begun as early as 2002, further stoking global outrage
over revelations of the NSA's broad snooping into the communications of several dozen world leaders and ordinary citizens.
The Bild am Sonntagreport quoted a high-ranking NSA official as saying: "Obama did not halt the operation but rather let it continue".
News weekly Der Spiegel reported that leaked NSA documents showed that Merkel's phone had appeared on a list of spying targets since 2002, and was still under surveillance shortly before Obama visited Berlin in June.
German spy chiefs to head to US over snooping row
German spy chiefs will travel to the United States next week to demand answers following allegations that US intelligence has been tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, as a row over US snooping threatened to hurt transatlantic ties.
Documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden showing sweeping US surveillance on ordinary citizens' Internet searches and telephone records have already sparked outrage worldwide.
But the furore has intensified after allegations that world leaders including the presidents of Brazil and Mexico have been among spying targets.
This week, the scandal widened to Europe, with allegations that Merkel's phone was being tapped, prompting Berlin to summon the US ambassador - a highly unusual move between the close allies.
Meanwhile, several thousand protesters gathered in Washington to call for new US legislation to curb the NSA's activities and improve privacy.
UN vs NSA: 21 nations discuss resolution restraining US spying
Twenty one countries participate in talks over a draft UN General Resolution aimed at holding back US government surveillance, reports The Foreign policy.
The effort in UN by Brazil and Germany to restrain NSA was supported by 19 more countries. for example by Venezuela, Cuba and such traditional US allies as France and Mexico. Close American allies like France and Mexico - as well as rivals like Cuba and Venezuela - are all part of the talks. Other participating countries are Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Liechtenstein, Norway, Paraguay, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and Uruguay.
The Foreign policy obtained a copy of the draft. It calls on states "to respect and ensure the respect for the rights" to privacy, including the privacy on the Internet, as enshrined in the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including It also calls on states "to take measures to put an end to violations of these rights" and to "review their procedures, practices and legislation regarding the extraterritorial surveillance of private communications and interception of personal data of citizens in foreign jurisdictions with a view towards upholding the right to privacy."
You can read the UN draft in full
here.
The draft does not refer to US spying revelations made by former US contractor Edward Snowden but according to The Foreign policy it was clear that the leaks provided the political momentum to trigger the move to the UN.
The push marks the first major international effort to curb the NSA’s vast surveillance network.
Germany, Brazil to propose anti-spying resolution at UN General Assembly
Germany and Brazil are drafting a UN General Assembly resolution that would demand an end to excessive spying and invasion of privacy after a former US intelligence contractor revealed massive international surveillance programs, UN diplomats said on Friday.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have both condemned the widespread snooping by the US National Security Agency.
Charges that the NSA accessed tens of thousands of French phone records and monitored Merkel's mobile phone have caused outrage in Europe. Germany said on Friday it would send its top intelligence chiefs to Washington next week to seek answers from the White House.
In response to the disclosures about US spying, many of which came from fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the German and Brazilian UN delegations have begun work on a draft resolution to submit to the 193-nation General Assembly, several UN diplomats told Reuters.
"This resolution will probably have enormous support in the GA (General Assembly), since no one likes the NSA spying on them," a Western UN diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, unlike resolutions of the 15-nation Security Council. But assembly resolutions that enjoy broad international support can carry significant moral and political weight.
Merkel demanded on Thursday that Washington strike a "no-spying" agreement with Berlin and Paris by the end of the year, adding she wanted action from President Barack Obama, not just apologetic words.
Last month, Rousseff used her position as the opening speaker at the General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders to accuse the United States of violating human rights and international law through espionage that included spying on her email.
Rousseff also expressed her displeasure by calling off a high-profile state visit to the United States scheduled for this month over reports that the NSA had been spying on Brazil.
