President Barack Obama got a call from German Chancellor Angela Merkel today, and it wasn't to see how things were in Washington post-government shutdown.
Merkel rang Obama after receiving information the National Security Agency may have spied on her communications, specifically on her personal cell phone, for years.
Merkel also made clear her expectation that US officials "provide an explanation about the possible extent of such surveillance practices, and thus answer questions that the German government already posed months ago," a spokesman for the chancellor told Der Spiegel.
Past, present, future?
According to a statement posted on the White House website about the call between the heads of state, "The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel."
The statement reflects others put forth from White House Spokesman Jay Carney and the US National Security Council, but none address past actions.
So don't worry, Ms. Merkel, the US isn't currently spying on you and won't in the future, but as for previous instances ... let's sidestep that one.
Spreading accusations
According to the White House website statement, Obama and Merkel "agreed to intensity further the cooperation between our intelligence services."
German officials didn't elaborate how they received information that Merkel's communications were being monitored, but Der Spiegel said the call was spurred by its own research.
"After the information was examined by the country's foreign intelligence agency ... Berlin seems to ahve found their suspicions plausible enough to confront the US government," Der Spiegel wrote in its report.
The Merkel/Obama convo comes one day after James Clapper, US director of national intelligence, denied claims made by Le Monde that the US intercepted over 70 million phone calls in France in the last 30 days.
Source : techradar[dot]com
Post a Comment