No Apologies Offered for Spying as Obama Weighs Limits
U.S. intelligence officials offered no apologies for spying on foreign leaders without specifying who they targeted, defending the practice as the same thing other nations do to the American government.
The national intelligence director and head of the National Security Agency drew a line only at collecting communications records of millions of European citizens. The NSA’s director, Army General Keith Alexander, called European news reports of those activities “completely false.”
“It’s invaluable for us to know where countries are coming from, what their policies are and how that would impact us across a whole range of issues,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the House intelligence committee during a hearing yesterday in Washington.
The hearing and White House statements shed little light on whether the NSA spied on leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, how much Congress and Obama knew, and whether the president or congressional oversight committees would do anything to end it.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said a review of surveillance programs is being conducted and some decisions about intelligence gathering have been made, without elaborating.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-30/no-apologies-offered-for-spying-as-obama-weighs-limits.html
