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Angela Merkel demanded an explanation from Barack Obama, saying tapping her mobile was ‘completely unacceptable’. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
The furore over the scale of American mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden shifted to an incendiary new level on Wednesday evening when Angela Merkel of Germany called Barack Obama to demand explanations over reports that the US National Security Agency was monitoring her mobile phone.
Merkel was said by informed sources in Germany to be "livid" over the reports and convinced, on the basis of a German intelligence investigation, that the reports were utterly substantiated.
The German news weekly, Der Spiegel, reported an investigation by German intelligence, prompted by research from the magazine, that produced plausible information that Merkel's mobile was targeted by the US eavesdropping agency. The German chancellor found the evidence substantial enough to call the White House and demand clarification.
The outrage in Berlin came days after President François Hollande of France also called the White House to confront Obama with reports that the NSA was targeting the private phone calls and text messages of millions of French people.
While European leaders have generally been keen to play down the impact of the whistleblowing disclosures in recent months, events in the EU's two biggest countries this week threatened an upward spiral of lack of trust in transatlantic relations.
Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, made plain that Merkel upbraided Obama unusually sharply and also voiced exasperation at the slowness of the Americans to respond to detailed questions on the NSA scandal since the Snowden revelations first appeared in the Guardian in June.
Merkel told Obama that "she unmistakably disapproves of and views as completely unacceptable such practices, if the indications are authenticated," Seifert said. "This would be a serious breach of confidence. Such practices have to be halted immediately."
The sharpness of the German complaint direct to an American president strongly suggested that Berlin had no doubt about the grounds for protest. Seibert voiced irritation that the Germans had waited for months for proper answers from Washington to Berlin on the NSA operations.
Merkel told Obama she expected the Americans "to supply information over the possible scale of such eavesdropping practices against Germany and reply to questions that the federal government asked months ago", Seibert said.
The White House responded that Merkel's mobile is not being tapped. "The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor," said a statement from Jay Carney, the White House spokesman.
But Berlin promptly signalled that the rebuttal referred to the present and the future and did not deny that Merkel's communications had been monitored in the past.
Asked by the Guardian if the US had monitored the German chancellor's phone in the past, a top White House official declined to deny that it had.
Caitlin Hayden, the White House's National Security Council spokeswoman, said: "The United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel. Beyond that, I'm not in a position to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity."
Obama and Merkel, the White House said, "agreed to intensify further the co-operation between our intelligence services with the goal of protecting the security of both countries and of our partners, as well as protecting the privacy of our citizens."
The explosive new row came on the eve of an EU summit in Brussels opening on Thursday afternoon. Following reports by Le Monde this week about the huge scale of US surveillance of France, Hollande insisted that the issue be raised at a summit which, by coincidence, is largely devoted to the "digital" economy in Europe. Hollande also phoned Obama to protest and insist on a full explanation, but received only the stock US response that the Americans were examining their intelligence practices and seeking to balance security and privacy imperatives, according to the Elysee Palace.
The French demand for a summit debate had gained little traction in Europe. On Wednesday morning, briefing privately on the business of the summit, senior German officials made minimal mention of the surveillance scandal. But by Wednesday evening that had shifted radically. The Germans publicly insisted that the activities of the US intelligence services in Europe be put on a new legal basis.
"The [German] federal government, as a close ally and partner of the USA, expects in the future a clear contractual basis for the activity of the services and their cooperation," Merkel told Obama.
In 2009, it was reported that Merkel had fitted her phone with an encryption chip to stop it being bugged. As many as 5,250 other ministers, advisers and important civil servants were supplied with similar state-of-the-art encryption technology. Merkel is known to be a keen mobile user and has been nicknamed "die Handy-Kanzlerin" ("Handy" being the German word for mobile phone).
When asked how he had communicated with Merkel during an EU summit in Brussels in 2008, then French president Nicolas Sarkozy said: "We call each other's mobiles and write text messages."
Katrin Goring-Eckhart, parliamentary leader of the Greens, said: "If these allegations turn out to be true, we are dealing with an incredible scandal and an unprecedented breach of trust between the two countries, for which there can be no justification."
On social media, a number of Germans mocked Merkel's change of tone over the NSA affair, given her previous reluctance to talk about the controversy. Jens König, a reporter for the news weekly Stern, tweeted that it was "the first time that Merkel is showing some proper passion during the NSA affair".
The European Commission has thrown its weight behind new European Parliament proposals for rules governing the transfer of data from Europe to America and demanded that the forthcoming summit finalise the new regime by next spring.
Question answered......
(Reuters) - The United States may have bugged Angela Merkel's phone for more than 10 years, according to a news report on Saturday that also said President Barack Obama told the German leader he would have stopped it happening had he known about it.
Germany's outrage over reports of bugging of Merkel's phone by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) prompted it to summon the U.S. ambassador this week for the first time in living memory, an unprecedented post-war diplomatic rift.
Der Spiegel said Merkel's mobile telephone had been listed by the NSA's Special Collection Service (SCS) since 2002 - marked as "GE Chancellor Merkel" - and was still on the list weeks before Obama visited Berlin in June.
In an SCS document cited by the magazine, the agency said it had a "not legally registered spying branch" in the U.S. embassy in Berlin, the exposure of which would lead to "grave damage for the relations of the United States to another government".
From there, NSA and CIA staff were tapping communication in the Berlin's government district with high-tech surveillance.
Quoting a secret document from 2010, Der Spiegel said such branches existed in about 80 locations around the world, including Paris, Madrid, Rome, Prague, Geneva and Frankfurt.
The magazine said it was not clear whether the SCS had recorded conversations or just connection data.
OBAMA APOLOGISED
Obama apologized to Merkel when she called him on Wednesday to seek clarification on the issue, Der Spiegel wrote, citing a source in Merkel's office.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung also said Obama had told Merkel he had not known of the bugging.
Merkel's spokesman and the White House declined comment.
"We're not going to comment on the details of our diplomatic discussions," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council at the White House.
The rift over U.S. surveillance activities first emerged earlier this year after reports that Washington had bugged European Union offices and had tapped half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month.
But it appeared close to resolution after Merkel's government said in August - just weeks before a parliamentary election - the United States had given sufficient assurances they were upholding German law.
Germany will send intelligence chiefs to Washington next week to seek answers on the allegations around Merkel's phone.
Obama ordered a review of U.S. surveillance programs after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents that raised alarm in the United States and abroad.
The Guardian.....
EU parliament votes to suspend US from financial databank to avoid spying
EU parliament votes to suspend US from financial databank to avoid spying
The European Parliament voted Wednesday for US access to the global financial database held by a Belgian company to be suspended because of concerns that the US is snooping on the database for financial gain rather than just to combat terrorism.
The Strasbourg based parliament voted 280 in favor, with 254 against, with 30 abstentions, and called for a suspension of US access until a full enquiry clarifies the situation.
“We need full transparency, especially with all the NSA revelations. Europe cannot accept that the data of private citizens is being accessed without anyone knowing about it", Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberals in the European Parliament, told Reuters.
EU lawmakers are concerned that the US is covertly using information from the SWIFT database following leaked US documents aired by Brazil’s biggest television network Globo, which indicated that the US has secretly tapped into SWIFT.
Under current agreements the US has limited access to the SWIFT database. The deal is part of transatlantic cooperation following the September 2001 attacks, and allows certain data from SWIFT to be shared with the US treasury.
The idea was that by sharing on a limited basis the millions of financial messages that take place across the world every day, it would help combat terrorism.
However, the parliament’s vote is symbolic, not binding, and rather reflects EU wide public anger at the NSA spying allegations. The European Commission and the various EU governments will still need to approve a suspension of US access to SWIFT.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/10/24/exclusive_germany_brazil_turn_to_un_to_restrain_american_spies
Posted By Colum Lynch, Shane Harris, John Hudson 
Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 8:18 PM 
Share
Brazil and Germany today joined forces to press for the adoption of a U.N. General Resolution that promotes the right of privacy on the internet, marking the first major international effort to restrain the National Security Agency's intrusions into the online communications of foreigners, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the push.
The effort follows a German claim that the American spy agency may have tapped the private telephone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and dozens of other world leaders. It also comes about one month after Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff denounced NSA espionage against her country as "a breach of international law" in a General Assembly speech and proposed that the U.N. establish legal guidelines to prevent "cyberspace from being used as a weapon of war."
Brazilian and German diplomats met in New York today with a small group of Latin American and European governments to consider a draft resolution that calls for expanding privacy rights contained in the International Covenant Civil and Political Rights to the online world. The draft does not refer to a flurry of American spying revelations that have caused a political uproar around the world, particularly in Brazil and German. But it was clear that the revelation provided the political momentum to trigger today's move to the United Nations. The blowback from the NSA leaks continues to agonize U.S. diplomats and military officials concerned about America's image abroad.
"This is an example of the very worst aspects of the Snowden disclosures," a former defense official with deep experience in NATO, told The Cable, referring to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. "It will be very difficult for the US to dig out of this, although we will over time. The short term costs in credibility and trust are enormous."
Although the U.N.'s ability to fundamentally constrain the NSA is nil, the mounting international uproar over U.S. surveillance has security experts fearful for the ramifications.
"The worst case scenario I think would be having our European allies saying they will no longer share signals intelligence because of a concern that our SigInt is being derived from mechanisms that violate their privacy rules," said Ray Kimball, an army strategist with policy experience on European issues. He stressed that he was not speaking for the military.
Although the Germans have not indicated such a move is in the works, they do have a game plan for making their surveillance complaints heard. The International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights was written in 1966 and came into force in 1976, decades before the internet transformed the way people communicate around the world. A provision in the international covenant, Article 17, says "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation." It also states that "everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
"The covenant was formulated at a time when the internet didn't exist," said a diplomat familiar with the negotiations. "Everyone has the right to privacy and the goal is to this resolution is to apply those protections to online communications."
Brazil and Germany are hoping to put the resolution to a vote in the U.N. General Assembly human rights committee later this year. The draft resolution, which has not been made public and which is still subject to negotiation among U.N. states, will seek to apply the those protections to online communications. "This is not just about spying," said the diplomat. This is about ensuring that "privacy of citizens in their home states under their own home legislation."
"It calls on countries to put an end to violations of that right," the official said. "People have to be protected offline and online."
Anyone who thinks this issue will only resonate in Brazil, Mexico, France, Italy, and Germany -- where the Snowden leaks recently revealed NSA datamining -- isn't paying attention.
According to the latest internal NSA memo leaked to The Guardian, the list of targeted nations is even longer, which could give this U.N. effort additional momentum. The NSA monitored the communications of 35 unnamed "world leaders," whose phone numbers were given to the intelligence agency by a U.S. government official, according to the report. The agency has been collecting phone numbers, email addresses, and residential addresses of foreign officials from the people in the U.S. government who are in touch with them. The U.S. official, who is not named, personally handed over 200 phone numbers about the people he or she was in touch with.
It's hardly a secret, or a surprise, that the NSA spies on foreign governments, including those friendly to the United States. Two former intelligence officials told The Cable that contact information like this is a regular source of intelligence for the NSA. And the memo acknowledges that the agency looks for officials' contact information in open sources, such as the Internet.
But the revelation that U.S. officials are facilitating spying on the people they do business with to this extent has created the impetus for U.N. action, a first-of-its kind development.
"There's a mixture of hypocrisy and feigned outrage along with real objections here," said a former senior intelligence official. "I don't know where the line is. The idea that political leaders are out of bounds for foreign intelligence is amusing. But on the other hand this business about trusting allies is a big thing. My guess is there's a real annoyance here" on the part of foreign allies.
Merkel was so outraged by the news that her phone had been monitored that she called President Obama to discuss it. The White House issued a carefully worded statement, assuring that the German leader's phone would not be tapped now or in the future, but not saying whether it had been.
It's not clear whether the NSA is still collecting information from the address books of U.S. officials. The memo was written in 2006. But at least at the time, such collection was a regular occurrence.
"From time to time, SID [the agency's signals intelligence directorate] is offered access to the personal contact databases of U.S. officials," the memo states. It doesn't specify who those officials are, or where in the government they work. But, the memo goes on to say, the information provided by the one U.S. official was sufficiently helpful that the agency decided to go around asking for more such contacts from the NSA's "supported customers," which include the Departments of Defense and State, as well as the White House. (None of them are listed by name in the memo.)
"These numbers have provided lead information to other numbers," the memo states. In the case of the one U.S. officials, the 200 numbers included 43 that previously weren't on the NSA's radar.
"This success leads S2 [part of the signals intelligence directorate] to wonder if there are NSA liaisons whose supported customers may be willing to share" their contacts, as well. "S2 welcomes such information!"
Apparently, though, success was measured not so much in secrets learned but just in having the data itself. The memo acknowledges that analysts "have noted little reported intelligence from these particular numbers, which appear not to be used for sensitive discussions."
From this we might conclude that NSA's targets are not fools. Why would anyone in the senior ranks of a government or military have sensitive conversations or discuss classified information over the phone number or email on his business card? But, the NSA seems to have concluded, what could it hurt to find out?
Time will tell. In a statement, a spokesperson for Merkel said she told Obama that tapping her phone would represent a "grave breach of trust" between the two allies. "She made clear that she views such practices, if proven true, as completely unacceptable and condemns them unequivocally."
With the latest news from the U.N., it appears the U.S. might be in store for more than just a slap on the wrist.
The European Parliament voted Wednesday for US access to the global financial database held by a Belgian company to be suspended because of concerns that the US is snooping on the database for financial gain rather than just to combat terrorism.
However, the parliament’s vote is symbolic, not binding, and rather reflects EU wide public anger at the NSA spying allegations. The European Commission and the various EU governments will still need to approve a suspension of US access to SWIFT.
Posted By Colum Lynch, Shane Harris, John Hudson Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 8:18 PM Share
Brazil and Germany today joined forces to press for the adoption of a U.N. General Resolution that promotes the right of privacy on the internet, marking the first major international effort to restrain the National Security Agency's intrusions into the online communications of foreigners, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the push.
The effort follows a German claim that the American spy agency may have tapped the private telephone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and dozens of other world leaders. It also comes about one month after Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff denounced NSA espionage against her country as "a breach of international law" in a General Assembly speech and proposed that the U.N. establish legal guidelines to prevent "cyberspace from being used as a weapon of war."
Brazilian and German diplomats met in New York today with a small group of Latin American and European governments to consider a draft resolution that calls for expanding privacy rights contained in the International Covenant Civil and Political Rights to the online world. The draft does not refer to a flurry of American spying revelations that have caused a political uproar around the world, particularly in Brazil and German. But it was clear that the revelation provided the political momentum to trigger today's move to the United Nations. The blowback from the NSA leaks continues to agonize U.S. diplomats and military officials concerned about America's image abroad.
"This is an example of the very worst aspects of the Snowden disclosures," a former defense official with deep experience in NATO, told The Cable, referring to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. "It will be very difficult for the US to dig out of this, although we will over time. The short term costs in credibility and trust are enormous."
Although the U.N.'s ability to fundamentally constrain the NSA is nil, the mounting international uproar over U.S. surveillance has security experts fearful for the ramifications.
"The worst case scenario I think would be having our European allies saying they will no longer share signals intelligence because of a concern that our SigInt is being derived from mechanisms that violate their privacy rules," said Ray Kimball, an army strategist with policy experience on European issues. He stressed that he was not speaking for the military.
Although the Germans have not indicated such a move is in the works, they do have a game plan for making their surveillance complaints heard. The International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights was written in 1966 and came into force in 1976, decades before the internet transformed the way people communicate around the world. A provision in the international covenant, Article 17, says "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation." It also states that "everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
"The covenant was formulated at a time when the internet didn't exist," said a diplomat familiar with the negotiations. "Everyone has the right to privacy and the goal is to this resolution is to apply those protections to online communications."
Brazil and Germany are hoping to put the resolution to a vote in the U.N. General Assembly human rights committee later this year. The draft resolution, which has not been made public and which is still subject to negotiation among U.N. states, will seek to apply the those protections to online communications. "This is not just about spying," said the diplomat. This is about ensuring that "privacy of citizens in their home states under their own home legislation."
"It calls on countries to put an end to violations of that right," the official said. "People have to be protected offline and online."
Anyone who thinks this issue will only resonate in Brazil, Mexico, France, Italy, and Germany -- where the Snowden leaks recently revealed NSA datamining -- isn't paying attention.
According to the latest internal NSA memo leaked to The Guardian, the list of targeted nations is even longer, which could give this U.N. effort additional momentum. The NSA monitored the communications of 35 unnamed "world leaders," whose phone numbers were given to the intelligence agency by a U.S. government official, according to the report. The agency has been collecting phone numbers, email addresses, and residential addresses of foreign officials from the people in the U.S. government who are in touch with them. The U.S. official, who is not named, personally handed over 200 phone numbers about the people he or she was in touch with.
It's hardly a secret, or a surprise, that the NSA spies on foreign governments, including those friendly to the United States. Two former intelligence officials told The Cable that contact information like this is a regular source of intelligence for the NSA. And the memo acknowledges that the agency looks for officials' contact information in open sources, such as the Internet.
But the revelation that U.S. officials are facilitating spying on the people they do business with to this extent has created the impetus for U.N. action, a first-of-its kind development.
"There's a mixture of hypocrisy and feigned outrage along with real objections here," said a former senior intelligence official. "I don't know where the line is. The idea that political leaders are out of bounds for foreign intelligence is amusing. But on the other hand this business about trusting allies is a big thing. My guess is there's a real annoyance here" on the part of foreign allies.
Merkel was so outraged by the news that her phone had been monitored that she called President Obama to discuss it. The White House issued a carefully worded statement, assuring that the German leader's phone would not be tapped now or in the future, but not saying whether it had been.
It's not clear whether the NSA is still collecting information from the address books of U.S. officials. The memo was written in 2006. But at least at the time, such collection was a regular occurrence.
"From time to time, SID [the agency's signals intelligence directorate] is offered access to the personal contact databases of U.S. officials," the memo states. It doesn't specify who those officials are, or where in the government they work. But, the memo goes on to say, the information provided by the one U.S. official was sufficiently helpful that the agency decided to go around asking for more such contacts from the NSA's "supported customers," which include the Departments of Defense and State, as well as the White House. (None of them are listed by name in the memo.)
"These numbers have provided lead information to other numbers," the memo states. In the case of the one U.S. officials, the 200 numbers included 43 that previously weren't on the NSA's radar.
"This success leads S2 [part of the signals intelligence directorate] to wonder if there are NSA liaisons whose supported customers may be willing to share" their contacts, as well. "S2 welcomes such information!"
Apparently, though, success was measured not so much in secrets learned but just in having the data itself. The memo acknowledges that analysts "have noted little reported intelligence from these particular numbers, which appear not to be used for sensitive discussions."
From this we might conclude that NSA's targets are not fools. Why would anyone in the senior ranks of a government or military have sensitive conversations or discuss classified information over the phone number or email on his business card? But, the NSA seems to have concluded, what could it hurt to find out?
Time will tell. In a statement, a spokesperson for Merkel said she told Obama that tapping her phone would represent a "grave breach of trust" between the two allies. "She made clear that she views such practices, if proven true, as completely unacceptable and condemns them unequivocally."
With the latest news from the U.N., it appears the U.S. might be in store for more than just a slap on the wrist.
NSA spied on phones of 35 world leaders
The National Security Agency eavesdropped on hundreds of phone numbers belonging to dozens of world leaders, newly leaked documents supplied by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden reveal.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper wrote Thursday that a classified memo provided to them by Mr. Snowden suggests that the NSA encouraged officials within the United States government and intelligence community to share among their colleagues contact information pertaining to international heads of state.
According to the Guardian, the memo made reference to an unnamed US official who had reportedly supplied the NSA with over 200 numbers, including 35 belonging to world leaders.
“These numbers plus several others have been tasked," or monitored, reads the memo.
The leaders themselves are not identified in the memorandum, but classified documents previously disclosed to the media by Mr. Snowden have suggested that the NSA spied on conversations involving citizens of France, Germany, Brazil and elsewhere.
Guardian reporter James Ball writes that senior officials in the NSA’s “customer” departments — or officials within the White House, State Department and Pentagon — were asked in the memo to share their own collection of international contacts, as their unnamed colleague had, in order for the agency to add the numbers to its list of intelligence targets.
"This success leads S2 [signals intelligence] to wonder if there areNSA liaisons whose supported customers may be willing to share their 'Rolodexes' or phone lists with NSA as potential sources of intelligence," Ball quotes from the memo. "S2 welcomes such information!"
“From time to time, SID [Signals Intelligence Directorate] is offered access to the personal contact databases of US officials," it continues. “Such 'Rolodexes' may contain contact information for foreign political or military leaders, to include direct line, fax, residence and cellular numbers."
When asked by the Guardian to comment, White House press secretary Jay Carney referred to comments made earlier Thursday during a briefing in which he acknowledged the NSA disclosure and said, "The revelations have clearly caused tension in our relationships with some countries, and we are dealing with that through diplomatic channels.”
Last month, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff canceled a scheduled meeting at the White House after leaked documents showed the NSA spied on her country’s state oil company. This week it was reported that officials in both France and Germany summoned the US envoy over similar allegations in the wake of Mr. Snowden’s leaks.
On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called allegations the NSA spied on her private communications “not at all acceptable” during a summit of European leaders in Brussels. Germany’s Der Spiegel paper reported previously that leaked NSA documents indicated Merkel’s mobile phone number had been on the radar of American intelligence.
Carney, the White House press secretary, said, "The president spoke with Chancellor Merkel, reassured her that the United States is not and will not monitor the chancellor's communications."
The White House has not, however, gone on the record to dismiss allegations that German leaders were not previously the subject of US-administered surveillance.
"It's not just about me but about every German citizen," Merkel said during Thursday's conference.
"This is not how you should treat your partners," said Stephanie Hilebrand, a 38-year-old German woman who spoke to reporters with Reuters on Thursday from Berlin. "We're not terrorists. Nor is our chancellor."
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/330497-snowden-fires-back-at-feinstein-over-surveillance-claim#ixzz2ifqcYtwc
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden on Thursday disputed Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) claim that the government's phone record collection program is not "surveillance."
"Today, no telephone in America makes a call without leaving a record with the NSA. Today, no Internet transaction enters or leaves America without passing through the NSA's hands," Snowden said in a statement Thursday.
"Our representatives in Congress tell us this is not surveillance. They're wrong."
Snowden didn't mention Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, by name, but she has said repeatedly that the NSA's program to collect records on all U.S. phone calls is not a surveillance program.
"The call-records program is not surveillance," she wrote in an op-ed in USA Today this week. "It does not collect the content of any communication, nor do the records include names or locations."
She said the NSA only collects phone numbers, call times and call durations.
"The Supreme Court has held this 'metadata' is not protected under the Fourth Amendment," Feinstein wrote, referring to the court's 1972 decision in Smith v. Maryland.
The existence of the phone record collection program was one the most controversial revelations from Snowden's leaks earlier this year. Many lawmakers, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), have expressed outrage that the NSA is collecting records on millions of Americans not under any suspicion of wrongdoing.
Snowden provided his statement to the American Civil Liberties Union to promote a rally the group is holding on Saturday along with other civil liberties groups in Washington.
"Now it's time for the government to learn from us," said Snowden, who is currently living in Russia.
"This is not how you should treat your partners," said Stephanie Hilebrand, a 38-year-old German woman who spoke to reporters with Reuters on Thursday from Berlin. "We're not terrorists. Nor is our chancellor."
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden on Thursday disputed Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) claim that the government's phone record collection program is not "surveillance."
"Today, no telephone in America makes a call without leaving a record with the NSA. Today, no Internet transaction enters or leaves America without passing through the NSA's hands," Snowden said in a statement Thursday.
"Our representatives in Congress tell us this is not surveillance. They're wrong."
Snowden didn't mention Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, by name, but she has said repeatedly that the NSA's program to collect records on all U.S. phone calls is not a surveillance program.
"The call-records program is not surveillance," she wrote in an op-ed in USA Today this week. "It does not collect the content of any communication, nor do the records include names or locations."
She said the NSA only collects phone numbers, call times and call durations.
"The Supreme Court has held this 'metadata' is not protected under the Fourth Amendment," Feinstein wrote, referring to the court's 1972 decision in Smith v. Maryland.
The existence of the phone record collection program was one the most controversial revelations from Snowden's leaks earlier this year. Many lawmakers, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), have expressed outrage that the NSA is collecting records on millions of Americans not under any suspicion of wrongdoing.
Snowden provided his statement to the American Civil Liberties Union to promote a rally the group is holding on Saturday along with other civil liberties groups in Washington.
"Now it's time for the government to learn from us," said Snowden, who is currently living in Russia.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013 4:19 PM
Germany Accuses US of Spying on Merkel’s Phone; Merkel Phones Obama; Why Should Any Country Trust the US?
The Wall Street Journal reports Berlin Says U.S. May Be Spying on Merkel’s Phone
BERLIN—Germany said it believed U.S. intelligence may be spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone, an intrusion that it said would constitute a “grave breach of trust” between the longtime allies.Merkel Phones Obama
Ms. Merkel called President Barack Obama on Wednesday and made clear that such surveillance among allies would be “fully unacceptable,” her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement released late Wednesday evening in Berlin.
Mr. Seibert said Ms. Merkel expected U.S. agencies to explain their overall surveillance practices against Germany, “questions that the German government asked months ago.”
The Spiegel Online reports Berlin Complains: Did US Tap Chancellor Merkel's Mobile Phone?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel phoned United States President Barack Obama on Wednesday to discuss suspicions that she may have been targeted by US intelligence agencies for years, SPIEGEL has learned.Thank Whistleblower Snowden
The chancellor asked for a thorough explanation of serious indications that US intelligence agencies had declared her private mobile phone to be a target in their operations.
She "unequivocally disapproves" of such methods and finds them "totally unacceptable," her spokesman Steffen Seibert said. "This would be a grave breach of trust," he added. "Such practices must immediately be put to a stop."
The unusually strong reaction from the Chancellery was prompted by SPIEGEL research. After the information was examined by the country's foreign intelligence agency, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), and the Federal Office for Information Security, Berlin seems to have found their suspicions plausible enough to confront the US government.
During her conversation with Obama, Merkel expressed her expectation that "US authorities would provide an explanation about the possible extent of such surveillance practices, and thus answer questions that the German government already posed months ago," Seibert said.
"As a close ally of the United States of America, the German government expects a clear contractual agreement on the activities of the agencies and their cooperation," he added.
In response to the allegations, a spokeswoman for the US National Security Council told SPIEGEL: "The President assured the Chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel."
The spokeswoman did not wish to specify whether this statement applied to the past.
We should all thank whistleblower Edward Snowden for many of the spying revelations now coming to light. I think he is a hero.
Unfortunately, as I noted in Hypocrites and Bullies Speak on "The Importance of Trust" president Obama and numerous bullies don't see it that way.
Hypocrites and BulliesQuestion of Trust
- Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Rep. Mike Rogers, Head of the House Intelligence Committee,
- Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
I would like to point out to all three gentlemen one important fact: Edward Snowden did not undermine trust.
There was no trust to undermine. All Snowden did was prove the obvious.
If there was any trust the US would not have been bugging the offices of the EU and Germany. If there was any trust, France would not be spying on us.
Bullies, Bribes, and Foreign Aid
Please note the bullying by US imperialists. Rep. Mike Rogers (R) proposes “to send a very clear message that we won’t put up with this kind of behavior.”
Excuse Me! What about unconscionable spying by the US on its alleged allies?
Countries should send a very clear message to the US that they will not put up with our severely misguided imperialism. And they probably would except they fear the US might cut off aid.
If you are looking for a reason very few countries have offered Snowden asylum (see Venezuela, Nicaragua offer asylum to Snowden; Double Standards and Hypocrite Allies), you now have an answer.
Thus, we can all thank Rogers for explaining that US foreign aid is really nothing but bribery so the imperialists, war-mongers, and hypocrites can continue their ways with impunity, totally clueless they are the ones directly responsible for the undermined trust.
Why Should Any Country Trust the US? They shouldn't, and the US is to blame, not Snowden. Is this about to matter? Let's hope so.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-23/obama-may-or-may-not-have-tapped-angela-merkels-cell-phone
Obama May Or May Not Have Tapped Angela Merkel's Cell Phone
In a stunning claim, Germany's Der Speigel reports that the US targeted Angela Merkel's private mobile phone for years...
- *MERKEL TOLD OBAMA TAPPING WOULD BE UNACCEPTABLE, SEIBERT SAYS
- *MERKEL COMPLAINED TO OBAMA ABOUT PHONE SURVEILLANCE: SPIEGEL
- *MERKEL DEMANDS FULL EXPLANATION FROM OBAMA, SPIEGEL SAYS
So Obama promptly complied:
- *OBAMA TOLD MERKEL U.S. NOT TAPPING HER PHONE, SPIEGEL SAYS
We await Snowden and Greenwald's clarification...
Carney is now denying it all in the WH press conference:
- *CARNEY SAYS OBAMA, MERKEL SPOKE ABOUT NSA ALLEGATIONS TODAY
- *CARNEY SAYS OBAMA ASSURED MERKEL HER PHONE NOT MONITORED
- *CARNEY SAYS MERKEL, OBAMA AGREED TO INTENSIFY COOPERATION
- *CARNEY: NOT MONITORING, WILL NOT MONITOR MERKEL COMMUNICATIONS
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