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steve2470

(37,457 posts)
Tue Oct 29, 2013, 05:48 AM Oct 2013

Obama May Ban Spying on Heads of Allied States



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/world/europe/obama-may-ban-spying-on-heads-of-allied-states.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=0

WASHINGTON — President Obama is poised to order the National Security Agency to stop eavesdropping on the leaders of American allies, administration and congressional officials said Monday, responding to a deepening diplomatic crisis over reports that the agency had for years targeted the cellphone of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

The White House informed a leading Democratic lawmaker, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, of its plans, which grew out of a broader internal review of intelligence-gathering methods, prompted by the leak of N.S.A. documents by a former contractor, Edward J. Snowden.

In a statement on Monday, Ms. Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, “I do not believe the United States should be collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers.” Ms. Feinstein, who has been a stalwart defender of the administration’s surveillance policies, said her committee would begin a “major review of all intelligence collection programs.”

The White House said Monday evening that no final decision had been made on the monitoring of friendly foreign leaders. But the disclosure that it is moving to prohibit it signals a landmark shift for the N.S.A., which has had nearly unfettered powers to collect data on tens of millions of people around the world, from ordinary citizens to heads of state, including the leaders of Brazil and Mexico.
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Obama May Ban Spying on Heads of Allied States (Original Post) steve2470 Oct 2013 OP
Trust, like the soul, once departed, never returns. dipsydoodle Oct 2013 #1
Yes. I don't think they're going to quit doing anything except LuvNewcastle Oct 2013 #2
I am about to ban punching fellow barflies in the mouth Recursion Oct 2013 #3

LuvNewcastle

(16,820 posts)
2. Yes. I don't think they're going to quit doing anything except
Tue Oct 29, 2013, 06:08 AM
Oct 2013

for maybe the bugging of Merkel's phone. They've been at it for too damn long and no one is cutting their funding, either. Stopping the money flow and cutting their manpower is what needs to be done, along with passing anti-spying legislation and arresting those who break the law. Fat chance of any of those things happening.

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