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White House: Merkel "Not A Target Of NSA Surveillance"

Adithya Manjunath |
October 24, 2013 | 11:52 a.m. PDT

Executive Producer

Angela Merkel was assured by President Obama that her communications were not being monitored by the NSA (Wikimedia Commons)
Angela Merkel was assured by President Obama that her communications were not being monitored by the NSA (Wikimedia Commons)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to President Obama about reports of her phone being tapped by the NSA on Wednesday, and was assured that she was not nor will ever be a target of surveillance.

"The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor. The US greatly values our close cooperation with Germany on a broad range of shared security challenges. Both leaders agreed to intensify further the cooperation 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", said White House spokesperson Jay Carney.

Carney said that the US is reviewing their methods of gathering intelligence to "ensure that we properly balance the security concerns of our citizens and allies, with the privacy concerns that all people share", but did not make any statements about whether Chancellor Merkel's phone was tapped in the past.

After arriving at an EU summit on Thursday, Merkel said that the trust between Germany and the US regarding this issue "now has to be built anew", after clearly expressing to President Obama that "spying among friends cannot be".

This was after Merkel's spokesperson Steffen Seibert told reporters that the Chancellor made it clear that she "unequivocally disapproves" and called it "a serious breach of trust" if the indications prove true.

This incident, however, is one of many NSA controversies that the U.S. has had to deal with in the last month or so.

Last month, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff decided to postpone her visit to the U.S. after learning that her communication was being monitored by the NSA.

Less than a week ago, French President François Hollande was reportedly furious after reports of the NSA collecting millions of text messages and private phone calls of French people over one month were published. President Obama talked to President Hollande and assured him that the US had begun to review their methods of gathering intelligence.

SEE ALSO: NSA Spying Enrages France

Additionally, Der Spiegel, a German magazine that claims to have access to certain documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, reported on Monday that the NSA had monitored communications to and from Mexican President Felipe Calderón when he was in office. Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jose Antonio Meade explained on Tuesday that President Obama had given his word that he would investigate the issue to Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, and also added that he had not authorized any spying on Mexico.

Furthermore, The Guardian reported on Thursday that an unnamed U.S. official handed over the phone numbers of "35 world leaders" that were "immediately tasked for monitoring" by the NSA, which if true, is set to continue the increase in strained relations between the U.S. and its allies.

Contact Executive Producer Adi here, and follow him on Twitter.



 

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