#NSAfiles – #Merkel and #Hollande #call for #talks with #US by end of year – #liveupdates • #Cameron #attacks la di da, airy #fairy #view on #spies • #MEPs and #German #spy #chiefs to #visit US • Moves follow #reports Merkels #phone was #monitored • Guardian #reveals NSA monitored 35 #worldleaders Barack #Obama and Angela Merkel. Barack Obama and Angela Merkel. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images 8m ago On the Fox News website, Judge Andrew P Napolitano writes that every American who values the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, every American who enjoys the right to be different and the right to be left alone, and every American who believes that the government works for us and we don’t work for the government should thank Edward Snowden for his courageous and heroic revelations of the National Security Agency’s gargantuan spying operations. He adds: Without Snowden’s revelations, we would be ignorant children to a paternalistic government and completely in the dark about what the government sees of us and knows about us. And we would not know that it has stolen our freedoms. 6m ago In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jay Bookman argues that it should never have taken a whistleblower willing to risk life imprisonment or perpetual exile to let the American people know of the existence of these programs. They were kept top secret not because the information would have been valuable to potential terrorists -- terrorists already expect to be tracked and spied upon -- but because intelligence officials wanted to avoid public debate and possible brakes on their power. 10m ago Caitlin Hayden, a White House National Security Council spokeswoman, confirmed the forthcoming visit of German spy chiefs: German officials plan to travel to Washington in coming weeks and the U.S. government looks forward to meeting with them. We expect a range of meetings with relevant officials across the US interagency, but we do not have specific meetings to announce at this point. 34m ago It is highly likely that any information gleaned from the NSAs snooping on Angela Merkel would have been shared with GCHQ, writes Nick Hopkins. Its even possible the eavesdropping was conducted through Menwith Hill, the RAF base in North Yorkshire that is a British base only in name. Menwith Hill is the NSAs surveillance hub in Europe. Snowdens documents have already shown that it intercepted the top-secret communications of the then Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, during his visit to Britain for the G20 summit in 2009. The papers also show this information was then shared with high-ranking officials from Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, the other members of the five eyes spying club. At the same summit, British spies were also snooping on other delegations, specifically from Turkey and South Africa. When the Intelligence Services Act was passed in 1994, it included a line – inserted at the last minute – that Britains spy agencies could legitimately seek intelligence that would support the economic wellbeing of the country. This provision is one of the most opaque in the law and could be interpreted to justify espionage on just about any head of state or company chief executive, though this would require ministerial signoff. Would Downing Street want to know Merkels innermost thoughts? Of course it would. Knowing the mind of the worlds most powerful woman would be invaluable during summits and bilateral talks, particularly at a time when Britains membership of the EU is a source of constant tension. So Cameron probably signed the memorandum with fingers crossed behind his back knowing, perhaps, that Britain may have benefited from the NSAs surveillance on Merkel, and the 35 other world leaders it targeted. 1h 41m ago In a comment piece, Florida Democrat Alan Grayson says: Despite being a member of Congress possessing security clearance, Ive learned far more about government spying on me and my fellow citizens from reading media reports than I have from intelligence briefings. Ive requested classified information, and further meetings with NSA officials. The House Intelligence Committee has refused to provide either. Supporters of the NSAs vast ubiquitous domestic spying operation assure the public that members of Congress can be briefed on these activities whenever they want. Senator Saxby Chambliss says all a member of Congress needs to do is ask for information, and hell get it. Well I did ask, and the House Intelligence Committee said no, repeatedly. And virtually every other member not on the Intelligence Committee gets the same treatment ... Edward Snowdens revelations demonstrate that the members of Congress, who are asked to authorize these programs, are not privy to the same information provided to junior analysts at the NSA, and even private contractors who sell services to foreign governments. The only time that these intelligence committees disclose classified information to us, your elected representatives, is when it serves the purposes of the intelligence community. He asks: why do Generals [Keith] Alexander [NSA director] and [James] Clapper [director of national intelligence] remain in office, when all the evidence points to them committing the felony of lying to Congress and the American people? Updated 22m ago 1h 52m ago Rowena Mason writes: David Cameron is still using his mobile phone following revelations about US spying on foreign leaders, Downing Street has signalled. Asked whether the British prime minister was comfortable with using his phone after news that the NSA had allegedly monitored calls made by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, his spokesman appeared to confirm Cameron was still using the same mobile Yes, I havent seen him use a different one, he said. 2h 10m ago Is he aware of any other EU country which is eavesdropping on British ministers? Without setting it to music, you know, I’m not going to comment on intelligence and security matters. I’ve set out the framework in which the British intelligence services operate. I’m satisfied, as prime minister and the minister effectively for the intelligence services, I’m satisfied that’s a good framework. It’s a framework that works, and above all, you know, at a time when everyone is discussing this issue, let’s remember that the people who do this work, that keeps us safe, that helps to keep us safe, they are people we can never properly thank, we can never properly identify. We can’t have medal parades and ceremonies for the very brave things that they do and so it is worth saying every now and again on a public platform these are some of the most talented and bright and hard-working and dedicated officials in our country. They love our country. They work for our country, and we should thank them rather than try to make their job more difficult. That was the final question. 2h 20m ago Did he know GCHQ’s Tempora programme was operating in Italy and did he discuss that with Italian PM Enrico Letta? There’s lots of discussions about these issues in the EU council as you could imagine. Let me say this, though, about what Mr Snowden has effectively done, and what some newspapers are assisting in doing, and that is going to make it a lot more difficult to keep our countries and our people safe. You know, we do have to take a sort of cold, hard look at this. As we stand today there are lots of people in the world who want to do us harm, who want to blow up our families, who want to maim people in our countries. That is the facts. It’s not a pleasant fact but it is true. We see it with what happened recently in Kenya, we see it with what happened to, you know, whether it was Italians or British people in In Amenas in Algeria, we’ve seen appalling attacks on British soil, we’ve seen appalling attacks throughout Europe. That is the threat that we face. And so we have a choice: do we maintain properly funded, properly governed intelligence and security services that can gather intelligence on these people using all the modern techniques to make sure that we can try to get ahead of them and stop them? Or do we stop doing that? And the point is what Snowden is doing, and to an extent what the newspapers are doing in helping him doing what he’s doing, is frankly signalling to people who mean to do us harm how to evade and avoid intelligence and surveillance and other techniques. That is not going to make our world safer. It is going to make our world more dangerous. And the first priority of a prime minister is to help try and keep your country safe, and that means not having some la di da, airy fairy view about what this all means, it’s understanding intelligence and security services do an important job. Yes, they need to be governed under law. Yes, they must be scrutinised by parliament, but we need those people; they’re brave people who help to keep us safe. And I’ve lost count of the plots that I’ve seen and the problems that I’ve seen being avoided by the work that they do. And that is really important, not just for Britain, but the information we gather, that we then share with other countries in Europe, has helped those countries in Europe too. So I make no apology for the fact that we have intelligence services, we will maintain intelligence services, and I will back the work they do, and I will criticise, though, those that, you know, make public some of the techniques they use because that is helping our enemies. Simple. 2h 31m ago Can Cameron reassure Merkel that neither he nor any other member of his government has seen any intelligence gleaned from tapping her phone? I’m not making further comments on intelligence and security matters, but they’re properly governed in the UK. 2h 33m ago The French and Germans say their negotiation over spying with the Americans is open to anyone who wants to take part. Will the UK join in? Could Five Eyes be expanded to include other countries? I welcome the statement that was made last night. I thought it was a sensible statement. I was very struck by my colleagues, how they don’t want some breach between the EU and the US, they want a good partnership, good trust and good relations. I think that what Angela and Francois want to do is entirely sensible, and other European countries are free to join in with that. Obviously Britain has a very strong unique intelligence partnership in many ways with the United States; that’s been very long-standing. Part of that is the Five Eyes partnership, which was established many, many years ago, involving New Zealand, Canada, Australia, as well, so for us I think we are in the right situation. But I understand what others want to do and very much support that, as I think will President Obama. I think he will welcome this approach. Indeed he really spoke about it as well as they were speaking about it at the same time. 2h 38m ago David Cameron speaking in Brussels today. David Cameron speaking in Brussels today. Photograph: Sky News 2h 40m ago Has he had any reason to believe that his mobile phone has been monitored? Has he ever asked the Americans if they have ever monitored his phone? While repeating my mantra that I don’t comment on intelligence issues, I think I can point you towards a statement made by the White House about this issue, which might give you some reassurance. 2h 42m ago Here are some direct quotes from David Cameron’s press conference. Was he able to reassure EU partners that GCHQ was not part of the worst cases of bugging revealed recently? Well first of all let me just repeat something that British governments have always held to, and I hold to myself, which is not to comment on intelligence matters. I think that is important. We all have secret intelligence services, as other countries do, but we don’t give a running commentary on what they do, we don’t comment on their work. That is very important. But let me make two points about the sort of framework for this. The first is I think the leaders of the European Union issued a good and sensible statement last night, about this matter, and I agree with that statement. And the second thing is specifically for Britain, but this applies to other countries as well, because remember this is a national responsibility, these intelligence agencies are a national responsibility, there’s no EU competence here, theres no EU drift here, and at the national level every national leader needs to be confident that their security services are properly overseen. Now in the United Kingdom we have proper parliamentary scrutiny through the intelligence and security committee, the ISC in parliament; we’ve strengthened that oversight. Everything that’s done is done within a framework of proper law. And wee also have intelligence commissioners to oversee the work of these agencies. So I’m satisfied that our intelligence agencies are properly governed, properly run, act under the law, and are subject to parliamentary scrutiny. And that is very important. But let me also say this: the work they do is very important. As prime minister I get to see that work at first hand. Every year for the last few years they have helped to obstruct, avoid and put off major terrorist attacks on our country. They help to keep our people safe. They actually help to keep people safe in other European countries too because we share so much intelligence and information with our EU partners. So they work they do is vital, they will always have my support, and they are properly scrutinised and run under the rule of law. 2h 53m ago Cameron says anonymous spies never get the thanks and “medal parades” they deserve and he wants to thank them now. 2h 60m ago Cameron is asked about whether GCHQ’s Tempora programme was operating in Italy. Cameron says Edward Snowden and the newspapers publishing his revelations are making it more difficult to keep our countries safe. People want to blow up our families, he says. We’ve seen appalling attacks throughout Europe. So do we maintain properly funded and governed intelligence services using “all of the modern techniques” or do we stop doing that? Snowden and “to an extent” the newspapers are signalling to people who mean to do us harm how to evade and avoid surveillance techniques. That’s going to make our country more dangerous. That means not having “some la di da, airy fairy view about what this all means”. Spies are brave people who help keep us safe and he has lost count of the number of plots that he has seen planned, Cameron says. And that helps other EU countries. He criticises those who make public some of the techniques of the spies, because “that is helping our enemies - simple”. 3h 3m ago Can he reassure Merkel that he and others have never seen information from her phone? He says he will not make further comments on intelligence and security matters and they are properly governed in the UK. 3h 4m ago The Guardian’s Ian Traynor asks him about the French and German desire to negotiate with the US over spying by Christmas. Will the UK take part? And could Five Eyes be expanded. Cameron repeats that he welcomed the EU statement. His colleagues don’t want some breach between the EU and the US, he says. They want trust and good relations. Obviously Britain has a strong and unique intelligence partnership with the US, he says. part of that is Five Eyes. “For us we are in the right situation but I understand what others want to do and very much support that. As will President Obama,” he says. 3h 7m ago (Yesterday the White House denied monitoring David Camerons communications, according to the Daily Telegraph.) Caitlin Hayden, a spokesman for the National Security Council said: We do not monitor PM Camerons communications. Asked if the US had ever spied on Mr Cameron in the past, she replied: No. 3h 8m ago Has he ever asked the US if his phone has been monitored? He points towards a White House statement which he says will reassure the reporter about that. 3h 9m ago He says there is parliamentary oversight of the UK’s security services and he is satisfied with that. The work they do is very important, he says. They have helped to obstruct terrorist attacks every year. And they help other EU countries too because the UK shares information with others. 3h 10m ago Cameron takes questions. He is asked if he could reassure the EU leaders that GCHQ was not part of the worst cases of bugging. He says he will not comment on intelligence matters. “We all have secret intelligence services, as other countries do.” But he says the EU leaders issued a “good and sensible” statement last night which he agrees with. Intelligence agencies are a national, not EU, responsibility, he says. 3h 13m ago The PM says attempts to take the US-EU trade deal off track have been “seen off” and he is very pleased about that. 3h 14m ago He is discussing his own priority of deregulation in Europe. 3h 15m ago David Cameron is speaking now in Brussels. 3h 16m ago Angela Merkel has revealed further details about the hacking of her mobile phone, reports Philip Oltermann in Berlin. At the EU summit on Thursday, the German chancellor clarified that she makes a point of conducting conversations about party political issues and matters of state through a variety channels. For all communication relevant to matters of state there are landlines, encrypted lines and if you are away from the landline, there are encrypted mobiles, she emphasised, later adding that those [mobiles] which are less encrypted are more likely to be bugged than those that are encrypted. Angela Merkel Angela Merkel. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images 3h 19m ago Cameron and EU My colleague Ian Traynor in Brussels has more on how Britains David Cameron has been getting on with his fellow EU leaders at the summit, given that some of the same criticisms of the US have also been levelled at Britain. French President François Hollande also called for a new code of conduct agreed between national intelligence services in the EU, begging the question of whether Britain would opt to join in ... Given the role of GCHQ in the mass surveillance, Cameron found himself the target of veiled criticism at the summit, according to witnesses. Merkel complained that Britain enjoyed a privileged position with the Americans because it is the only EU member in the Five Eyes Club – the intelligence-sharing arrangement linking the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Senior EU security officials suspect that Berlin may seek to exploit the crisis to gain admission to, or at least greater co-operation with the Five Eyes pact. Cameron, sources said, responded to the critical remarks by stressing that under his premiership the shared intelligence with the four other countries had resulted in several terrorist plots being foiled, with countless lives saved. David Cameron with Francois Hollande at the European Union summit. David Cameron with Francois Hollande at the European Union summit. Photograph: Thierry Monasse/Rex 3h 26m ago MEPs to visit DC on Monday A delegation of MEPs will travel to Washington on Monday to seek a response to allegations of widespread spying by the United States against EU citizens and governments. The three-day visit by nine members of the European parliaments civil liberties committee will include meetings with senior US government and intelligence officials and explore possible legal remedies for EU citizens resulting from the alleged surveillance, although it is not clear what such remedies might entail, Reuters reports. The parliament is also holding an inquiry into the impact on Europe from leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden A key priority for this inquiry is to gather all relevant information and evidence from US sources, which is why this fact-finding delegation to Washington is so important, Claude Moraes, a Labour MEP who is leading the parliamentary inquiry, said in a statement. 3h 30m ago The German government has said that senior officials will travel to the US shortly for talks at the White House and with the National Security Agency to push forward efforts to clear up the surveillance allegations. Government spokesman Georg Streiter said the heads of Germanys foreign and domestic intelligence agencies would participate. He did not give specific dates, saying that they would be arranged at relatively short notice. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Obama administration was discussing Germanys concerns through diplomatic channels at the highest level, as it was with other U.S. allies worried about the alleged spying. 3h 38m ago Italy Lizzy Davies reports from Rome: Italy has been and probably still is the object of intensive communications monitoring by the British and United States intelligence services, Italian news magazine LEspresso reports today (link to a preview of the piece), claiming that GCHQs Tempora programme is so wide-ranging it recalls the imperial anthem Rule Britannia. The earthquake has yet to come, it writes, raising expectations that documents from the Snowden files could soon be released in Italy. No new documents were published by the magazine, and, contrary to initial reports yesterday, there was no connection Glenn Greenwald to the article. LEspresso says it has learned that British access to fibre-optic cables under the Mediterranean enables GCHQ to monitor Italian communications on a massive scale, sift the data and then share it with the NSA. The priorities of Tempora go beyond combating terrorism, with its scope including the political intentions of foreign governments, trade deals, and any information to help support Britains economic wellbeing, LEspresso adds. The British authorities licence to spy is very large and allows for businesses, politicians and statesmen to be kept under control, it claims. The extent to which Italys own intelligence services were aware of these activities remains unclear, LEspresso says. It claims the Italians had a third party agreement with the British, but gave no further details. As the report emerged late on Thursday, the security services issued a statement to Italys parliamentary committee for the intelligence and security services and for state secret control (Copasir) denying there was an agreement with the British intelligence services concerning the interception of communications via undersea cables. PM Enrico Letta, in Brussels for the EU summit, said Italy and other European nations wanted the truth on the allegations. It is not in the least bit conceivable that activity of this type could be acceptable, he said. Updated 3h 37m ago 4h 5m ago Obama adviser: NSA not unrestrained Lisa Monaco, Barack Obama’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, has written a column for USA Today claiming that the NSA does not operate “unrestrained” – although, she says, the US’s capabilities are “unmatched”. We are not listening to every phone call or reading every e-mail. Far from it. There are legal limits to what the NSA can and cannot do, and the recent disclosures and additional documents the government has declassified prove just how seriously the NSA takes these limits. But she points out that Obama has ordered a review of surveillance capabilities – ”including with respect to our foreign partners. We want to ensure we are collecting information because we need it and not just because we can,” she says, echoing an unnamed official’s criticism of the Merkel bugging in the New York Times. Monaco concludes: Going forward, we will continue to gather the information we need to keep ourselves and our allies safe, while giving even greater focus to ensuring that we are balancing our security needs with the privacy concerns all people share. 4h 10m ago My colleague Simon Jenkins is scathing about the British parliamentary reaction to the NSA and GCHQ revelations. Americas default mode is scepticism of such power and rightly so. And in Britain? Parliament is revealed as the bamboozled pawn of the very agencies it is charged with monitoring. Britons may yet have to rely on the US Congress to tell them what their own GCHQ is up to. Ministers assert that a debate welcomed by Barack Obama lethally threatens national security and puts lives at risk. Yet all NSA stories have been published after discussions with the NSA, and/or the White House, to give them the opportunity to comment or to raise specific national security concerns. The ministerial charge, repeated by David Cameron, is flatly if privately denied by NSA sources in Washington. Now a Tory MP, Julian Smith, demands that the Guardian be prosecuted for its devastating impact on national security. I would no more trust such MPs with my liberties than send them out for a pizza. The capacity of digital technology to expand human experience is clearly immense. So too is its capacity to menace us. We have yet to wrestle these two capacities into balance, but we must. The idea that such a balance is not fit for an informed debate is ridiculous. That parliament has become the agent for its suppression is outrageous. 4h 21m ago Last night at the EU summit the UK was attempting to delay the implementation of new rules regulating how digital data can be transferred between Europe and America, and curbs on the abilities of US internet companies to keep European datat in the US and make it available to the US, Ian Traynor reports. France and the European commission led the push for new European legislation on data protection by next spring, while Britain dragged its heels, arguing that it was more important to get the complex legislation right than to rush it through. The UK is leading the charge against it, a senior EU official said. The UK position is bewildering. Theyre trying to delay it. A French paper prepared for the summit, and obtained by the Guardian, said the NSAs operation of the Prism programme, revealed in June, brought to light the need to strengthen the rules ensuring the protection of the privacy of European citizens. An agreement needs to be achieved in October on the main provisions of the data protection package. But instead of calling on governments to agree on the new data privacy rules within a year, the deadline was extended to 2015, a victory for Britain. 4h 28m ago The New York Times quotes a “career American official with long experience in Europe” as saying of the tapping of Merkel’s phone: “This was colossally bad judgment — doing something because you can, instead of asking if you should.” An administration official declined to say what Obama did or did not know about the monitoring, but said the president “doesn’t think we are in the right place”. The paper says that the US is coming round to the idea of a Five Eyes-style no-spying pact with Germany – “especially because American officials have difficulty making a credible case for what the United States has to gain from spying on senior German officials”. 4h 41m ago EU leaders statement Here is the full text of the statement by the 28 EU leaders on the US spying scandal: The Heads of State or Government discussed recent developments concerning possible intelligence issues and the deep concerns that these events have raised among European citizens. They underlined the close relationship between Europe and the USA and the value of that partnership. They expressed their conviction that the partnership must be based on respect and trust, including as concerns the work and cooperation of secret services. They stressed that intelligence gathering is a vital element in the fight against terrorism. This applies to relations between European countries as well as to relations with the USA. A lack of trust could prejudice the necessary cooperation in the field of intelligence gathering. The Heads of State or Government took note of the intention of France and Germany to seek bilateral talks with the USA with the aim of finding before the end of the year an understanding on mutual relations in that field. They noted that other EU countries are welcome to join this initiative. They also pointed to the existing Working Group between the EU and the USA on the related issue of data protection and called for rapid and constructive progress in that respect. Italys prime minister Enrico Letta, Germanys chancellor Angela Merkel, European council president Herman Van Rompuy, European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, Lithuanias president Dalia Grybauskaite and Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte attend the EU summit on 25 October 2013. Italys prime minister Enrico Letta, Germanys chancellor Angela Merkel, European council president Herman Van Rompuy, European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, Lithuanias president Dalia Grybauskaite and Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte attend the EU summit on 25 October 2013. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/Reuters The BBC reported that David Cameron – whose own security services have been exposed by other Snowden leaks – was completely on board with the text. Updated 4h 40m ago 4h 52m ago France suspected US Le Monde has today published an internal NSA document which it says shows the “tensions and distrust between Paris and Washington”, writes Angelique Chrisafis in Paris. The document, a preparatory note before a visit to the NSA by two top French intelligence officials in April 2013, shows that French officials suspected the US could have been behind a now well-known cyberattack on the French presidential computer network at the Elysée in May 2012. The hacking incident occurred just before the second round of the French presidential election, when Nicolas Sarkozy was still in power. Le Monde – in an article co-written by outgoing Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald – stated that the two French officials went to ask their American counterparts at the NSA for “an explanation”. The NSA document states that no US intelligence agency – or its close allies, the British services GCHQ or the Canadian services - were behind the electronic attack. The Elysee tightened its cyber-security after the May 2012 incident in which suspected detectors had been installed allowing access to information from the presidency and the hacking of presidential computers. The attack was not part of an act of sabotage which was to be made public but of the desire to be permanently installed invisibly at the centre of the presidency, an expert on the case told Le Monde. The paper said: “To attempt, or to appear, to prove their good faith, the NSA planned to send two analysts from the NTOC [the NSAs crisis centre] in March to assist the French in finding the attacker. On the eve of their departure, France cancelled their visit and hardened their tone demanding that [French intelligence officials] Bernard Barbier and Patrick Pailloux be given a hearing at the NSA on 12 April 2013. The internal NSA document notes that at no point did the French transmit the elements at their disposal concerning the possible responsibility of the Americans. Doubtless because the French want to see how the NSA responds when they present their findings, states the memo as a hypothesis. The NSA documents show the US maintained it had no role in the cyberattack. The TAO service [Tailored access operation] which manages and carries out the NSAs cyber-attacks throughout the world confirmed that the attack did not concern any of its operations. The document specifies that TAO had asked most of the NSAs closest partners in the second circle (CIA, GCHQ and the CSEC [the Canadian services] were the main suspects) whether they were involved; all denied involvement. 5h 2m ago Here is a video of Merkel and Hollande talking about the spying scandals. Click to download... 5h 19m ago EU leaders views Here is a round-up of what some of the EU’s leaders said about the surveillance scandal at the EU summit yesterday. Angela Merkel, German chancellor: Its become clear that for the future, something must change - and significantly. We will put all efforts into forging a joint understanding by the end of the year for the co-operation of the [intelligence] agencies between Germany and the US and France and the US, to create a framework for the co-operation … Its not just about me but about every German citizen. We need to have trust in our allies and partners, and this trust must now be established once again. I repeat that spying among friends is not at all acceptable against anyone, and that goes for every citizen in Germany. The United States has a no-spying deal with Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, an alliance known as Five Eyes that was formed after the second world war. But there has traditionally been a reluctance to make similar arrangements with other allies. Merkel said: We are in Afghanistan together. Our soldiers experience life threatening situations. They sometimes die in the same battle. The friendship and partnership between the European member states, including Germany, and the United States is not a one-way street. We depend on it. But there are good reasons that the United States also needs friends in the world. Francois Hollande, French president: What is at stake is preserving our relations with the United States. They should not be changed because of what has happened. But trust has to be restored and reinforced. Mark Rutte, Dutch prime minister: I will support [Merkel] completely in her complaint and say that this is not acceptable. I think we need all the facts on the table first. Enrico Letta, Italian prime minister We want the truth. It is not in the least bit conceivable that activity of this type could be acceptable. Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, called it completely unacceptable for a country to eavesdrop on an allied leader. Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission, said that eavesdropping on phone calls or emails was particularly objectionable because it recalled the totalitarian regimes of Europe’s recent past. He said: At least in Europe, we consider the right to privacy a fundamental right and it is a very serious matter. We cannot, lets say, pretend it is just something accessory. To speak about Chancellor Merkel, in Germany there was a part of Germany where there was a political police that was spying on peoples lives every day [the East German Stasi]. So we know very recently what totalitarianism means. And we know very well what comes, what happens when the state uses powers that intrude in peoples lives. So it is a very important issue, not only for Germany but for Europe in general. The Stasi, East German Ministry of State Security, archives office in Berlin The Stasi archives office in Berlin. The secret police in the communist state were infamous for their spying on the population. Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images 5h 57m ago Lord West Lord West of Spithead, who was a security minister under Gordon Brown, also spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning about the latest surveillance revelations. West suggested that the revelations about the bugging of Merkel’s phone and her reaction was distracting from the real story: the “damage” Edward Snowden had done by leaking the NSA files. He said: What it has done is taken away attention from the real damage Snowden has done, which is actually listing names of good people who are now at risk and exposing techniques and ways of doing business by GCHQ and NSA that already people who wish to kill us are utilising to try and not get caught. He has, without doubt, made all of us less safe and that is a real worry. He added that he had always worked on the assumption that people were listening to his phone calls. I know they jolly well were, he said. I dont think its surprising that people try and listen. If you are a head of state there are lots of people, not just other states, who are listening. There are companies, all sorts of people, who want to hear what you are saying and I think you have to be extremely careful. 6h 30m ago Friday 25 October 2013 Good morning. The French and German governments have demanded talks with the US by the end of the year as the row over the spying activities of the US National Security Agency intensifies. The move follows reports that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had her phone monitored by the NSA and reports that the agency eavesdropped on calls made by members of the French administration. As Sam Jones and James Ball write the revelations are threatening to create a major rift between the US and its European allies. The former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that such activities had to be curtailed. There is no reason to spy on Angela Merkel. Its a real scandal, he said. A new agreement is needed between the EU and the US; this cannot continue. Also today: • The Guardian revealed that National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. • International anger over US government surveillance has combined with a backlash against its current Middle East policy to leave Barack Obama increasingly isolated from many of his key foreign allies, according to diplomats in Washington, report Dan Roberts and Paul Lewis in Washington. The Guardian has spoken with several diplomats and foreign government officials – all of whom agreed to talk only on the condition of anonymity – who say the White House is still underestimating the anger felt over recent disclosures. They argue that US officials are being deliberately disingenuous when they claim that all countries engage in similar forms of espionage, even against allies. While it is widely accepted that the US, Britain, France, Russia and China engage in counter-espionage, other countries do not have the tools to conduct surveillance on the scale of the NSA. A European diplomat said that the White House had presented a false comparison by claiming all countries were engaged in the same tactics. How would the US respond if it discovered a friendly country was covertly listening to the calls of thousands of US citizens – including Obama? the diplomat said. • Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden ended up on the wrong end of a surveillance stakeout on Thursday afternoon when, while riding a commuter train, he was overheard disparaging the Obama administration, Tom McCarthy reports from New York. Here Merkel responds yesterday to allegations the NSA bugged her phone. The German chancellor told reporters: This isn’t about me or my issues, but for every German citizen we need to trust in our allies, and this trust needs to be rebuilt and this mean thinking further about the kind of data privacy we need, about how transparent we are, the understanding between the authorities in America and Europe so we can meet the challenges together. But such a relationship can only be built on trust and that is why I repeat once again spying on friends is unacceptable. Click to download... And here is cartoonist Steve Bell’s view. Well have all this and more throughout the day today. Updated 4h 15m ago 23h 17m ago Summary Key players have now arrived for the EU summit in Brussels. It is unclear how long the summit will last. I’m going to wrap up this live blog for the day with a summary of the day’s key events: • Angela Merkel has said that trust between the US and its partners will have to be “built anew” following reports that the US targeted the German chancellor’s mobile phone. Merkel spoke as she arrived at an EU summit in Brussels where US and UK surveillance is expected to be discussed – although concrete action from the EU may be unlikely. • US and British intelligence services have monitored Italian telecoms networks, targeting the government and companies as well as suspected terrorist groups, Italian weekly LEspresso reported. • The White House has denied monitoring David Camerons communications, according to the Daily Telegraph. • Lord Carlile, the former British terrorism watchdog, said the Guardian had committed a “criminal act by publishing stories based on Edward Snowden’s leaks, adding that it was wrong to present this newspaper’s journalists as “virtuous whistleblowers”. • Britain’s intelligence and security committee has announced that at 2pm on Thursday 7 November it will be holding an open evidence session with the heads of GCHQ, MI5, and MI6. In addition the British parliament is to hold a debate next Thursday on oversight of the UK’s spying agencies. That’s it from me for today. I’ll be back with more tomorrow. 23h 35m ago David Cameron arrived at the EU summit without saying anything to the press. 23h 37m ago The USs National Public Radio has put together this helpful summary of the Snowden revelations so far. Heres how it starts: What does the NSA monitor? — Metadata, which includes the records of several billion telephone calls made in the U.S. each day. The NSA does listen to the content of some of those phone calls. It also monitors the online and phone calls of foreign citizens. — Emails, instant messages and Facebook posts, as well as contact lists and raw internet traffic. Tech companies have denied giving the agency direct access to their servers, but the NSA paid them millions of dollars to cover the cost of complying with its requests. The final question was interesting too: Why are people overseas angry? Theres no court that oversees the NSAs activities on foreign communications. The leaks have indicated that the agency not only spied on countries such as Iran, but also allies like France, Brazil, Mexico — and even UN diplomats. A key European parliament committee approved new rules this week strengthening online privacy and outlawing the kind of surveillance the U.S. has been conducting. Although foreign citizens may be angry, their governments responses have been more muted. One possible reason: Snowden said its likely some EU leaders knew about the operations. Updated 23h 36m ago 23h 59m ago Merkel comments Arriving at todays EU summit, Angela Merkel said that trust between the US and its partners had to be restored following allegations that American intelligence targeted her mobile phone. The German chancellor said she told Barack Obama in a phone call that spying among friends cannot be. She said there needed to be trust among allies and partners and such trust now has to be built anew. Updated 23h 23m ago theguardian/world/2013/oct/21/nsa-files-live-coverage-developments-reaction?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20main-3%20Main%20trailblock:Network%20front%20-%20main%20trailblock:Position1:sublinks
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 15:41:38 +0000