Head of the US intelligence publishes classified materials about NSA - Full Update

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Head of the US National Intelligence James Clapper has released several secret documents about the programs of surveillance of the National Security Agency (NSA), EFE reports Tuesday.

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Most of the documents are dated back to 2009. There are also materials, which date back to 2011, the Agency says.

The documents state that the US Department of Justice authorized gathering of data about conversations on mobile phones, starting with 2010.

Other materials report that the NSA, FBI and the Ministry of Justice informed congressmen of their intention to increase the collection of metadata of phone calls, including phone numbers and time of calls, but not their contents.

By publishing these documents, James Clapper tries to convince US citizens that the NSA's programs of surveillance do not violate their right to privacy.

As it was reported, the materials published by former employee of the CIA Edward Snowden stated that the NSA had conducted surveillance over the governments of a number of European countries, including Germany, Spain and France, as well as over ordinary citizens.

US mass surveillance of European Union citizens is genuine concern - European MP

British Member of European Parliament of Labour Party, Claude Moraes, a member of the delegation, told reporters that "this mass surveillance of European Union citizens is genuine concern." He also said he and his fellow delegates were unsatisfied with the responses from US officials on the issue.

"They’re giving us answers, but not the answers we want," Mr. Moraes said.

Spain, which is, reportedly, one of the latest targets of the NSA snooping activities, has urged the United States to give details of any eavesdropping. One the latest allegations published by El Mundo newspaper is that the NSA tracked 60 million Spanish telephone calls in a month.

Spain’s Minister for European Affairs, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, described such practices as "inappropriate and unacceptable."

Additionally, the NSA has tracked more than 46 phone calls in Italy. That’s according to the US website Cryptome.

That prompted Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta to question US Secretary of State John Kerry about the alleged snooping.  Despite all that, Italian intelligence agency failed to confirm the information.

Cryptome also revealed information that during the same month the NSA monitored 360 million phone calls in Germany, 70 million in France, and near two million in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, Senator Diane Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been quoted as saying that she was "totally opposed" to the National Security Agency’s intelligence gathering on leaders of US allies. Senator Feinstein pledged that her committee will undertake a major review into all intelligence collection programs.

White House says US intelligence gathering may require 'additional constraints'

Washington has acknowledged the need for additional constraints on US intelligence gathering. Spokesman Jay Carney has said an ongoing White House intelligence policy review would take into consideration 'privacy concerns'.

President Barack Obama has full confidence in the director of the National Security Agency, General Keith Alexander, and other NSA officials, said White House spokesman Jay Carney. He added that there should be a balance between the need to gather intelligence and the need for privacy.

"We recognize there needs to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence," Carney said.

A White House review of US surveillance capabilities is well under way and should be completed by the end of the year, Carney said.

US spying on allies is 'inappropriate and unacceptable' - Spain's minister

Outrage in Europe over US surveillance operations widened Monday after a report that the National Security Agency (NSA) tracked 60 million Spanish phone calls in one month.

The US spy agency intercepted the calls between December 10 and January 8 and mined data from internet searches, email and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, El Mundo newspaper reported.

The documents have shown the US engaging in large-scale surveillance of foreign governments and citizens, from rivals such as China and Russia to allies in Europe and South America.

Spain's minister for European affairs, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, questioned the US ambassador to Spain, James Costos, for some 40 minutes Monday over the latest snooping claim, the government said.

Such spying among friends was "inappropriate and unacceptable," Mendez de Vigo said.

The US embassy in Madrid said after the meeting that the surveillance programmes have aided the security interests of both countries.

The uproar to Italy, where the Wikileaks-style website Cryptome claimed the NSA spied on 46 million calls in that country in a one-month period in December and January.

The embarrassing disclosures come on the heels of a report last week that the NSA had tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone. The German Foreign Ministry summoned the US ambassador for the first time since World War II.

In a Wall Street Journal story, NSA officials for the first time admitted clandestine monitoring of some 35 world leaders. President Barack Obama was unaware of the spying, and the White House only halted the practice a few months ago after an internal review, the newspaper reported.

White House spokesman Jay Carney would not comment on the report that Obama had been unaware until recently of long-running monitoring of world leaders. The White House was conducting a review of US intelligence operations, and Obama believed the US should "not just be collecting data because we can, but because we should," Carney said.

He defended the broader surveillance measures as necessary in a more technologically interconnected world.

"If we're going to keep our citizens and our allies safe, we have to continue to stay ahead of these changes, and that's what our intelligence community has been doing extraordinarily well," Carney said, while acknowledging the need for a review of US surveillance efforts.

The review ordered by Obama is to be completed by the end of the year. The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has reported many of Snowden's leaks, rejected White House suggestions that the sprawling data collection was needed to combat terrorism.

"None of this has anything to do with terrorism," he told broadcaster CNN. "Is Angela Merkel a terrorist?"

Pressure was growing on the administration within Congress, as Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sharply criticized the NSA, which she has defended in the past, and call for an investigation into the spying of foreign leaders.

Visiting EU parliamentarians were in Washington for meetings including White House national security staff, top intelligence officials, the State Department and others.  German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said the government had "no new information" on allegations of wiretapping by American intelligence services.

"We are in the process of clearing up this serious case," he said, adding that "Germany and the US can solve these problems together."

Berlin said its intelligence chiefs and representatives of the chancellor's office would be sent to Washington to demand answers. The timing of the trip was still unknown, Seibert said, but it is expected to include a meeting with NSA representatives.

He declined to say what questions had not been answered by US authorities following a similar Washington visit in June, after initial revelations of US spying activities on citizens in Germany and Europe.

Germany and Brazil are set to introduce a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution Tuesday against spying on electronic communication, a UN diplomat said.

Brazilian media reported in September that the NSA had monitored President Dilma Rousseff's phone and email communications with her advisers, prompting her to call off a state visit to Washington.

At a summit last week dominated by the deepening row, the European Union appointed Merkel and French President François Hollande to lead an effort to bring the United States to account in the scandal and restore trust within the Atlantic alliance.

NSA collected data on 60 mln phone calls in Spain in one month

The US National Security Agency intercepted and collected data on 60 million phone calls in Spain from December 2012 to January this year without prior consent of the Spanish authorities. The El Pais newspaper reports today that the information to that end has been presented by a British journalist Glenn Greenwald, who is publishing revelations by the former US special service agent Edward Snowden.

El Pais adds that the National Security Agency was not interested in the content of the conversations, it only determined the duration of the conversations, identified the phone numbers and established the whereabouts of subscribers.

The newspaper also reports that the US Ambassador to Spain has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry of the Kingdom in compliance with an order from Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The move has been prompted by local press reports about US special service spying on millions of rank-and-file Spaniards, as well as politicians and government members of the kingdom.

More that 46 million phone calles tracked by NSA in Italy

New information is coming out on NSA surveillance. It has been revealed that the spy agency was tracking phone calls in Italy. More than 46 million calls were checked by the US according to the US website Cryptome. Previously, was learned that the NSA was tracking phone calls in Germany, including those of German Counselor Angela Merkel. As it appears the agency listened to millions of users all across Europe.

Cryptome reported that in a month's time the phone data of the users has increased enormously and as well as the duration of calls.

Enrico Letta, Italian Prime Minister stated last week that this kind of behavior is "inconceivable and unacceptable." Later on, he questioned John Kerry, the US Secretary of State about the information revealed. What was bothering Letta is not the surveillance but hiding the truth from the Italian officials. "Obviously, all checks should be done, but we want the whole truth. It's not acceptable or conceivable that there are activities of this kind.”

Despite all that, Italian intelligence agency couldn’t confirm the information. In the statement they released it was stated that one should differentiate between 

“spying” and "monitoring.” In the same statement the government reports: “There is no evidence that the United States is spying on Italian citizens.”

At the same time, Cryptome also revealed information that during the same month the NSA monitored 361 million phone calls in Germany, 70 million in France, 61 million in Spain, and 1.8 million in the Netherlands.

No matter which way it is, these revelations are deepening the scandal between the US and its allies. Last week, it was reported that German Counselor is wishing to hold a meeting with European and the US representatives to receive an official statement on the US activity.

US halts its surveillance programs of allied heads of state - report

The US National Security Agency stopped tapping the phones of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders once the White House learned of its activities. The media has shared more details on the federal government’s attitude towards massive surveillance.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the NSA program to bug the phones of its allies' leaders was scrapped as soon as the Obama administration got wind of it. However, it did not abort all surveillance programs as many of them brought intelligence benefits. The only fact that has been confirmed is the subsequent debugging of Merkel’s cell-phone.

The Wall Street Journal also claims that Barack Obama was kept in the dark about the NSA program targeting world leaders during his five-year presidency. According to the US paper, the NSA cannot inform the head of state about all of its numerous projects. Some of them are signed into force by the NSA chief and don’t need presidential approval.

Last summer, UK and US media blew the lid off the spy agency’s total surveillance programs that were exposed in the classified documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The ensuing furore prompted the White House to open an internal investigation into the agency’s dealings that showed the NSA had monitored the phone calls of 35 foreign leaders.

NSA had tapped the phones of some 35 world leaders - report

The White House ended programs tracking several of the leaders including Merkel, according to the Journal.

Some programs have been scheduled to end but have not yet been terminated, the Journal said.

Officials told the Journal that there are so many NSA eavesdropping operations that it would not have been practical to brief the president on all of them.

Obama was "briefed on and approved of broader intelligence-collection 'priorities," but deputies decided on specific intelligence targets, the Journal said.

 "These decisions are made at NSA," the unnamed official told the Journal.

"The president doesn't sign off on this stuff." Ending a surveillance program is complicated because a world leader like Merkel may be communicating with another leader that Washington is monitoring, officials told the newspaper.

Germany's Bild am Sonntag weekly quoted US intelligence sources on Sunday as saying that NSA chief General Keith Alexander briefed Obama on the operation against Merkel in 2010. In Washington, NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines denied the claim.

Alexander "did not discuss with President Obama in 2010 an alleged foreign intelligence operation involving German Chancellor Merkel, nor has he ever discussed alleged operations involving Chancellor Merkel," said Vines . "News reports claiming otherwise are not true," she added.

The snooping allegations, based on documents leaked by fugitive former US defense contractor Edward Snowden, indicate that US spy agencies accessed the electronic communications of dozens of world leaders and likely millions of foreign nationals.

Germany may summon Edward Snowden as witness in Merkel phone tapping case

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office may summon former CIA employee Edward Snowden to be a witness in the case of phone tapping against German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told the Deutschlandfunk radio on Sunday.

“If our suspicions prove correct and a case is opened, the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office will have to consider the possibility of interrogating Snowden as a witness,” she said, adding that there would be no major obstacles to that effect.

In that case, if Snowden came to Germany, the German government could defy Washington’s demand for his extradition, the minister said.

At the same time, Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger called for the speedy signing of an agreement with the United States which would rule out mutual espionage and be open for other countries to join in.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said, for his part, that illegal phone tapping was a crime and that the culprits should be made accountable.

Sources:  RT, AFP, Foreign Policy, Reuters, TASS, Interfax, Voice of Russia,