EU demands clarification over US spying claims

The Guardian (UK)
Jonathan Haynes
June 30, 2013.

The president of the European parliament has called for full clarification from the US over claims it bugged EU offices in America and accessed computer networks.

Martin Schulz said there would be a severe impact on relations between the European trade bloc and the US if revelations by German magazine Der Spiegel proved to be true.

Der Spiegel reported that the US had bugged offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, according to secret documents, the latest in a series of exposures of alleged US spying.

The magazine quoted from a "top secret" US National Security Agency (NSA) document from September 2010 that it said former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had taken with him, and which its journalists had seen in part.

Der Spiegel said the document outlines how the NSA bugged offices and spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the UN, listening to conversations and phone calls and gaining access to documents and emails. It said the document explicitly called the EU a target.

A spokesman for the office of the US director of National Intelligence did not comment on the Der Spiegel article.

Schulz said: "I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of US authorities spying on EU offices. If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations.

"On behalf of the European parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations."

Read the rest here.

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Comment: Meanwhile back in the empire newly appointed US National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, insists that "diplomatic consequences of NSA leaks are not that significant" according to this news report.

Is she serious?

See "Key US-EU trade pact under threat after more NSA spying allegations" (Guardian, June 30) for enough reasons to be worried about now.

It probably will be prudent for her to be less of a propagandist and denialist from now on.

The Snowden affair is still unraveling and the damage is far from done.

Onward!