The National Security Agency says it just recently ended a five year program that included spying on “Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders” but Obama did not know.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a U.S. official said these types of “surveillance decisions…[are] made at the agency level” by NSA.
NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said the NSA makes these decisions based on “priorities set across the U.S. government.” These priorities “stem the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, which guides prioritization for the operation.”
An internal review did not reveal how many of the surveillance programs have actually been stopped nor did it disclose every world leader that was on the surveillance list to begin with. But WSJ says the review “confirms” Edward Snowden’s claim that 35 world leaders were under surveillance.
The review also asserts that Obama has spent nearly five years as president without knowing about such surveillance.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.