EU summit confronts US surveillance scandal after claims that Merkel mobile was tapped and French calls were intercepted (click here)
Thursday 24 October 2013 13.43 EDT
Ian Taylor in Brussels
...The Germans made plain that they were unhappy with the White House response to the tapping allegations following a 20-minute phone call between Merkel and Barack Obama on Wednesday.
"Spying on friends is not on at all," Merkel said going into the summit in her first public comment on the row.
In Berlin, the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, summoned the new US ambassador, John Emerson, to demand answers. The foreign ministry said German views would be presented "in no uncertain terms".
After seeing the ambassador, Westerwelle said: "We need the truth now".
Merkel's chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, who is responsible for overseeing the German intelligence services, signalled that Berlin had delivered an ultimatum to Washington....
This is a serious violation of any relationship allies have with the USA. I don't imagine anyone in Europe is interested in hearing excuses. The State Department has their work cut out for them to make this right.
My question is not so much about the USA spying on allies, but, what was a private contractor doing with this information? Mr. Snowden wasn't working for the government when he was exposed to this level of information from a private contractor. A Wall Street contractor. There should never have been this level of access by any private company about other governments, yet alone the USA.
