14 DAY TRIAL // As the European Union expects answers about the claims that the NSA has been spying on EU diplomats, US president Barack Obama tries to ease the tensions.
His argument, however, isn’t all that strong. Basically he says that Europe spies on the US too, which should make any of the NSA programs OK, The Guardian reports.
“We should stipulate that every intelligence service – not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service, here's one thing that they're going to be doing: they're going to be trying to understand the world better and what's going on in world capitals. If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service," Obama said.
He then made a point in claiming that he was sure there were people in European capitals who would be interested in his talking points.
Obama tried to tame down the issue by saying that, although he talks a lot with Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande or David Cameron, there is little information not shared between their countries.
Furthermore, if he actually wonders what any of them thinks on a certain subject, he simply gives them a call.
However, the European authorities are still expecting an answer from the US and Obama has asked the NSA to evaluate the claims and inform the allies about these allegations.
This past weekend, several media outlets released new NSA documents that indicated the United States intelligence agency was in fact spying on EU diplomats with the help of electronic bugs and by hacking into the computer network.
The European Commission has already ordered a bug search in all buildings and has demanded answers, while Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have asked for a clear response from the White House regarding these claims.
The French president went as far as saying that the new trade deal between the EU and US might be at stake if this proves to be true.