14 DAY TRIAL // The White House has conceded to evaluate its spying practices when it comes to allies of the United States, including Germany and France.
The announcement comes after Dianne Feinstein, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman who has so far argued in favor of the NSA surveillance programs, has declared she totally opposes collecting intelligence on US allies.
“The White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support – but as far as I’m concerned, Congress needs to know exactly what our intelligence community is doing. To that end, the committee will initiate a major review into all intelligence collection programs,” Feinstein says in a statement.
She mentions that unless the US is engaged in hostilities with a certain country, or there’s an immediate need for this type of surveillance, the US should not be spying on presidents and prime ministers.
At the same time, the US is putting in an effort to increase transparency and to reform the Patriot Act, a document that has permitted the NSA to spy on everyone by using “terrorism” as an excuse.
However, while spying on world leaders might be stopped, there's absolutely no hint that the US wants to stop snooping in on innocent citizens from across the globe.
The decision to halt spying on allies comes after it was revealed the NSA has been tapping into the phones of at least 35 world leaders. According to a report, the NSA was encouraging top-level officials from the United States to share their contact lists. After only one of them handed over some 200 contacts, 35 of them belonged to top politicians from around the globe.
Furthermore, in the past couple of weeks alone, it was revealed that the NSA was tapping into the German Chancellor’s phone, as well as spying on France, Spain and Italy.
European leaders have not responded well to such reports, have demanded answers and allied to create a UN resolution, along with other countries, especially from South America, that should put a stop to practices such as the ones the NSA engages in.