NSA
tracked 46mln Italian phone calls - report
The
NSA bugged 46 million phone calls in Italy in a month, according to
digital library host Cryptome. The report is the latest in the
revelations that the agency tapped hundreds of millions of phone
lines across Europe.
RT,
28
October, 2013
The
snooping, between Dec. 10, 2012 and Jan. 8, 2013, reportedly did not
appear to track the content of calls but rather telephony metadata,
including the origin and duration of the calls.
The
alleged monitoring of citizens’ phone calls follows an article in
the Italian weekly, L’Espresso, which claimed that US intelligence
had monitored Italian telecoms networks, targeting the government and
companies as well as suspected terrorists.
Britain's
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) also reportedly
monitored telephone, Internet and email traffic carried through three
undersea fiber-optic cables in Italy as a part of its Tempora
program.
"In
this mass collection, our secret services had a role," the
publication cited Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who helped publish
leaked documents obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, as
saying.
Italian
Prime Minister Enrico Letta said Thursday that the alleged monitoring
of Italian telecommunications by US and British intelligence would be
both "inconceivable and unacceptable."
Letta
questioned US Secretary of State John Kerry about the reported
bugging during talks in Rome on Wednesday.
Ahead
of an EU summit Friday, Letta said: "Obviously, all checks
should be done, but we want the whole truth. It's not acceptable or
conceivable that there are activities of this kind.”
In
regards to the Cryptome report, Italian intelligence agencies had no
information on the alleged monitoring and were unable to confirm it
had taken place.
A
statement released by an Italian parliamentary committee tasked with
state security, however, said there was a difference between “spying”
and "monitoring.”
“There
is no evidence that the United States is spying on Italian citizens,”
the statement from the Parliamentary Committee for the Intelligence
and Security Services and for State Secret Control read.
The
committee said that agreements on cooperation in the security sphere
precluded the possibility that either side would spy on each other.
“The
implementation of such activities would be a threat to national
security,” it said.
Meanwhile,
Cryptome reported that during the same period, the NSA monitored 361
million phone calls in Germany, 70 million in France, 61 million in
Spain, and 1.8 million in the Netherlands.
With
the aid of its Boundless Informant data analysis and visualization
system, the agency tracked 124.8 billion calls worldwide in that
period.
The
revelation is part and parcel of the deepening scandal over the
United States vast spying apparatus. Last week, the Germany daily Der
Spiegel reported that Washington was directly spying on least 35
world leaders, including several US allies.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone has reportedly been on an
NSA target list since 2002, US intelligence sources telling Germany’s
Bild am Sonntag that US President Barack Obama was aware of the
snooping.
Despite
Obama’s assurances that he has ordered a review of the US
intelligence gathering operations, a coalition of over 20 countries
led by Brazil and Germany are now pushing for a UN resolution
condemning the US for its “indiscriminate” wiretapping and
“extra-territorial” surveillance. The countries are also calling
for “independent oversight” of electronic monitoring.
White
House: NSA intelligence-gathering may require additional constraints
The
White House says the controversial intelligence gathering procedures
that have attracted international scrutiny in recent months may
require “additional constraints.”
RT,
28
October, 2013
Jay
Carney, the White House press secretary, made the remark during a
scheduled Monday afternoon briefing on the heels of the latest
revelations made possible through the unauthorized disclosure of
sensitive National Security Agency documents detailing US-led
programs that spied on foreign citizens and politicians.
“There
are a number of efforts underway that are designed to increase
transparency, to work with Congress to look at reform to the Patriot
Act [and] to look at ways we can increase oversight and increase
constraint on the authorities provided by these programs,” Carney
told reporters.
The
press secretary also echoed words made earlier that day by National
Security Adviser Susan Rice, who tweeted of a balance needing to be
reached with regards to how intelligence gathering.
We must seek proper balance between security concerns of our citizens and allies and the privacy concerns that all people share.
Carney
said that the spy-programs made public through leaked NSA documents
attributed by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden are legal
through the post-9/11 Patriot Act, but that “steps could be taken
to put in place greater oversight--greater transparency--as well as
constraints on the use of this authority.”
Additionally,
Carney said US President Barack Obama has ordered his administration
to conduct a review of those programs.
“The
issues that are part of the review look at how we can better balance
our security needs and the security needs of our allies against the
real privacy concerns that we all share,” Carney said.
Meanwhile,
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Senate Intelligence Committee's
chairwoman, said that she was "totally opposed" to the
collection of intelligence on US allies, and said that such
surveillance over foreign heads of state would cease immediately.
"Unless
the United States is engaged in hostilities against a country or
there is an emergency need for this type of surveillance, I do not
believe the United States should be collecting phone calls or emails
of friendly presidents and prime ministers," said Feinstein.
The
Senator also indicated that her committee would launch a significant
overview of current intelligence practices.
“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.”
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