 "US monitored phone calls of 35 world leaders, says report")
The United States monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders, according to classified documents leaked by fugitive whistle-blower Edward Snowden, said Britain's Guardian newspaper.
Phone numbers were passed on to the National Security Agency (NSA) by an official in another government department, according to the documents, the Guardian said on Thursday. It added that staff in the White House, State Department and the Pentagon were urged to share the contact details of foreign politicians. "In one recent case, a US official provided NSA with 200 phone numbers to 35 world leaders," reads an excerpt from a confidential memo dated October 2006 which was quoted by the Guardian. The identities of the politicians were not revealed.
Reacting to the report, a White House spokeswoman said: "We are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity, and as a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations."
The leaders of Germany and France on Friday offered to hold talks with the United States in an effort to come up with mutually acceptable rules for surveillance operations. The US also saw support from UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Talking after a European Council meeting in Brussels on Friday, he accused Snowden and unnamed newspapers of assisting Britain's enemies by helping them avoid surveillance by its intelligence services. "That is not going to make our world safer, it's going to make our world more dangerous. That is helping our enemies."
Germany and France each set an end-of-year deadline to strike "frameworks for cooperation" on intelligence collection with the US. A statement signed by all 28 European Union (EU) government leaders said that other countries might follow suit.
Deutsche Telekom said it wanted Germany's communication firms to cooperate to shield local internet traffic from foreign intelligence services. But such an initiative would not work as Germans would not be able to surf websites hosted on servers abroad, according to interviews with six telecom and internet experts.
Merkel and French President Francois Hollande spearheaded calls for closer cooperation among secret services, trying to move past the dismay provoked by the revelations of eavesdropping. "A rule of good conduct is that you don't bug the portable phones of people you meet regularly at international summits," Hollande told reporters early Friday after the first session of a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels. Merkel went into the EU meeting by denouncing "spying among friends" and came out of it sidestepping the question of whether she sought an apology from President Barack Obama in a call on Wednesday. "What matters now is looking to the future," she said. "It's not a question of good words but of possible changes."
EU leaders joined the US administration in pursuing damage control, rejecting calls from some European politicians for a suspension of trans-Atlantic trade talks that have export-oriented Germany as a prime backer.
Anger among the US allies in Europe was stoked this week by reports in Spiegel magazine that Merkel was a National Security Agency target and in Le Monde that US spies intercepted and recorded 70.3 million pieces of "telecommunications data" in France from December 10, 2012, to January 8, 2013.
Germany and France summoned US ambassadors to respond to the allegations.
US officials are warning foreign intelligence agencies that Snowden may have obtained documents detailing their cooperation with the American government, the Washington Post reported on its website. Some of the agencies are in countries that aren't publicly allied with the US, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified US officials.
Phone numbers were passed on to the National Security Agency (NSA) by an official in another government department, according to the documents, the Guardian said on Thursday. It added that staff in the White House, State Department and the Pentagon were urged to share the contact details of foreign politicians. "In one recent case, a US official provided NSA with 200 phone numbers to 35 world leaders," reads an excerpt from a confidential memo dated October 2006 which was quoted by the Guardian. The identities of the politicians were not revealed.
Reacting to the report, a White House spokeswoman said: "We are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity, and as a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations."
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Germany has demanded answers from Washington over allegations Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone was bugged. The country will send its top intelligence chiefs to Washington next week. A delegation of lawmakers from the EU will travel to Washington on Monday to seek a response to the allegations.
The leaders of Germany and France on Friday offered to hold talks with the United States in an effort to come up with mutually acceptable rules for surveillance operations. The US also saw support from UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Talking after a European Council meeting in Brussels on Friday, he accused Snowden and unnamed newspapers of assisting Britain's enemies by helping them avoid surveillance by its intelligence services. "That is not going to make our world safer, it's going to make our world more dangerous. That is helping our enemies."
Germany and France each set an end-of-year deadline to strike "frameworks for cooperation" on intelligence collection with the US. A statement signed by all 28 European Union (EU) government leaders said that other countries might follow suit.
Deutsche Telekom said it wanted Germany's communication firms to cooperate to shield local internet traffic from foreign intelligence services. But such an initiative would not work as Germans would not be able to surf websites hosted on servers abroad, according to interviews with six telecom and internet experts.
Merkel and French President Francois Hollande spearheaded calls for closer cooperation among secret services, trying to move past the dismay provoked by the revelations of eavesdropping. "A rule of good conduct is that you don't bug the portable phones of people you meet regularly at international summits," Hollande told reporters early Friday after the first session of a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels. Merkel went into the EU meeting by denouncing "spying among friends" and came out of it sidestepping the question of whether she sought an apology from President Barack Obama in a call on Wednesday. "What matters now is looking to the future," she said. "It's not a question of good words but of possible changes."
EU leaders joined the US administration in pursuing damage control, rejecting calls from some European politicians for a suspension of trans-Atlantic trade talks that have export-oriented Germany as a prime backer.
Anger among the US allies in Europe was stoked this week by reports in Spiegel magazine that Merkel was a National Security Agency target and in Le Monde that US spies intercepted and recorded 70.3 million pieces of "telecommunications data" in France from December 10, 2012, to January 8, 2013.
Germany and France summoned US ambassadors to respond to the allegations.
US officials are warning foreign intelligence agencies that Snowden may have obtained documents detailing their cooperation with the American government, the Washington Post reported on its website. Some of the agencies are in countries that aren't publicly allied with the US, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified US officials.