The US government’s mass surveillance of European leaders will cause “lasting damage” to the transatlantic alliance unless Washington “reins in” its controversial spying operations, former CIA officer Ray McGovern tells Press TV.
Recent intelligence leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden have shown that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been eavesdropping on phone calls of at least 35 world leaders including those of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of Europe’s most influential leaders.
European officials took their outrage to the White House on Wednesday, meeting with Deputy National Security Adviser Lisa Monaco and other officials.
This is “an extremely important issue of trust between the European Union and the United States,” said Claude Moraes, head of the nine-member European Union delegation.
“I think more revelations will be coming out and unless the United States does something to rein in this adolescents’ attempt to collect all information on everybody and everything then I think this will cause lasting damage,” McGovern said on Thursday.
The former CIA officer noted that the United States has persuaded its European allies to “acquiesce” in multiple controversial programs including kidnapping, torture, and setting up CIA black sites on their soils in the name of fighting terrorism.
But now European leaders have found themselves to be the target of US spying activates. “I don’t know whether the Western Europeans will acquiesce now,” McGovern added.
In recent days, the Obama administration has tried to distance itself from the NSA, a tactic that has irritated senior intelligence officials.
However Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director General Keith Alexander have said that President Barack Obama and other senior White House officials were well aware of NSA spying activities against leaders of friendly foreign nations.
HJ/HJ
Source: Press TV