Edward Snowden support demonstration at the United States embassy in Hong Kong. The FBI says it will pursue Snowden for revealing that the National Security Agency is spying on billions around the world., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
France warns US against snooping
October 23, 2013
PARIS. – France yesterday told the United States to stop snooping on its citizens but backed away from picking a fight over reports millions of telephone calls were monitored by US intelligence. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius used a breakfast meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris to demand a full explanation of the latest revelations about a controversial US National Security Agency spying programme.
“I said again to John Kerry what (French President) Francois Hollande told (US President) Barack Obama, that this kind of spying conducted on a large scale by the Americans on its allies is something that is unacceptable,” Fabius said in London later in the day.
All the signs were however that Paris wants to defuse the row created by the latest reports based on leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
When asked if France was considering reprisals over the NSA’s conduct, government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem replied: “It is up to foreign minister Fabius to decide what line we take but I don’t think there is any need for an escalation (of the situation).
“We have to have a respectful relationship between partners, between allies. Our confidence in that has been hit but it is after all a very close, individual relationship that we have.”
Le Monde newspaper reported this week that the NSA had monitored more than 70 million phone communications in France between December 10, 2012 and January 8 this year.
The daily said the operation appeared to have targeted business and political figures as well as people suspected of being involved in terrorism, putting it in a different league from the monitoring France’s own intelligence services carry out.
Le Monde followed up on Tuesday by publishing details of US spying on French embassies around the world, most of which had been reported before.
France’s Communist Party called for the country to pull out of Nato in protest, but reaction to Le Monde’s reports was otherwise muted.
Most commentators seemed to agree that it was far from surprising that the US was carrying out intelligence operations in France.
An opposition MP suggested the revelations had been engineered by the government as a diversion from its domestic problems.
“It doesn’t mean it is not very serious, and the Americans must explain themselves, but this has all been known about for a very long time,” said Christian Jacob of the centre-right UMP.
“They’re panicking and attempting a diversion operation.”
Hollande told Obama on Monday evening that the NSA’s actions had been “unacceptable between friends and allies.”
Obama has already initiated a review of how the US gathers intelligence with a view to addressing concerns over citizens’ right to privacy, officials say.
US officials also stress that intelligence acquired from phone monitoring can benefit all of Washington’s allies in fighting terrorism.
“Protecting the security of our citizens in today’s world is a very complicated, very challenging task . . . because there are lots of people out there seeking to do harm to other people,” Kerry said on Monday.
– AFP.
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