WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Barack Obama had a simple answer to European outrage over new allegations that his country spies on its allies: The Europeans do it too.
Obama said Monday during his trip to Africa that every intelligence service in Europe, Asia and elsewhere does its best to understand the world better, and that goes beyond what they read in newspapers or watch on TV. It was an attempt to blunt European reaction to new revelations from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden that the U.S. spies on European governments.
"If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service," Obama told reporters in Tanzania.
"And I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders," Obama said. "That's how intelligence services operate."
European spies have been spying on the U.S. for years, according to two former intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss espionage programs. They said such spying includes tracking senior U.S. officials to see what they are doing in countries like France and Germany, which have both complained bitterly about the EU reports.
But European spying efforts haven't been exposed the way American exploits have recently with the explosive release of secret documents by Snowden, the former U.S. intelligence systems analyst. The latest round came Sunday in Germany's Der Spiegel's magazine, which reported that the NSA bugged the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated its computer network. The magazine said the NSA took similar measures to listen in on the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, and also used its secure facilities at NATO headquarters in Brussels to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior EU officials' calls and Internet traffic.
