Europe Mulls Sanctions Against US Over Spying

In addition to concerns about illegal domestic spying on American citizens, the NSA's out of control spying program have ignited other problems: European nations are considering sanctions against the USA as they have learned that the NSA efforts also focused on tapping communications of allied leaders.  The US government's defense/excuse?  "We did not know that NAS was spying on foreign allies and their leaders."  Talk about pathetic excuses!  Not surprisingly, the Germans and French among others are not amused.  ABC News has details.  Here are highlights:

The United States could lose access to an important law enforcement tool used to track terrorist money flows, German officials said Monday, as Europe weighed a response to allegations that the Americans spied on their closest European allies.

In Washington, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein called for a "total review" of all U.S. intelligence programs in response to the allegations — activity the California Democrat said she wasn't told about.

Feinstein said that while her committee was informed of the National Security Agency's collection of phone records under a secret court order, it "was not satisfactorily informed" that "certain surveillance activities have been in effect for more than a decade" — including eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's own cellphone.

She said President Barack Obama was also not told that Merkel's communications were being collected since 2002. 

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies—including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany—let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," Feinstein said in a statement Monday.

"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," Feinstein said. "The president should be required to approve any collection of this sort."

Spain became the latest U.S. ally to demand answers after a Spanish newspaper reported that the NSA monitored more than 60 million phone calls in that country during one month alone. The report Monday in the daily El Mundo came on the heels of allegations of massive NSA spying in France and Germany.

With European leaders dissatisfied with the U.S. response so far, officials have been casting about for a way to pressure Washington to provide details of past surveillance and assurances that the practice will be curbed. The challenge is to send a strong message to Washington against wholesale spying on European citizens and institutions without further damage to the overall trans-Atlantic relationship.

As possible leverage, German authorities cited last week's non-binding resolution by the European Parliament to suspend a post-9/11 agreement allowing the Americans access to bank transfer data to track the flow of terrorist money.

Suspending the agreement, officially known as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, would require approval by an overwhelming majority of the 28 European Union countries. The agreement allows access to funds transferred through the private, Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which handles the movement of money between banks worldwide.

The European Parliament's foreign affairs committee chairman, Elmar Brok, told reporters that failure to resolve the differences over data protection could threaten the trade talks. Brok, a member of Merkel's party who was in Washington to discuss the spy allegations, said the challenge was to strike a balance between security and personal freedom.  "We are fighting for the rights of our citizens," he said.

The steady drumbeat of reports stemming from documents provided to various media by NSA leaker Edward Snowden has created a sense of urgency among European governments that, at the very least, they need to be seen in the eyes of their citizens to be doing something to stop the spying.

Heather Conley, Europe director for Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that for Germany, at least, the situation appeared to have reached tipping point and for now other European countries were willing to follow Berlin's lead.  German intelligence officials are to travel to Washington this week and expect something tangible to bring home, she said.  "If they leave empty-handed, we've got a big problem," Conley said.

Once again, I believe that Edward Snowden did Americans a great favor by exposing the lawlessness of the NSA and its affiliates.  What has been done is far beyond what's truly legal and would shock the founding fathers.