ALLIES ANGERED OVER NSA SURVEILLANCE!
Dear Conservative Friend,
Once again, the Obama administration has muddied the waters in relationships with our allies.
German Chancellor views her cell phone that Obama and NSA may have tapped!
This Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel protested to President Barack Obama in reference to learning that the National Security Agency may have tapped her private cell phone. She said it would be “a serious breach of trust” if true. She emphatically views that if this breach is confirmed, it is “completely unacceptable!”
“There must not be such surveillance of a head of government’s communication. That would be a serious breach of trust. Such practices must be stopped immediately!” said Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert.
Although Jay Carney, Obama spokesman, countered by stating: “The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor.” However, he stopped short of denying it happening in the past.
It’s created such a furor that on Thursday, Germany’s Foreign Ministry summoned the United States ambassador. Many USA closest allies are truly angered over this USA/NSA surveillance! What is Obama creating? How can the US' reputation be so tarnished?
This week, French president Francois Hollande conveyed his absolute anger at U.S. surveillance tactics during a phone call with Barack Obama, after it was revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) snooped on millions of French nationals.
Hollande's office said that he strongly condemned Washington's surveillance activities, and stated "deep disapproval of these practices, which are unacceptable between friends and allies because they infringe on the privacy of French citizens."
The French leader has "asked that all explanations be provided, as well as all information that could be at the disposal of former NSA consultant Edward Snowden".
This revelation forced the administration to admit the claims do leave reasonable grounds for Washington's allies to raise questions over the US spying program.
After Obama's phone call on the embarrassing leaks, the White House issued a statement saying, "The [US] president and President Hollande discussed recent disclosures in the press - some of which have distorted our activities and some of which raise legitimate questions for our friends and allies about how these capabilities are employed.
All of this is come to a head recently after the French Daily Le Monde, quoted from the documents leaked earlier by whistleblower Edward Snowden. They were the first to report that the NSA had snooped on politicians and business people in France and without any basis for terrorism-linked suspicions.
Hours after the revelation, Paris summoned US ambassador Charles Rivkin over the leaks.
The leaks just happen to coincided with US Secretary of State John Kerry's Paris visit in on Middle East talks regarding the Syrian situation mostly. The accusations will certainly cast a shadow over Kerry's talks since he is there to sell closer military and intelligence cooperation with France.
The revelation that the United States spies on our friends has caused a lot of “bad blood” between us.
That’s why your fax to Congress is urgently needed. The reputation of the United States of America is literally at stake!
Under recent revelations, the United States of America says the NSA collected more than 70 MILLION French phone records!
It has really unsettled Europe. France demands the United States end spying on French citizens and organizations immediately.
These espionage records violate international law. More importantly, it seriously damages relationships with our allies. We must stop.
Obama again back-peddles saying: “The United States has begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share. The two Presidents agreed that we should continue to discuss these issues in diplomatic channels moving forward.”
Mr. President, the damage has already been done!
Our allies have been deceived. The literal “trust” in the United States of America was breached!
On Monday, the French Prime Minister once again talked about the European pushback against the National Security Administration practices: “We had already been alerted in June and we had already reacted strongly. But clearly, we must go further!”
Of course the NSA declined to comment on the specifics. The NSA did say: “(The United States) gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations.”
The diplomatic fallout could be horrendous. I don’t believe the French will accept the “excuse” the White House offered: “Everybody is doing it!”
The bottom line: The French government has called for the surveillance to CEASE!
My Friends, forget overseas spying; it is happening right here in YOUR backyard! And you must do something to stop it! Please fax every Member of Congress!
The NSA is not going away! The NSA will never leave YOU alone! Of course you are not a terrorist, but that doesn’t matter anymore. The NSA spying on you! Forget France, YOUR abuse continues even now! We must let Congress know how we feel about this invasion of our privacy.
And recently, NSA finally admitted they actually spy on social media. When will this abuse stop? When will normal Americans not have to “look over their shoulder” anymore?
Join the conversation on Facebook today!
Other nations have uncovered that the NSA has spied on them.
In Mexico: the Mexican government appealed, “In a relationship of neighbors and partners, there is no room for the kind of activities that allegedly took place!”
In Brazil: The reaction of Brazil’s president has been the strongest so far. She canceled a state visit to Washington and condemned the United States at the United Nations General Assembly!
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said earlier this week: “I can understand the anger in France. You don’t do that among partners. You don’t do that among friends. That is why it is important that everything becomes clear what happened. That applies to France. It applies to other countries, and also for Germany. We know there are security interests, but it is about finding the right balance between security interests and freedom rights.”
Not only is the NSA spying on our beloved allies. The NSA is spying on every single American!
The Guardian, who originally reported the Snowden claims, says that the NSA stores metadata of millions of web users for up to a year, according to secret files. They report:
“The Obama administration has repeatedly stated that the NSA keeps only the content of messages and communications of people it is intentionally targeting – but internal documents reveal the agency retains vast amounts of metadata. Metadata provides a record of almost anything a user does online, from browsing history – such as map searches and websites visited – to account details, email activity, and even some account passwords. This can be used to build a detailed picture of an individual’s life.”
Much of the NSA’s data collection is carried out under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. This provision allows for the collection of data without individual warrants of communications, where at least one end of the conversation, or data exchange, involves a non-American located outside the United States of America at the time of collection.
Our own government is actually spying on us? That brings back remembrances of Adolph Hitler and his war against the Jews in Germany just prior to World War II!
To make matters even more embarrassing for the agency, earlier reports have been leaked about various employees of the NSA who spied on significant others or former business partners. One NSA employee spied on nine women without detection for six years!
Within the next very few weeks, the Senate and the House will be presenting several bills to curtail the spying by the NSA. These bills will include:
1. Reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the NSA and law enforcement to spy on Americans
2. Review Section 215 of the Patriot Act
3. Establishment of third-party oversight of NSA programs that spy on Americans
4. Eliminating the NSA’s bulk collection and data-mining of citizen’s internet and telephone records
Various privacy protection proposals are already on the table. It appears that this can be a bipartisan effort, even though there are Congressmen on both sides of the privacy issue.
In spite of the government shutdown, the SPYING on patriotic Americans continues!
FAX CONGRESS NOW - tell them they must halt unconstitutional spying on Americans!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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