Friends Don’t Spy on Friends, Obama Tells French Leader in Call

photo credit: observer.com

President Barack Obama assured French president François Hollande on Wednesday that the U.S. was not spying on his presidential administration, but did not deny that the U.S. had done so previously, reports blogs.wsj .

In an attempt to repair a public rift between close allies, Mr. Obama assured Mr. Hollande that the U.S. had not targeted a French leader since a commitment in 2013 not to intercept communications.

“The president affirmed our unwavering commitment to the bilateral relationship, including our ongoing close cooperation in the intelligence and security fields,” the White House said in a statement. “The president reiterated that we have abided by the commitment we made to our French counterparts in late 2013 that we are not targeting and will not target the communications of the French president.”

The White House added: “We are committed to our productive and indispensable intelligence relationship with France, which allows us to make progress against shared threats, including international terrorism and proliferation, among others.”

The organization Wikileaks released documents this week showing that the United States has intercepted communications from the three most recent French presidential administrations.

In a statement, Mr. Hollande called the apparent revelations “unacceptable.” The French government also summoned the U.S. ambassador for a meeting.

Mr. Obama’s comments are in line with his pubic commitment to stop signals intelligence against the heads of state of close U.S. allies unless there is an overriding national security reason.

“I have made clear to the intelligence community that unless there is a compelling national security purpose, we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies,” Mr. Obama said in a major intelligence speech in 2014.

Those changes were driven in part by other foreign leader spying revelations. Document that leaked in 2013 alleged that the U.S. tapped the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff protested U.S. spying on her email and cell phone by canceling a state visit in 2013.

Culled from: blogs.wsj