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| Daily News Brief October 29, 2013 |
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Top of the Agenda: U.S. Mulls Spying Constraints
The
Obama administration is considering ending its surveillance of allied
heads of state, a move that came one day after Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D-CA) called for a "total review of all intelligence programs" (AP).
White House officials said President Obama was not briefed on many
details of the National Security Agency's spying programs, but some
current and former intelligence officials said the practices were approved by the White House and State Department (LATimes).
Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose mobile phone was allegedly tapped by
the NSA, said the spying issue shouldn't hinder EU-U.S. trade
negotiations despite calls from her own party to freeze talks (DeutscheWelle).
Analysis
"The
damage is hard to overstate. This is not just the US bugging a head of
government who happens to be a close ally and Europe's pivotal leader.
She also grew up under the German Democratic Republic and the surveillance of the Stasi secret police. She is right to regard this revelation as a serious breach of trust," writes the Financial Times in an editorial.
"There is much talk today about the risks of a new era of American isolationism and a lack of U.S. leadership in the world.
It is important to remember that isolationism can be triggered not only
by a potential retreat from global affairs, but also by the rather
imprudent use of America's hard and soft power on the world stage,"
writes Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg for Project Syndicate.
"We
are not reassured by the often-heard explanation that everyone spies on
everyone else all the time. We are not advocating a return to 1929 when
Secretary of State Henry Stimson banned the decryption of diplomatic
cables because 'gentlemen do not read each other's mail.' But there has
long been an understanding that international spying was done in pursuit of a concrete threat to national security," the New York Times writes in an editorial.
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