WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry went to Europe to talk about Mideast peace, Syria and Iran. What he got was an earful of outrage over U.S. snooping abroad.
President Barack Obama has defended America’s surveillance dragnet to leaders of Russia, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany, but the international anger over the disclosures shows no signs of abating soon.
Longer term, the revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about NSA tactics said to include tapping the cellphones of up to 35 world leaders threaten to undermine U.S. foreign policy.
“The magnitude of the eavesdropping is what shocked us,” former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview. “Let’s be honest: We eavesdrop, too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don’t have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous.”
The White House asserts that the U.S. is amassing intelligence of the type gathered by all nations and that it’s necessary to protect the U.S. and its allies against security threats.
“We need trust among allies and partners,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose cellphone was allegedly tapped by the NSA. “Such trust now has to be built anew.”
The U.S. Department of Justice said that it intends to use information gained from one of the NSA’s warrantless surveillance programs against a terrorism suspect, setting the stage for a likely Supreme Court test of the Obama administration’s approach to national security.
The high court has turned aside challenges to the law on government surveillance on the grounds that people who bring such lawsuits have no evidence that they are being targeted.
Jamshid Muhtorov was accused in 2012 of providing material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, an Uzbek terrorist organization that, authorities say, was engaging NATO coalition and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
According to court papers in the case, the FBI investigated Muhtorov after his communications with an overseas website administrator for the IJU.
In a court filing Friday, the government said it intends to offer into evidence in Muhtorov’s case “information obtained or derived from acquisition of foreign intelligence information conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.”
Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon declined to comment Saturday on the development beyond the court filing.
President Barack Obama has defended America’s surveillance dragnet to leaders of Russia, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany, but the international anger over the disclosures shows no signs of abating soon.
Longer term, the revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about NSA tactics said to include tapping the cellphones of up to 35 world leaders threaten to undermine U.S. foreign policy.
“The magnitude of the eavesdropping is what shocked us,” former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview. “Let’s be honest: We eavesdrop, too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don’t have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous.”
The White House asserts that the U.S. is amassing intelligence of the type gathered by all nations and that it’s necessary to protect the U.S. and its allies against security threats.
“We need trust among allies and partners,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose cellphone was allegedly tapped by the NSA. “Such trust now has to be built anew.”
The U.S. Department of Justice said that it intends to use information gained from one of the NSA’s warrantless surveillance programs against a terrorism suspect, setting the stage for a likely Supreme Court test of the Obama administration’s approach to national security.
The high court has turned aside challenges to the law on government surveillance on the grounds that people who bring such lawsuits have no evidence that they are being targeted.
Jamshid Muhtorov was accused in 2012 of providing material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, an Uzbek terrorist organization that, authorities say, was engaging NATO coalition and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
According to court papers in the case, the FBI investigated Muhtorov after his communications with an overseas website administrator for the IJU.
In a court filing Friday, the government said it intends to offer into evidence in Muhtorov’s case “information obtained or derived from acquisition of foreign intelligence information conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.”
Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon declined to comment Saturday on the development beyond the court filing.