US intelligence chief Clapper defends spying policy
efforts were a "top tenet" of US intelligence policy.
But he told the intelligence panel of the House of
Representatives the US did not "indiscriminately" spy on
nations.
Mr Clapper was reacting to a growing international row
over reports the US eavesdropped on foreign allies.
"Leadership intentions is kind of a basic tenet of what we
collect and analyse," Mr Clapper said, adding that foreign
allies spy on US officials and intelligence agencies as a
matter of routine.
He said that what he called the torrent of disclosures about
American surveillance had been extremely damaging and
that he anticipated more.
But he said there was no other country that had the
magnitude of oversight that the US had, and that any
mistakes that had been made were human or technical.
The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Washington says if anyone
was expecting apologies or embarrassment from the leaders
of America's intelligence community they were in for a
disappointment.
Also testifying before the House intelligence committee
was National Security Agency (NSA) director Gen Keith
Alexander, who called media reports in France, Spain and
Italy that the NSA gathered data on millions of telephone
calls "completely false".
The information "that led people to believe that the NSA or
United States collected that information is false, and it's
false that it was collected on European citizens," he added.
"It was neither."
Gen Alexander said much of the data cited by non-US
news outlets was actually collected by European
intelligence services and later shared with the NSA.
Gen Alexander added: "It is much more important for this
country that we defend this nation and take the beatings
than it is to give up a programme that would result in this
nation being attacked."
Our correspondent says the intelligence pair were not given
a tough time by the committee but that sentiment is turning
within Congress toward tightening up the reach of
American intelligence agencies.
The testimony came amid a series of reports in the
international news media that the NSA had spied
extensively on the leaders, diplomats and citizens of nations
friendly to the US, including Brazil, France, Germany,
Mexico and Spain.
The revelations stem from documents leaked by fugitive
ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who now
lives in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with
the unauthorised disclosures.
President Barack Obama has faced significant criticism over
reports he was unaware of the extent of the spying.
In a television interview, the US president said the
country's national security operations were being reassessed
to ensure the NSA's growing technological capability was
kept under control.
"We give them policy direction," he told ABC's Fusion
network.
"But what we've seen over the last several years is their
capacities continue to develop and expand, and that's why
I'm initiating now a review."
'Totally opposed'
In one of the most significant disclosures, German media
have reported that the US bugged German Chancellor
Angela Merkel's phone for more than a decade - and that
the surveillance only ended a few months ago.
It has also been reported that the NSA spied on French
diplomats in Washington and at the UN, and that it
conducted surveillance on millions of French and Spanish
telephone calls, among other operations against US allies.
On Monday, US Senate intelligence committee
chairwoman Dianne Feinstein called for an end to
eavesdropping on leaders of the nation's allies.
Ms Feinstein said the White House had told her such
surveillance would stop, but a senior administration official
told the BBC there was no policy change so far.
"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders
of US allies - including France, Spain, Mexico and
Germany - let me state unequivocally: I am totally
opposed," she said in a statement.
"It is my understanding that President Obama was not
aware Chancellor Merkel's communications were being
collected since 2002. That is a big problem."
Source: BBC
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
Post a Comment