U.S. spy chief says allies spy on America's leaders, intelligence services

[jeff47]

Source: Reuters

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Tuesday that foreign allies regularly conduct espionage activities against American leaders and intelligence services.

In response to a series of questions during a hearing before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Clapper said spying on foreign leaders was a basic tenet of intelligence operations.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/29/us-usa-security-spying-idUSBRE99S15T20131029

---

(That's it - story's a whopping 2 paragraphs)

[atreides1]

1. Didn't this clown already lie?

Hasn't it been reported that Alexander lied about the actual number of "attacks" that were prevented by monitoring phone calls of American citizens?

Who in their right mind is going to listen to anything that this sack of shit has to say...the man has no credibility!!!

[jeff47]

4. You apparently missed the name in the first sentence of the article.

The article's only two paragraphs. It's really not that hard to read all of it.

[Ash_F]

8. James Clapper is a lying clown though

It can be difficult to keep things straight with all the lying Bush/Reagan clowns who still infest the government.

[NealK]

15. He should be arrested but he's above the law unlike the rest of us.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. But it's still a man who is known to have lied to Congress already

That's the point. It's James 'perjury' Clapper, the man already caught lying to Congress about the NSA, and the former Booz Allen vice-president.

[NealK]

16. Absolutely!

[kardonb]

12. clown ?

are you really THAT naive that you think nobody spies on us ? Of course , they ALL do ! Always has been throughout history . All that fake outage in Europe is just a smoke screen , and laughable .

[shraby]

2. Looks like all the countries might as well put everything right out front and center. All is known

by everyone anyway.

[bemildred]

7. +1. Indeed, what's all this fuss about? nt

[joshcryer]

20. Yep, absolute transparency is best.

The CIA and NSA are unnecessary and intelligence agencies and the CIA in particular are responsible for a lot of the worlds ills. I suspect they have even harmed to an extent human progress as a whole.

[melody]

3. Every country spies on every other country -- the major ones anyway

We're primates. We can't help ourselves.

[louis-t]

5. File this under:

Methinks they do protest too much.

[DJ13]

6. "They do it too!"

[jeff47]

11. It's kind of important when they are the ones complaining. (nt)

[stillcool]

9. jeez...that's his job..

and he actually says something like this in a hearing? Elected officials don't know that spy agencies spy? This is not a well thought out script. It bothers me when they start off a scandal this way.

[PSPS]

10. Deflection

I guess it merits attention only when it involves the top 0.001% plus the politicians (most of whom belong in the same group.)

Most americans, including the apologists and swooners, would be upset if, say, Putin were listening in to Obama's telephone and reading his email. But it's the mass surveillance of everyone, including regular ordinary citizens, that's the real problem.

[Amonester]

19. Newsflash: he does (listen in to Obama's telephone and read his email).

I mean, not him, personally, but someone down the chain of command does.

James Bond wasn't inspired from pure imagination...

Cro-Magnons started it... and it never stopped from then on...

[MrTriumph]

13. Nixon's defense is rehashed. "Everybody does it!"

Wow. This is ridiculous. Where is Harry Truman when you need him?

[True Blue Door]

17. This guy should resign already.

Not because there's anything wrong with spying on foreign leaders - it's a universal and mutual practice with a long, storied tradition among friendly countries. But because our nation's current intelligence leaders have compromised and destroyed their own ability to do their jobs by provoking the Snowden leaks by illegally spying on Americans. If they hadn't done that, they would still be able to spy on everyone else in the world with impunity. But they just couldn't stop themselves at the water's edge - they had to grasp that extra iota of power, and in the process have made themselves ineffective worldwide.

It's not just about protecting the 4th Amendment: We need to fire these clowns so that their replacements can get back to the business of real intelligence gathering.

[alp227]

18. Jeff here are some better links

(I don't know why Reuters didn't just update the story on this link instead of creating a whole new link)

Reuters, NSA chief defends agency amid U.S. spy rift with Europe
New York Times, Spying Known At Top Levels, Officials Say
Al Jazeera, US spy chiefs defend targeting EU allies