France, Germany Seek New Spying Rules as US Warns of More Disclosures
The tough week for U.S. intelligence agencies continues: France and Germany, two recent NSA targets, want to meet with the United States to establish new, mutually agreeable guidelines for spying operations. Meanwhile, American officials are reportedly warning other countries that documents describing their cooperation with the NSA or CIA may be among those taken by Edward Snowden.
France and Germany announced the plan at a two-day summit in Brussels for European Union leaders, with the goal of reaching a “common understanding of the services between the United States and Germany and France so that we put down a framework for cooperation,” as German Chancellor Angela Merkel put it, according to the New York Times.
While some leaders have suggested disrupting important trade negotiations with the U.S. in retaliation for the reports, Merkel said such a proposal had not been discussed at the summit, though she did say that E.U. officials could still suspend a deal allowing the US to track the finances of terrorist groups. “It's become clear for the future that things have to change, and they have to change radically,” she said, adding that “words will not be sufficient.”
And after a week in which they were hit with allegations of spying on French citizens, the German chancellor, and 35 heads of state, American intelligence officials have begun warning other countries of potential future leaks, especially countries that haven't publicly revealed their cooperation with the U.S, according to the Washington Post.
Snowden, U.S. officials said, took tens of thousands of documents, some of which contain sensitive material about collection programs against adversaries such as Iran, Russia and China. Some refer to operations that in some cases involve countries not publicly allied with the United States.
The process of informing officials in capital after capital about the risk of disclosure is delicate. In some cases, one part of the cooperating government may know about the collaboration while others — such as the foreign ministry — may not, the officials said. The documents, if disclosed, could compromise operations, officials said.
[Image via AP]