Andrea Mitchell: ‘Carefully Worded, Loose Denial’ from the W.H. on Spying France

‘— Saying that we don’t spy on our allies, we don’t spy on world leaders or normal citizens, and we don’t use surveillance unless there is a compelling national security interest’

Andrea Mitchell: "Carefully Worded Loose Denial" From WH About France Spying: Iran Partnership In Jeopardy? (RealClearPolitics)

ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC: The NSA, according to Wikileaks, is now accused in French publications of spying on President Francois Hollande and his two predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.

There is outrage being expressed in France. They've called in the U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley to be criticized and scolded at the French Foreign Ministry today.

And there is sort of a very loosely, or I should say, carefully worded loose denial from the White House today on behalf of the intelligence agency saying that we don't spy on our allies, we don't spy on world leaders or normal citizens, and we don't use surveillance unless there is a compelling national security interest.

So that's hardly a denial. It only also reflects a denial regarding the current French president, not his two predecessors.

And in terms of the timing, as you just said, we're going into the critical week of negotiations of the six allies and Iran.

John Kerry, I will be traveling with him on Friday going into these talks. France has been a critical player, sometimes not in sync with the U.S., and now Kerry is going to be locked into a room for days and days and nights trying to work with the French, and the French, frankly, are ticked off.

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