From the no-surprise dept.:
The president of the European parliament has called for “full clarification” from the US over claims it bugged EU offices in America and accessed computer networks.
Martin Schulz said it would have a “severe impact” on relations between the EU and the US if revelations by German magazine Der Spiegel are true.
Der Spiegel reported that the US had bugged offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, according to secret documents – the latest in a series of exposures of alleged US spy programmes.
Read more of Jonathan Haynes’ report in The Guardian. Der Spiegel did not publish the report or file upon which their reporting was based, and did not respond to a tweet from PogoWasRight.org yesterday asking them whether they would publish it. The fact that they saw at least parts of the file have raised speculation that Snowden may have provided files to at least four media outlets, but because they claim to have only seen parts of it, it’s not clear whether Snowden provided Der Spiegel with any files.
In related news, The Guardian reported yesterday on a blog post by Simon Davies that focused on claims by former NSA contractor Wayne Madsen about collaboration between EU countries and the U.S. on surveillance. The thrust of that interview was to make the public more aware of what has allegedly been going on for years. The Guardian subsequently removed their story while they investigated its claims after someone on Twitter pointed out that Madsen might not be the most reliable source, but the story had already gained a certain amount of traction with Salon also reporting his statements based on the now-taken down The Guardian report.