Obama Tells Hollande That U.S. Stopped Spying on French Leaders

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

by Gregory Viscusi
June 24, 2015 — 1:24 PM EDT

President Barack Obama assured France’s Francois Hollande that the U.S. has stopped spying on the French government after WikiLeaks reports that the U.S. monitored discussions about the Greek debt crisis.

Obama emphasized the importance of the U.S. relationship with France during a phone call between the two leaders on Wednesday, the White House said in an e-mailed statement.

“The president reiterated that we have abided by the commitment we made to our French counterparts in late 2013 that we are not targeting and will not target the communications of the French president,” the White House said.

The latest WikiLeaks revelations led to a day of angry French denunciations, even though the disclosures don’t go much beyond what was revealed in 2013 after the leaks by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-24/obama-tells-hollande-that-u-s-stopped-spying-on-french-leaders

[erronis]

1. Obama has no clue what's going on in his government.

And no foreign leader will believe him or any other US leader for decades to come.

Good job, MIC!

[hobbit709]

2. Do you believe that one?

I doubt the NSA and CIA are telling the truth to Obama, or anyone else.

[Purveyor]

3. What I do believe is that all confidential conversations now taking place are confidential.

This game is over.

[winter is coming]

17. I was wondering whether which country we'd outsourced that to. n/t

[NCjack]

4. Actually, the exchange went like this: "First, you stop!" No, you stop first!" "No, ...

[hughee99]

5. And no one believed him.

I don't know what he's being told, or what he knows, but I'm sure the US didn't stop spying on anyone.

[cstanleytech]

6. Does anyone here really believe it when a country says its stopped spying on an ally?

[Fred Sanders]

7. Also Germany, Brazil, now France.......how many more will we know about when the lies are exposed?

The legacy of the Bush war regime is still doing damage.

[truebrit71]

8. Bullshit. I wouldn't buy a used car from that guy.

...

[Scalded Nun]

9. Sure we stopped.

And to back that up I decided to keep the drone program secret.

And anyone should believe him anymore...why?

Too much secret shit going on, and you can't blame it all on Bush/Cheney (Although they deserve a huge piece of that pie!).

[frylock]

10. oh, okay

[LiberalLovinLug]

11. along with stopping...

collecting private communications and data on average American citizens

torture and black sites

and persecuting whistleblowers

amIright?

[swilton]

12. I have every confidence that 'the US has stopped spying on the French Government'

is true.

[Little Tich]

13. Sure... n/t

[foo_bar]

14. they said they wouldn't "target" him, not that they wouldn't spy

Since there's no sovereign interest that trumps our need to know everything. It's a farce like patriot act provisions expiring at midnight, like they'll really turn off the lights because of some bad press.

[harun]

15. Not targeting does not mean not spying.

[One_Life_To_Give]

16. Thanks, I needed a chuckle. nt