The National Security Agency (NSA) denied the German media report over the weekend that President Barack Obama had been told the agency told him in 2010 that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was spied on and had allowed it to continue, USA Today reported.
The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported that Obama was told by NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander that the agency routinely wiretapped Merkel's cell phone line, a charge the NSA vehemently denied.
"Gen. Alexander did not discuss with President Obama in 2010 an alleged foreign intelligence operation involving German Chancellor Merkel, nor has he ever discussed alleged operations involving Chancellor Merkel. News reports claiming otherwise are not true." NSA spokeswoman Vanee' Vines said in a statement.
The new NSA allegations follows a full week of criticism against the NSA program, and directly to President Obama, over how much he knew and when he knew it about the apparent spying of world leaders and their citizens.
The president, however received support over the weekend from Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers, a Republican.
"This was about a counter-terrorism program that had nothing to do with... citizens,'' Rogers said on CNN's State of The Union.
"If the French citizens knew exactly what that was about, they would be applauding and popping champagne corks.'' [U.S. intelligence] is a good thing. It keeps the French safe, it keeps the U.S. safe. It keeps our European allies safe. This whole notion that we're going to go after each other on what is really legitimate protection of nation-state interests I think is disingenuous," Rogers added.
The NSA, which is based in Fort Meade, Maryland, is detailed with monitoring communications overseas and does not track the domestic communications of U.S. citizens.
Glenn Greenwald, an activist journalist who broke the story about the NSA's practices through information provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, said hat NSA surveillance programs does not have "anything to do with terrorism," in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
"This is clearly about political power and economic espionage, and the claim that this is all about terrorism is seen around the world as what it is, which is pure deceit," Greenwald said.
"Ever since 9/11, British and American officials have screamed terrorism over and over and over every time they get caught doing bad things they shouldn't do.Every terrorist who's capable of tying their own shoes has long known that the U.S. government and the U.K. government are trying to monitor their communications in every way that they can," he added.
New York Rep. Peter King, however, said the NSA program has "saved lives."
"I think the president should stop apologizing, stop being defensive. The reality is the NSA has saved thousands of lives -- not just in the United States, but also in France and Germany and throughout Europe," New York Rep. Peter King argued.
