"Senior European Union officials are outraged by revelations that the U.S. spied on EU representations in Washington and New York," Germany's Der Spiegel writes. "Some have called for a suspension of talks on the trans-Atlantic free trade agreement."
Their anger follows Saturday's Der Spiegel report that secret documents leaked by former National Security Agency contract worker Edward Snowden allegedly show that the NSA has "not only conducted online surveillance of European citizens, but also appears to have specifically targeted buildings housing European Union institutions."
After that report, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said in a statement that:
"I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices. If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-U.S. relations. On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations."
CNN adds that "Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said he had not seen the report and 'would not comment on unauthorized disclosures of intelligence programs. The intelligence community would be the most appropriate to do that.' ... U.S. intelligence officials have not responded immediately to the report."
Snowden, as we wrote Saturday, is thought to still be at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport — where he's been in legal limbo since arriving there from Hong Kong one week ago. He's reportedly seeking asylum in Ecuador or some other nation.
Der Spiegel does not go into detail about how it came upon the latest revelations, other than to say that "the information appears in secret documents [obtained by Snowden] that SPIEGEL has in part seen."
Its report follows word from The Guardian earlier in June that other documents leaked by Snowden indicate that "foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts." The NSA allegedly was part of that operation as well.
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