The White House is denying allegations that the U.S. tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.
Press Secretary Jay Carney said at Wednesday’s press briefing that during a phone conversation between President Obama and Merkel, the president assured Germany’s leader that the U.S. was “not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor.”
Carney added that the U.S. would take Germany’s concerns seriously, along with similar concerns expressed by France after the French newspaper Le Monde reported that the NSA was monitoring the telephone data of more than 70 million French citizens.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denied those allegations in a statement Tuesday.
A German government spokesperson said Wednesday that Merkel’s phone was being monitored by the United States, and that Merkel called President Obama for “immediate and comprehensive clarification.”
Traci Lee