President Barack Obama responded to outrage by European leaders over revelations of alleged U.S. spying on them by saying Monday that all nations, including those expressing the strongest protests, collect intelligence on each other. The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday that classified leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden detailed NSA bugging of European Union offices in Washington and New York, as well as an "electronic eavesdropping operation" that tapped into an EU building in Brussels. Mounting anger throughout Europe on Monday included a threat by French President Francois Hollande to halt talks with the United States on trade and other issues unless the bugging stopped.
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The U.S. State Department says any talks with Europe on spying will be private
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President Obama says all nations, including European allies, spy on each other
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EU to sweep for bugs after news outlets report on alleged U.S. surveillance
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Der Spiegel reports that the U.S. bugged EU offices and infiltrated a computer network
"If it is, though, confirmed that diplomatic representations of the @placeholder and some European countries were spied upon, we have to say clearly: The bugging of friends is unacceptable," Seibert said.