Obama’s NSA spied on Congress, Israel: report

President Obama

President Obama may have campaigned on a mantra of open government, transparency and the reeling-in of U.S. surveillance operations on certain sources, but a new report reveals he let his National Security Agency turn spy eyes on some of America’s biggest allies, including Israel – as well as on members of the U.S. Congress.

The Wall Street Journal reported that while the White House announced two years ago an intent to curb surveillance of allied countries and heads of state, like Germany’s Angela Merkel, the Obama administration’s quiet order behind closed doors was to continue tapping into conversations of certain world leaders. Most notable of the list: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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At the time of tapping, America was trying to forge a nuclear arms deal with Iran – a pact that was loudly contested by Israel and publicly denounced by Netanyahu. The Jewish leader ultimately brought his criticisms of the deal to Capitol Hill in a widely watched speech before Congress, at the invite of then-House Speaker John Boehner. And as such, some of Netanyahu’s behind-scenes talks with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups were swept up by surveillance tappers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

At one point, a senior U.S. official described the situation as an “Oh s— moment,” after realizing the White House could be accused of spying on Congress, the newspaper reported.

The White House, aware of the political implications of the surveillance, reportedly tried to distance itself from culpability.

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As the Wall Street Journal reported: “White House officials believed the intercepted information could be valuable to counter Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign. They also recognized that asking for it was politically risky. So, wary of a paper trail stemming from a request, the White House let the NSA decide what to share and what to withhold, officials said. ‘We didn’t say, ‘Do it,” a senior U.S. official said. ‘We didn’t say, ‘Don’t do it.” Stepped-up NSA eavesdropping revealed to the White House how Mr. Netanyahu and his advisers had leadked details of the U.S.-Iran negotiations, learned through Israeli spying operations, to undermind the [nuclear] talks.”

The spying also revealed how Israel coordinated its talking points with Jewish-Amrican groups and how best to pursue support to kill the nuke deal among U.S. lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal said.

The surveillance is a direct contrast to what Obama promised constituents in terms of America’s spy program.

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In 2013, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had revealed how the White House had conducted surveillance on nations and heads of state friendly to the United States. Obama, months later, delivered a nationally televised vow to curb the NSA’s eavesdropping program. But apparently, surveillance – at least some of it – has continued.

“In closed-door debate, the Obama administration weighed which allied leaders belonged on a so-called protected list, shielding them from NSA snooping. French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders made the list, but the administration permitted the NSA to target the leaders’ top advisers, current and former U.S. officials said. Other allies were excluded from the protected list, including Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of NATO ally Turkey, which allowed the NSA to spy on their communications at the discretion of top officials,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

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The newspaper reported Obama himself pushed for continued spying on Israel.

“Privately, Mr. Obama maintained the monitoring of Mr. Netanyahu on the grounds that it served a ‘compelling national security purpose,’ according to current and former U.S. officials,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “Mr. Obama mentioned the exception in his speech but kept secret the leaders it would apply to.”

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