NSA Chief Says France And Spain Aided NSA Spying

From left, Chris Inglis, Deputy Director of the National Security Agency; General Keith B. Alexander, the National Security Agency director; James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, and Deputy United States Attorney General James Cole appeared before the House Select Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

N.S.A. Head Says European Data Was Collected by Allies -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — The head of the National Security Agency on Tuesday vigorously challenged recent reports that the United States had been gathering the phone records of millions of Europeans, saying that the records had in fact been turned over by allied spy services.

“This is not information we collected on European citizens,” said the agency’s director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander. “It represents information that we and our NATO allies have collected in defense of our countries and in support of military operations.”

General Alexander said that phone data was generally collected outside Europe.

The Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday that intelligence services in France and Spain had collected phone records of their citizens and turned them over to the N.S.A. as part of an arrangement to mitigate threats against American and allied troops and civilians.

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More News On The NSA Director Claiming That Both France And Spain Collected Data For The NSA

NSA chief denies collecting millions of phone records on European citizens -- Washington Post
NSA Official: NATO Allies Helped Collect European Phone Records -- Time
US spy chiefs hit back in Europe row -- AFP
NSA chief: We didn't spy on European citizens -- CBS
Spy chief: Reports U.S. collected calls, emails from allies 'completely false' -- CNN
NSA Chief: US Does Not Spy on European Citizens -- Voice of America
NSA chief fires back: European spying reports 'completely false' -- Christian Science Monitor
NSA chief denies spying on European allies -- Al Jazeera
US Says France, Spain Aided NSA Spying -- Cryptome

My Comment: So much for French and Spanish outrage on NSA spying .... especially since it was their own spy agencies that were collecting the data. But what is surprising about the NSA Director's remarks was that he admitted that there was this U.S.-French-Spanish spying arrangement .... something that I suspect that his French and Spanish counterparts thought would be kept confidential.