“There is no question that this has caused -- these revelations have caused tensions in some of our relationships. And those relationships are very important to the United States and to the American people, to our economy and to our security,” said Carney.
He added, "We have worked very diligently to manage [tensions], to communicate with other governments about the source of their tension -- the source of their concern and to assure them and to ensure their publics that the president has initiated a review of our intelligence gathering practices."
The German Foreign Ministry summoned American Ambassador, John Emerson, Thursday to discuss allegations that the National Security Agency (NSA) monitored the communications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The move follows Wednesday’s phone call between Merkel and US President Barack Obama, in which the German Chancellor voiced her opposition to the alleged spying.
This was only the most recent episode in several sensitive disclosures.
Earlier this week, Le Monde, the French daily, reported that the NSA had recorded over 70 million French phone calls over a 30-day period.
James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence denied Le Monde’s claims, saying, “The allegation that the National Security Agency collected more than 70 million ‘recordings of French citizens' telephone data’ is false.”
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