Obama Caught Spying on Netanyahu -- And The US Congressmen Who Communicated With Him

Obama promised to stop spying on our allies after there was a storm of (silly) anger in Europe over the US eavesdropping on Angela Merkel and others.

But note -- he said US allies.

And Israel is not an ally in the Long Years of Obama.

President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs.

But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Obama targeted Israel for spying especially because of Israel's opposition to his Brilliant Plan to give Iran the bomb.

...

The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears--an “Oh-s-- moment,” one senior U.S. official said--that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.

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.'"

That is Peak Obama -- we'll break the law, sure, but we're going to make the bureaucracy, and not us, sit on the hook for doing so.

posted by Ace at 05:22 PM

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