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White House: The NSA is not monitoring Angela Merkel

Alexis Levinson Political Reporter
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The National Security Agency “is not” and “will not” monitor German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s communications, President Barack Obama told her in a phone call Wednesday, following a complaint from Merkel that she believed that was happening.

Der Spiegel reported, according to Business Insider, that the German government was concerned that Merkel was having her phone monitored.

The White House did not deny that the NSA monitored Merkel’s communications in the past.

“The President assured the Chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel,” according to a White House readout of the call.

“The United States greatly values our close cooperation with Germany on a broad range of shared security challenges,” the readout says. “As the President has said, the United States is reviewing the way that we gather intelligence to ensure that we properly balance the security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share.”

According to the read out, Obama and Merkel “agreed to intensify further the cooperation between our intelligence services.”

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