Obama Seeks to Reassure France’s Hollande About Spying

By Margaret Talev and James G. Neuger - Oct 22, 2013

U.S. President Barack Obama sought to reassure French President Francois Hollande about the countries’ relations after a report that the National Security Agency eavesdropped on millions of phone calls inside France.

The two leaders spoke by phone yesterday to discuss U.S. intelligence gathering, according to a White House statement. The call took place amid outrage in France stirred by a Le Monde report that U.S. authorities had intercepted and recorded 70.3 million bits of telecommunications data from Dec. 10, 2012, to Jan. 8, 2013.

“The president and President Hollande discussed recent disclosures in the press -- some of which have distorted our activities and some of which raise legitimate questions for our friends and allies about how these capabilities are employed,” the White House said in its statement.

The call marked the latest instance of tensions with allies stoked by revelations about U.S. surveillance activities. The Le Monde report, based on information provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, led the Foreign Ministry in Paris to summon the U.S. ambassador yesterday.

“This type of practice between partners that intrudes on the private sphere is totally unacceptable,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters in Luxembourg yesterday. “We have to see to it very quickly that this practice ceases.”

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-21/obama-seeks-to-reassure-france-s-hollande-about-spying.html