60 million phone calls monitored in Spain in a month
西班牙一月内6千万电话遭窃听
The furore over America’s international spying web continues to escalate, with a Spanish newspaper claiming tens of millions of phone calls in the country have been monitored by the U.S. National Security Agency.
It is the latest allegation after British newspaper, the Guardian, last Thursday reported the U.S. has monitored the phone calls of at least 35 world leaders - a spying row that has shaken the U.S.'s allies in Europe.
"I think it is wrong to spy on us. Spain and the U.S. are allies, They shouldn’t distrust us. The U.S. government must make a clear explanation, because this is serious."
"I think spying on people is totally wrong. The U.S. government should stop this. We are not criminals."
"It’s a scary situation, because it touches on our most intimate things, our privacy, our phone calls, our feelings, our daily lives - things we don’t want to tell the whole world about."
More scandals are revealed, almost daily.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo on Monday published a front page article claiming the NSA tracked 60 million phone calls, messages and emails of Spanish residents in a month, for the period between December 2012 and January 2013.
"We don’t accept the U.S. taking anti-terrorism as an excuse to spy on our citizens. We don’t believe there are so many terrorists the NSA has to check 60 million calls in a month," said Inaki Gil, deputy director of El Mundo.
Meanwhile, a U.S. website, Cryptome, also says during the same period, 46 million calls were checked in Italy, 361 million in Germany, and more.
However, the NSA head denied all the accusations at a recent hearing.
The NSA is also reported to have monitored the phone calls of at least 35 world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
During last month’s EU summit in Belgium, delegations from Germany and France both announced they would send officials to talk with the White House and the National Security Agency about the issue.
"We said that Germany and France will not turn to America as Germany plus France, but that every country on its own will get in touch with the American security services and will work on a future framework for cooperation. Of course we will exchange thoughts on this," Merkel said.
The U.S. spying scandal has escalated since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden fled the country and released NSA documents in June this year.