In apparently orchestrated exchanges in the House hearing, Alexander and Clapper, told lawmakers that foreign nations were also spying on US leaders.
“Do you believe that the allies have conducted or at any time, any type of espionage activity against the United States of America, our intelligence services, our leaders or otherwise?” said Mike Rogers, chairman of the House committee.
“Absolutely,” said Clapper, adding that spying on foreign leaders was at the heart of the international espionage game.
“It’s one of the first things I learned in intel school in 1963, that this is the fundamental given in the intelligence business is leadership intentions, no matter what level you’re talking about,” Clapper said.
The United States took a new battering in Europe Tuesday when Spain’s public prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation into its reported mass eavesdropping on millions of telephone calls to determine if a crime was committed.
The move came a day after the US ambassador to Madrid was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to hear a demand for explanations.
Spain became involved after the El Mundo daily published a classified document purportedly showing that US intelligence services tracked 60.5 million Spanish telephone calls in one month.
The NSA recorded the origin and destination of the calls and their duration but not the content, said El Mundo, which printed a classified graph showing 30 days of call tracing up to January 8 this year.
Washington stands accused of similar mass sweeps of online and telephonic data across the globe as part of its anti-terrorism surveillance.
The new revelations about NSA programs came with a delegation of European lawmakers in Washington to complain at America’s espionage activity against its allies.
German MEP Elmar Brok, a member of the delegation, argued that reports of mass spying were different from the uproar of alleged snooping on Merkel.
“It’s very clear that the telephone number of Mrs Merkel was found in American files, espionage files,” Brok said.
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