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From VOA Learning English, this is In the News. |
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European officials have traveled to Washington seeking more information about American spying programs. |
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On Tuesday, the director of the National Security Agency, Army General Keith Alexander, defended the NSA at a hearing in Congress. |
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He denied accusations that the NSA collected the records of millions of French and Spanish telephone calls. |
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"Those screenshots that show, or at least lead people to believe that we, |
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NSA, or the United States, collected that information is false. |
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And it's false that it was collected on European citizens. |
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It was neither." |
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The accusations follow information leaks by Edward Snowden, |
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the former NSA contract worker who has been given asylum in Russia. |
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General Alexander said the agency has received targeted information from phone calls by some Europeans, |
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through NATO allies. |
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"The sources of the metadata include data legally collected by NSA under its various authorities, |
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as well as data provided to NSA by foreign partners. |
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To be perfectly clear, this is not information that we collected on European citizens." |
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Metadata would include details about a call, but not the contents of the call. |
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But earlier reports said intelligence officials listened to the calls of as many as 35 world leaders, |
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including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. |
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The European Parliament sent a delegation to Washington to express anger. |
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The delegation met with members of Congress and government officials. |
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Parliament member Jan Philipp Albrecht told VOA that the spying on Chancellor Merkel was simply too much. |
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"Now people are really concerned. |
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They see that it's not any longer connected to a terrorist threat, |
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because Angela Merkel is not a terrorist, or not part of a terrorist ring. |
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And they think that there was a red line crossed, which is now spying on everybody about everything." |
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Mr. Albrecht called for American legislation to balance national security needs with the responsibility to protect basic civil rights. |
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On Tuesday, American lawmakers held a hearing on possible changes to NSA spying programs. |
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Mike Rogers is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. |
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He says it is overly simplistic to think that other countries do not operate their own spying programs. |
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But another Republican Party lawmaker, Senator Susan Collins, took a different position. |
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In her words, "Friends do not spy on friends." |
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Later in the week, the Washington Post reported that the NSA secretly broke into the communication networks of Google and Yahoo. |
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Both Internet companies said they have not approved the reported actions involving their communication links. |
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General Alexander has said his agency does not enter Google and Yahoo servers. |
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He said the NSA gains access to data by "court order." |
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Paul Tiao formerly served as an adviser to the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. |
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He says all the publicity has made the NSA's job harder. |
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"NSA is facing significant challenges, both in terms of its public reputation, |
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the level of trust that the public has in NSA, and then also policy issues, |
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legislation that's pending that the new NSA director is going to have to deal with. |
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That could change the nature of NSA's authority with respect to its intelligence collection mission." |
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Obama administration officials have promised to examine the NSA's programs. |
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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says the review will be completed by the end of the year. |
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And that's In the News from VOA Learning English. |
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I'm Kelly Jean Kelly. |