Disputes Over US Spying on Allies ‘Waste of Time’

The United States and its allies are wasting time by disputing cases of spying among allies, US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devon Nunes said on Thursday after recent WikiLeaks revelations.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Wikileaks revealed on Tuesday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had intercepted the phone calls of French lawmakers and three French Presidents, including the current president Francois Hollande. The Wikileaks documents show evidence of US eavesdropping from 2006 until 2012.

“The more time we spend arguing about whether or not there is some intelligence report about the president of some country, is really just a waste of our time,” Devon Nunes said at the 2015 Geospatial Intelligence Symposium.

Wikileaks has damaged the US relationship with many countries, Nunes argued. As a result of intelligence disclosures, the United States spends “a lot of time and effort arguing amongst allies” while not focusing on other threats, he added.

Nunes would not confirm the accuracy of the Wikileaks reports on US spying on France.

US-German relations have suffered most notably as a result of intelligence leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Snowden's 2013 leaks showed the NSA had eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal cell phone.

“Stop Watching Us”: Who Get Pardoned? http://t.co/Tzjoi1dyxv #EdwardSnowden #Nsa #Surveillance pic.twitter.com/a6L51GRy3c

— Sharon Kyle (@SharonKyle00) June 11, 2015

On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama assured President Hollande that the United States is no longer spying on French leaders.