In the face of mounting criticism over recently uncovered controversial surveillance tactics by the NSA, US president Barack Obama has defended the agency’s strategy by suggesting that all modern countries do the same thing.

“I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That’s how intelligence services operate,” Obama suggested.

The Guardian reported yesterday that over 35 diplomatic missions, including the Indian Embassy in the US, were the target of surveillance programs and espionage by the United States. French, Italian and Greek embassies were all targets as well.

“We should stipulate that every intelligence service not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there’s an intelligence service here’s one thing that they’re going to be doing: They’re going to be trying to understand the world better, and what’s going on in world capitals around the world,” he said.

via FirstPost

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