The French Government summoned US Ambassador Charles Rivkin today to explain a French newspaper report that the National Security Agency swept up 70.3 million French phone records in a 30-day period.
The French Government called the practice "totally unacceptable" and wanted to know why the US spied on one of its closest allies.
Spying among allied countries is common, but the scope of the NSA surveillance, as revealed by leaker Edward Snowden, was larger than expected.Similar US spying programs have been revealed in Britain, Brazil, Mexico and Germany.
"The ambassador expressed his appreciation of the importance of the exchange, and promised to convey the points made back to Washington," a statement released by the US Embassy in Paris said. Rivkin assured Alexandre Ziegler, chief of staff to Foreign Minister laurent Fabius that "our ongoing bilateral consultations on allegations of information gathering by US government agencies would continue," the embassy statement said.
The report in le Monde, co-written by Glenn Greenwald, who originally revealed the surveillance program based on leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Snowden, found that when certain numbers were used, the conversations were automatically recorded.
The surveillance operation also swept up text messages based on key words, le Monde reported, based on records from December 10 to January 7.