NSA Spied on 124 Billion Phone Calls in One Month

Report: NSA Spied on 124 Billion Phone Calls in One Month
The National Security Agency recorded information about more than 124 billion phone calls during a 30-day period earlier this year, including around 3 billion calls from U.S. sources, according to a tally from top-secret documents released by multiple news outlets. 

‘Unacceptable’: Merkel calls Obama over suspicion US monitored her cell phone
Earlier, the German government spokesman said that Berlin had information the US National Security Agency (NSA) could have been spying on Merkel. This was followed by the country's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle summoning the US ambassador to provide more clarity on the matter.  

US spying row to dominate EU summit
A European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday will be overshadowed by new allegations that the US spied on Angela Merkel and French demands for the American intelligence services to be shackled by Europe's data protection laws. The German Chancellor...called President Barack Obama last night to protest over claims that America had tapped it, allegations that the White House was unable to deny in terms of past activity. 

ProPublica: There’s No Evidence To Back The NSA’s Claim That Spying On Americans Has Thwarted Terror Attacks
Two weeks after Edward Snowden’s first revelations about sweeping government surveillance, President Obama shot back. “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany,” Obama said during a visit to Berlin in June. “So lives have been saved.” But there’s no evidence that the oft-cited figure is accurate.  

Law Enforcement Laments: Americans Informed About How We Abuse Their Rights Are Hurting Our Ability To Abuse Their Rights
The Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation stood before his law enforcement peers Sunday and warned them that they were all in danger of losing their technological toys in the ongoing effort to spy on non-suspects and to create probable cause out of thin air. The revolt of public opinion elicited by Edward Snowden’s revelations about government’s spy methods has simply made secret surveillance too unpopular and has attracted too many fresh sets of watchful civilian eyes. Of course, GBI Director Vernon Keenan spoke of this as a bad thing, in the process revealing just how comfortably ensconced American law enforcement has become in its echo chamber of police-culture entitlement. 

Dianne Feinstein: NSA Snooping Isn’t ‘Surveillance’
Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the US Senate committee charged with holding the intelligence establishment to account, declared on Monday that the National Security Agency’s mass collection of phone records is “not surveillance” and should be maintained as an essential tool to combat terrorism.