The Spy Who Loved Me

A little off the well-beaten path to 2016 but here’s a topic submitted from a reader. Germany and France have recently been throwing a very public fit over allegations of spying by the United States on their respective countries and some of their leaders. More specifically, evidence has surfaced that the United States may have been bugging the German Chancellors cell phone among other things.

Report from Reuters:

German and French accusations that the United States has run spying operations in their countries, including possibly bugging Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, are likely to dominate a meeting of EU leaders starting on Thursday.

The two-day Brussels summit, called to tackle a range of social and economic issues, will now be overshadowed by debate on how to respond to the alleged espionage by Washington against two of its closest European Union allies.

Representatives of both Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said the two would hold a one-on-one meeting ahead of the 1500 GMT start of the summit to discuss the espionage issue.

For Germany the matter is particularly sensitive. Not only does the government say it has evidence the chancellor’s personal phone was monitored, but the very idea of bugging dredges up memories of eavesdropping by the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany, where Merkel grew up.

Following leaks by data analyst Edward Snowden, which revealed the reach of the U.S. National Security Agency’s vast data-monitoring programs, Washington finds itself at odds with a host of important allies, from Brazil to Saudi Arabia.

This major foreign policy issue has been on the back-burner since shutdown-palooza happened this month but it carries some serious implications for national security and foreign relations.

Exit questions courtesy of the topic submitter:

So, how can Obama handle this? Should we stop spying, or is there a way to respond and keep going? Is the spying fair? Is it a danger to our own rights? How will candidates from each party respond from the ongoing complaints about Snowden or what information he has released?