The White House secretly approved the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and along the way monitored some of Israel’s contacts with members of Congress, after President Obama announced in January 2014 that the U.S. would pare back efforts to spy on trusted allies.
After former NSA contractor Edward Snowden informed the public about the agency’s metadata program, the White House privately created a list of world leaders it would allow NSA continue to spy on, according to a new report.
At the time, the U.S. and Iran had been working on a nuclear arms agreement. At the center of those negotiations was Israel, publicly and vehemently opposed to the plan.
Consequently, Obama deemed Netanyahu and his top officials worth keeping on the list, saying it served a “compelling national security purpose.”
Government officials who spoke with the Wall Street Journal said the White House intended to eavesdrop to learn how Israel was creating opposition to the president’s foreign policy work with Iran.
But when NSA turned over its voice records to the White House, it discovered Israeli officials were working directly with U.S. lawmakers, putting the Obama administration at risk of being accused of spying on Congress.
“We didn’t say, ‘Do it,'” a senior U.S. official said. “We didn’t say, ‘Don’t do it.'”
Administration officials as well as Israeli leaders have not publicly commented on the report.
