White House reportedly stops monitoring world leaders, President Obama ‘unaware’ of tracking

The Obama administration has been deflecting attacks from world leaders after the news of the NSA tapping the phones and monitoring top world figures around the globe.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama was “unaware” of the monitoring and ordered the phone taps to stop immediately.

Quoting unidentified sources, the WSJ website says the wiretapping of about 35 foreign leaders was disclosed to the White House as part of a review of surveillance programs ordered by President Obama after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified details of the NSA’s phone monitoring systems.

The White House ordered a halt to the monitoring of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and unspecified other leaders, the newspaper reported.

The Journal report did not specify who gave the shutdown order or the date it was issued.

Merkel said last week that reports of American spying on her and other leaders had “severely shaken” relationships between the United States and European nations.

The German leader said she told Obama last week that eavesdropping among friends “is never acceptable.”

The officials quoted by The Wall Street Journal said it was understandable that Obama did not know about the phone tapping of Merkel and other leaders for nearly five years of his presidency because the NSA has so many eavesdropping programs, it would not have listed all of them for the president.

“The president doesn’t sign off on this stuff,” one official was quoted as saying. But the official said that policy was under review, the Journal reported.

The Journal report said some surveillance of foreign leaders continues, and surveillance of others is being phased out.