The German magazine Der Spiegel and Britain’s Guardian newspaper claim to have evidence showing that the U.S. National Security Agency bugged the European Union mission in New York and its embassy in Washington.The EU summoned the U.S. ambassador and ordered a sweep of its offices to check for devices.Steffen Seibert, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Washington needs to explain."It has to be cleared up. And if it turns out to be true, that it would be unacceptable, as we are no longer in the Cold War," said Seibert.On a trip to Brunei Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was questioned about the allegations."I will say that every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs of national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security,and all kinds of information contributes to that. And all I know is that is not unusual for lots of nations," said Kerry.Other leaked documents allege that the NSA taps a half-billion phone calls and e-mails in Germany in a typical month.David Cadier is from the IDEAS analyst group at the London School of Economics.“It might turn into an EU internal problem,""It might be that the problem is less the fact that the U.S. authorities have been spying on some EU delegations officers, some embassies.
