Susan Collins in Salon.com


On Homeland Security: No justification for spying on Germany's chancellor

Bellows calls out Congress for NSA complicity, amid reported US spying on world leaders including Germany's Angela Merkel. Among the critics of surveiling Merkel was Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who's chaired the Homeland Security Committee and now serves on the Intelligence Committee.

Q: Sen. Collins put out a statement saying that she's not aware of a justification for collecting intelligence on Chancellor Merkel, and that she would be telling the German ambassador that "it was wrong" for the administration to do that.

BELLOWS: We absolutely need to stop listening in on phone calls of allies like Merkel. But we also need to stop spying on millions of Americans.

Q: What about the comparative attention that those two kinds of surveillance get?

BELLOWS: It's certainly concerning to international relations to learn that we were spying on the phone conversations of some of our closest allies. But it's equally important to address the issue of spying on millions of ordinary Americans.

Source: Salon.com on 2014 Maine Senate debate, "Snowden" Oct 30, 2013

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