Embarrassed by leaked conversations of three successive French presidents and angered by new evidence of uninhibited American spying, France demanded answers Wednesday from the Obama administration and called for an intelligence “code of conduct” between allies.
France’s foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to respond to the WikiLeaks revelations, as French eyes fixed on the top floor of the U.S. Embassy after reports that trompe l’oeil windows there concealed a nest of NSA surveillance equipment just around the corner from the presidential Elysee palace.
Commitments were made by our American allies. They must be firmly recalled and strictly respected,
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said. “Being loyal doesn’t mean falling into line.”
French President Francois Hollande spoke by telephone with President Barack Obama Wednesday and Obama reiterated promises to stop spying tactics considered “unacceptable between allies,” Hollande said.
Obama made a similar pledge after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the agency’s surveillance powers in 2013.
