US intelligence activities (in Debates)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24692908

I wonder what the response would have been had a European 'ally' been caught spying on the US president for a number of years.
I genuinely believe the US is losing the plot and the land of free speech has dirtied itself over the last decade or so. The US is no longer the role model that it should be. Debt up to the eyeballs, spying on allies and political hypocrisy - where will it all end?

I think plenty of the European "friends" are spying on anyone and everyone to the best of their abilities.

On the spectrum of US nefarious acts over the last century this rates as pretty mild.

Better question:

What would the response be if it was a Republican in the WH?

I am sure there would be hysterical verbiage from the main stream media that was never ending.

But it is Obama. He can do no wrong so barely a peep in the news here in America.

If a european country did so I'd imagine the incident would've actually effected european policy.

America is that rich loon who owns the gated community. Installing motion lights, cameras, fences everywhere to keep his guns safe from.. the gardeners. Because he's wealthy and does so much for the township, when not playing a gun rack real estate agent, he gets a pass after each incident. Much like such a rich and famous man. He's sick in the head. His personal life is unacceptable to everyone including himself, but he can't stop. Expect more easedropping.
Since the loon was too focused on the hedge trimmers and stray dogs to watch his kids. The debt(blame the banks people), student loans, healthcare, guns violence, and even the spying ring are a result of excessive neglect. cuz we b cray-cray.

Since the illegal microphones are so low on that shelf this will eventually be another occasional talking point that should have mattered more to everyone. Be well.

Ranger: Would be the same outrage no matter the president. How you can lump CNN, MSNBC, so many websites, and any program on ABC into some kind of national news conspiracy is beyond silly. They reported on this, Snowden, and the data center. They will continue to. Don't accept it. ;)

Right Ranger, so this spying totally started in the past 5 years and not any of the previous administrations... m-hm...

I never typed it did not start earlier.

I stated that the response to its unveiling has been tepid at best. A huge part is the current person in the White House.

The paranoid in me is freaked out by all this spying, and the citizen in me is pissed that just because Obama is a moderate smooth talking guy he can just calm everyone down and tell people to chill and this is okay. I know Bush started this nonsense, but Obama could at least voice something about this. I mean, it's just not okay to basically poop all over the idea of having warrants and having legal justification for tapping your lines. The justification for some of this nonsense seems to be. "AWWw it's too hard to spy on people, what if we just put everyone's stuff in this big bag and then sort through it ourselves?"

That sounds like a incredibly heavy-handed and mildly stupid approach, but that is exactly the tactic being used here.

If you want to know why I am not okay with this, watch this video by NSA Chief Keith Alexander, and listen to his justification for why all of these vast spying powers are okay: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/keith-alexanders-prism-pitch-its-like-taking-a-bath

First off, it's after all a state-vs-state matter, and even if "the current person in the White House" ACTUALLY KNEW ABOUT IT in the first place (which is not sure he did) and might not like it, they probably couldn't really put a stop to it by themselves all that easily. And this is not even on the same level as, say, Guantanamo.

Second, it's not like anybody really had any doubts all countries spy on each other all the time even if officially they might promise they won't, the only even remotely unusual detail being the level of the "surveillance" claimed to be happening in this particular instance.

Third, it's not really THAT tepid "at home". It's even more tepid OUTSIDE the USA rather than inside of it. Or are you insinuating Obama also controls the international press?

Fourth, it's not such a huge deal as you might like it to be since it pales in comparison to many other crazy things uncovered or happening more or less recently. And most of them have an origin in the Republican side.

Last but not least, IF the alleged mildness of the backlash actually has something to do with who the POTUS is at the time being, that actually would be a plus point for the current POTUS, not a negative one as you seem to insinuate.