Poll: Majority of Americans Disagree With Spying On Allies

It isn't cool to tap your friends' phones

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Laurent Dubrule / Reuters

Tapping ‘friends’ phones found to be unpalatable

Most Americans are not happy with the U.S. government’s practice of spying on allies, a Pew study finds.

The research comes in the wake of an article published in Der Spiegel last month, which claimed that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been monitoring phone calls made by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2002.

The study found that 56% of Americans considered this action unacceptable.

The issue also appears to have bridged the U.S. political divide, with 57% of Republicans, 53% of Democrats and 56% of independents saying that they disagreed with such spying.

Germany and fellow European leaders attending a EU summit in Brussels late last month aired harsh condemnation over the actions of the NSA, which has claimed that President Obama was unaware of the surveillance. In the wake of the diplomatic crisis unleashed by the Der Spiegel revelation, the White House is reportedly poised to halt the agency’s practice of snooping on its allies.

[Pew]