morningbrief_fp Foreign Policy Morning Brief advertisement Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Follow FP: Facebook Twitter RSS Officials Knew About NSA Program Targeting Merkel Top News: With officials in Washington scurrying to distance themselves from revelations that the NSA monitored the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a group of senior officials both within the administration and on Capitol Hill defended the operation and indicated that the White House had been aware of it. In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told lawmakers that senior White House staffers are typically made aware of intelligence operations such as the one that targeted Merkel. President Obama has claimed that he was not aware of the operation, and Clapper said on Tuesday that reports to the president would typically not go into such a level of detail to necessarily reveal the intelligence communitys source. But veterans of the intelligence community tell Foreign Policy that that claim is absurd and that Obama would all but certainly have been informed that the NSA had been monitoring Merkels phone. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, all but admitted that his committee had been informed of the operation targeting Merkel. To make the case that somehow we are in the dark is mystifying to me, Rogers said. Some members spend a lot more time on this committee than others based on their schedules, which are significant in this Congress. But it is disingenuous to imply that this committee did not have a full and complete understanding of activities of the intelligence community. China: Chinese police detained five suspects in connection with a fiery car crash at Tiananmen Square that officials are describing as a terrorist attack. The name of the driver of the car suggested the attack may have been carried out by ethnic Uighurs. Middle East Another round of bombings struck Iraq, this time killing at least 20. Israel freed another 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of a U.S.-brokered peace plan but also announced it would move ahead with a controversial plan to build additional homes for settlers. The United Nations confirmed a polio outbreak among a group of children in Syria. Americas A Pakistani family whose grandmother was killed in a U.S. drone strike delivered emotional testimony before members of Congress, the first time the survivors of such a strike spoke before lawmakers. Ahead of a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, an influential group of U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to President Obama arguing Malikis failure to share power has contributed to the current round of intense violence in Iraq. Argentinas Supreme Court approved a law that allows for the break up of large media companies, a measure that critics fear will silence opposition voices. Asia Chinese villagers in the province of Yunan are engaged in a stand-off with police over the terms of a land-deal. The Indian central bank unveiled a series of measures aimed at combating inflation while removing measures to stabilize the countrys currency, the rupee. A fire onboard a luxury bus claimed the lives of 42 people in India. Europe Russian authorities filed new theft and money laundering charges against Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and his brother. A group of four Frenchmen kidnapped in Niger three years ago returned to Paris after being released amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid. Spains economy limped out of recession, notching 0.1 percent GDP growth in the third quarter. Africa The U.N.s special envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo told the U.N. Security Council that the countrys M23 rebel movement has been all but defeated militarily. An American drone strike in Somalia killed a man described by the Defense Department as an al Shabab bomb specialist. At least 11 people died and 34 wounded when a passenger train collided with a bus in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. -By Elias Groll Alex Wong/Getty Images
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 00:32:22 +0000
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