Obama Under Pressure As Report Reveals The NSA Spied On Israeli Prime Minister

President Barack Obama has a new surveillance controversy on his hands as it has been reported that U.S. spied on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Iran nuclear negotiations, prior to the landmark deal that was signed in July. 

The Wall Street Journal reports that White House officials gathered information on Netanyahu that would help them counter his campaign to block the deal. The NSA monitored Netanyahu's communications with his senior aides, as well as members of Congress and Jewish groups in the U.S., the report said. A spokesman for the White House declined to comment on the matter directly while asserting the government's policy of conducting foreign surveillance if there is a specific and validated national security purpose.

Obama apologized last year for spying on U.S. allies after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden fled the country and released a trove of classified information about its surveillance operations. U.S. officials who spoke to the Journal said Obama felt there was a compelling national security purpose to monitor Netanyahu during the Iran deal, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The NSA began keeping tabs on the Israeli Prime Minister late in Obama's first term in office. The surveillance was driven by fears that Israel was planning an attack on Iran. The agency carried on with its spying operations, and discovered that Netanyahu had leaked details of the Iran negotiations and had coordinated talks with American Jewish groups. He also asked undecided U.S. lawmakers what it would take to win their vote. 

Realizing the spying could cause the administration headaches, the White House left it up to the NSA to decide what to share, and the agency obliged, deleting names of Members and trash talk on the administration. A spokesman for the Embassy of Israel in Washington told the Journal the allegations are total nonsense. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price in a statement said “We do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike”