US Secretary of State John Kerry: NSA spying went too far

Amidst the American spy probe fiasco, US Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that some NSA spying went too far.

14:45 01 November 2013

The NSA leaks fiasco has undoubtedly upset several countries, which include America’s European allies. Based on documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden, millions of calls from Spain and the phones of 35 world leaders were monitored. This now appears to be the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to America spying on its allies.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is the highest official in the United States to comment on the issue. Deeming that the actions had gone “too far”, he said: "We have actually prevented airplanes from going down, buildings from being blown up, and people from being assassinated because we've been able to learn ahead of time of the plans.”

"I assure you, innocent people are not being abused in this process, but there's an effort to try to gather information. And yes, in some cases, it has reached too far inappropriately.

"And the president, our president, is determined to try to clarify and make clear for people, and is now doing a thorough review in order that nobody will have the sense of abuse... we are going to make sure that does not happen in the future." he said.

The news comes as six technology and communications giants (AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo) signed a letter to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, requesting that the NSA exercise greater control in order to rebuild trust between nations.