The American government, which has had to deal with criticism from it’s allies over allegations of spying, is in even more hot water after it was revealed that they are listening in on the phone calls of 35 nation leaders. This information was revealed in one of the documents that was released by Edward Snowden.

According to the document, “in one recent case, a US official provided NSA with 200 phone numbers to 35 world leaders …Despite the fact that the majority is probably available via open source, the PCs [intelligent production centers] have noted 43 previous unknown phone numbers. These numbers plus several others have been tasked.

This week has been full of European backlash against the American government over the spying allegations. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has publicly made complaints about her mobile phone being monitored. “The [German] federal government, as a close ally and partner of the US, expects in the future a clear contractual basis for the activity of the services their co-operation,” she said to Barack Obama.

The report also states that in NSA’s investigations into the nation leaders, they learned very little of value, so one wonders why the US would take the risk of angering their allies by carrying out their current conduct.

[via the guardian]