Mr Kerry spoke at the
London Summit 2013 and said many surveillance operations were conducted on "on automatic pilot, because the technology is there and the ability is there."
He
added:
"I assure you, innocent people are not being abused in this process, but there's an effort to try to gather information, but in some cases, some of these actions have reached too far and we are going to try to make sure it doesn't happen in the future."
Comments of this nature are perceived to be attempting to put a distance between the administration and the National Security Agency (NSA) which has angered some senior intelligence officials. Yesterday the director of the NSA,
General Keith Alexander, laid blame for requests to gather information on foreign leaders squarely on U.S. diplomats. Responding to James Carew Rosapepe, former U.S. ambassador to Romania, Alexander said: "We, the intelligence agencies, don't come up with the requirements. The policy-makers come up with the requirements."
Adding : "One of those groups would have been, let me think, hold on, oh: ambassadors."
The Washington debate on whether further legal constraints should be placed on the NSA is continuing.
