US only eavesdrops if there is a justified reason concerning national security

-In line with its policy, the US State Department does not comment on individual intelligence reports.

As we have already stated, no monitoring activities are conducted outside the borders of the US unless there is a concrete and justified reason concerning national security, the Public Affairs Office of the US Embassy in BiH told the Patria news agency.

On Friday, October 2, media reported that the US intelligence agency NSA, with the help of the German intelligence service BND and the German telecom operator Deutsche Telekom, tested a telephone surveillance operation from 2005 to 2008 as part of the secret operation Eikonal, whose goal was to analyze and filter the content of telephone conversations of the civilian population due to the threat of terrorism, and conversations originating from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and BiH were also checked.

This was stated on Thursday in a special program of the Slovenian television station POP-TV by Peter Pilz, a member of the Austrian parliament from the Green Party, who also showed the so-called “yellow list” he obtained through his channels, which is allegedly proof that ordinary citizens were also eavesdropped on.

On the “yellow list,” a list compiled by the NSA in 2005, 256 telephone lines designated for surveillance were placed, Pilz said.

He added that, among others, three telephone lines from Slovenia to abroad were monitored, as well as international phone calls from Croatia, Serbia and BiH.