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McCain says Obama should apologize to Angela Merkel

BERLIN, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain says President Obama owes German Chancellor Angela Merkel an apology for U.S. eavesdropping on her cellphone.

The Arizona Republican told the German magazine Der Spiegel there was no urgent reason for the U.S. National Security Agency to listen in on Merkel's conversations and said Obama should be more proactive in smoothing things over with her.

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"I hesitate to tell the president what to do ... but I certainly would just render an apology," McCain said. "I would be appointing a commission of credible people here and around the world, like former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and ask them to make recommendations as to what our policy should be."

McCain said a certain amount of snooping among allies would always occur; however, Germany and the United States were not involved in matters where information could not be obtained in open fashion. "When you go to the point where you invade someone's privacy, the leader of certainly Europe, if not one of the most foremost leaders in the world, Angela Merkel, then it was a mistake," he said.

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McCain said the high level of scrutiny of Merkel probably resulted from the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, but someone should have put the brakes on the NSA. "I think they [NSA] did it is because they could do it," McCain said. "There were people with enhanced capabilities that have been developed over the last decade or so, and they were sitting around and said we can do this, and so they did it."

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