Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, reported that Israel spied on Secretary of State John Kerry's phone calls while Kerry was in Paris with representatives of Qatar and Turkey, trying to arrange a ceasefire for Gaza. It appears straightforward. Kerry, says Der Spiegel, was using "open," non-encrypted phone lines as he worked the truce deal and was using a mobile phone for many of the discussions. Israeli intelligence bugged his calls. Oddly, though, there is no source for the story, no confirmation, just the old standby of  “reliable sources.” And the story isn't actually about Israel. Der Spiegel is not the National Enquirer. Why would a serious German magazine, which has been one of the strongest voices in opposition to American phone tapping, put out an unsourced story such as this? One can hardly imagine anyone in Israel leaking such an explosive tidbit to a German magazine, and no magazine would take a story like this without...(Read Full Post)