Jay Carney issued a statement that said the US
"is not monitoring and will not monitor" the
German chancellor's communications.
This is probably the best tell the US government has for sniffing out the bullshit. If they don't explicitly deny the event occurring in the past, it happened.
Reminds me of a Spaceballs scene:
Colonel Sandurz: Now. You're looking at now, sir.
Everything that happens now, is happening now.
Dark Helmet: What happened to then?
Colonel Sandurz: We passed then.
Dark Helmet: When?
Colonel Sandurz: Just now. We're at now now.
I imagine this is probably about how the "Cover Your Ass" conversation goes before official comments are made to the press.
Their spoken words have very little value. They're willing to directly lie about all aspects of this and have demonstrated that repeatedly.
They initially - and to varying degrees still - claim they did not and do not spy on Americans.
I don't think you have to worry about tells. Given what we already know they did, assume they've done much worse. It's a very safe bet. Assume they're monitoring every single thing they can get their hands on when it comes to international leaders.
In these cases, I think what is important is what is not being said. For example, they aren't saying: we did not monitor the Chancellor's phone calls in the past. We didn't and won't record other senior EU officials, etc. The problem is that journalists do not pry enough, because if they are too curious, they will eventually lose privileged access to these government sources.
Reminds me of a Spaceballs scene:
I imagine this is probably about how the "Cover Your Ass" conversation goes before official comments are made to the press.