EU, member nations slam US as more NSA snooping emerges

American spying on India, as revealed by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden, may have had few local ramifications apart from a week's headlines; but as more global snooping skeletons fall out of the National Security Agency's cupboard, the EU and its member states have taken serious umbrage.

Transatlantic relations plunged over the weekend as Berlin, Brussels and Paris all demanded that Washington account promptly and fully for new disclosures on the scale of the US spying on its European allies.

As further details emerged of the huge reach of US electronic snooping on Europe, Berlin accused Washington of treating it like the Soviet Union, "like a cold war enemy".

The European Union's High Representative Catherine Ashton said on Sunday that US authorities were immediately contacted about a report in the widely respected German magazine Der Spiegel that the US spy agency had tapped EU offices in Washington, Brussels and at the United Nations.

"As soon as we saw these reports, the European external action service made contact with the US authorities in both Washington DC and Brussels to seek urgent clarification of the veracity of, and facts surrounding, these allegations," Ashton said in a statement from Brussels.

The sensational weekend reports by Der Spiegel and Britain's The Guardian say in essence that Washington's massive-scale snooping is embedded in the phone, internet and computer services of 38 foreign embassies in Washington and at the United Nations in New York; the European Union is hacked and bugged in both cities; and US spies run an eavesdropping operation even in the EU's headquarters.

Getting special attention is Germany, the 'moneybags' of the EU, where the NSA scoops up as many as 500 million phone and internet communications each month.

Describing various bugs and their sophisticated concealment, one of the documents quoted by Der Spiegel says, ''We can attack the signals of most foreign and third-class partners, and we do it too.''

American allies among the countries whose embassies are listed as "targets" include India, France, Italy, Greece, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Turkey.

So will India follow the EU in lodging an official, public protest over the fact that the US – the ubiquitous 'foreign hand' – has access to the confidential conversations and messages of Indian embassies across the world?

Unlikely, to say the least.