Politicians and government officials rarely tell outright lies; the cost of being caught out in a lie is too high. Instead, they make carefully worded statements that seem to address the issue, but avoid the truth. Like, for example, Caitlin Hayden, the White House spokesperson who replied on Oct. 24 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's angry protest at the tapping of her mobile phone by the U.S. National Security Agency.
"The United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel," she said. Yes, Caitlin, but has the U.S. been listening to Merkel's mobile phone calls from 2002 until the day before yesterday? "Beyond that, I'm not in a position to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity."
By Oct. 27, the argument had moved on. The question now was: did President Barack Obama know the chancellor's phone was bugged? (The German tabloid Bild am Sonntag reported that Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, told Obama about it in 2010. Obama allegedly said that the surveillance should continue, as "he did not trust her.")