Israeli ministers heated on U.S. spying, demand end to intelligence program

NSA documents showing that the U.S. spied on Israel's then-Prime Minister and Defense Minister were leaked to newspaper last week by Edward Snowden (Courtesy of The Independent)

Israeli ministers demanded Sunday that the United States ends its spying activities on the Jewish State, according to the Associated Press.

The ministers' demand follows last week's leak of  U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) documentation that shows that the American intelligence agency had intercepted e-mails from offices of former Israeli leaders.

Israel's Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz and Housing Minister Uri Ariel have called on the U.S. to end its spying program on it so-called ally and further demanded that the U.S. release an Israeli spy that has been jailed in the U.S. for "passing classified information" to the Jewish state.

The NSA documents were leaked to newspapers last week by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The documents specifically exposed that NSA was cooperating with British intelligence agency GCHQ to "target e-mail addresses" that belonged to the Israeli prime minister and defense minister at the time of the operation.