The National Security Agency monitored nearly 125 billion phone calls in just one month, according to a number of new reports.

And while the majority of calls reportedly originated in the Middle East, an estimated 3 billion of the calls originated in the U.S。

According to a collection of the reports and leaked classified government files, the monitored calls took place throughout the month of January 2013 and tallied to 124.8 billion。

Cryptome, a site that posts government and corporate documents, combined the various documents and says the largest share of calls originated in Afghanistan (21.98 billion) and Pakistan (12.76 billion). Elsewhere in the Middle East, billions of calls were monitored in Iraq (7.8 billion)， Saudi Arabia (7.8 billion)， Egypt (1.9 billion)， Iran (1.73 billion) and Jordan (1.6 billion)。

So, if true, how did the U.S. successfully intercept so many phone calls from around the world? Another document posted by Cryptome on Wednesday purports to show a graph released by the NSA’s PRISM program. The graph explains that many “target” international calls pass through U.S. carriers because they are less expensive. “A target’s phone call, email or chat will take the cheapest path, not the physically most direct route,” the graph explains. “You can’t always predict the path. Your target’s communication could easily be flowing into and through the U.S。”

On Wednesday, the White House denied claims that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s calls from her personal cellphone were among 361 million calls in Germany that were reportedly monitored during the same period。

Merkel reportedly personally “quizzed” President Barack Obama about the allegation during a recent phone conversation between the two。

"The President assured the Chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in response。

The Merkel spying allegation comes on the heels of a Sunday report from Cryptome, which says the U.S. also spied on calls made by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto。

Also on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denied a report in Le Monde, which said the NSA has spied on 70 million phone calls originating in France。

“The allegation that the National Security Agency collected more than 70 million ‘recordings of French citizens' telephone data’ is false,” Clapper said in a statement。

“While we are not going to discuss the details of our activities, we have repeatedly made it clear that the United States gathers intelligence of the type gathered by all nations. The U.S. collects intelligence to protect the nation, its interests, and its allies from, among other things, threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction。”

India was the other country listed with more than a billion calls monitored (6.28 billion). In a September report, the Hindu newspaper said information provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden shows the calls were intercepted using the PRISM and Boundless Informant programs。

據(jù)外媒10月23日?qǐng)?bào)道，西方多家新聞機(jī)構(gòu)近日連續(xù)報(bào)道美國(guó)國(guó)家安全局(NSA)在全球范圍內(nèi)進(jìn)行電話監(jiān)聽，稱，今年早些時(shí)候美國(guó)國(guó)安局在短短30天的時(shí)間里就攔截記錄了超過(guò)1240億份電話通訊數(shù)據(jù)。

美國(guó)國(guó)安局一個(gè)名為“無(wú)限線人”(Boundless Informant)項(xiàng)目“允許用戶在地圖上隨意選擇一個(gè)目標(biāo)國(guó)家，瀏覽元數(shù)據(jù)卷，然后選取關(guān)于這個(gè)國(guó)家被收集數(shù)據(jù)的細(xì)節(jié)內(nèi)容。”《衛(wèi)報(bào)》等媒體公布的文件顯示，美國(guó)國(guó)安局利用“無(wú)限線人”項(xiàng)目今年初僅僅30天就在世界多國(guó)收集了1240億次電話通訊。

其中，許多數(shù)據(jù)來(lái)自大中東地區(qū)：從巴基斯坦和阿富汗通信網(wǎng)絡(luò)中獲取的信息數(shù)量最多，分別為137.6億和219.8億份;大約17.3億份“撥號(hào)記錄”來(lái)自伊朗，另有16.4億份電話通訊記錄可追溯至約旦。此外，美國(guó)國(guó)安局還從印度的通信網(wǎng)絡(luò)中收集了62.8億份信息。

分析人士認(rèn)為，雖然美國(guó)國(guó)安局可能從所收集的電話通訊數(shù)據(jù)中挑選出有價(jià)值的情報(bào)，但鑒于收集數(shù)據(jù)的數(shù)量實(shí)在過(guò)于龐大，所以他們審查所有內(nèi)容的可能性不大。“盡管如此，”《衛(wèi)報(bào)》稱，“這些文件仍然提供了一個(gè)窗口，讓外界得以窺見(jiàn)美國(guó)國(guó)安局截止至今年3月究竟收集了多少信息。”

與美國(guó)保持友好關(guān)系的西方國(guó)家也被美國(guó)國(guó)安局列入電話和計(jì)算機(jī)通訊數(shù)據(jù)的收集目標(biāo)。根據(jù)德國(guó)《明鏡》周刊披露的文件，在短短30天的時(shí)間內(nèi)，“無(wú)限線人”系統(tǒng)收集了大量源自德國(guó)的電話通訊記錄。而西班牙和意大利則分別被收集6100萬(wàn)和4600萬(wàn)份信息。

本周，法國(guó)《世界報(bào)》也報(bào)道稱，今年1月，該國(guó)超過(guò)7000萬(wàn)份電話通訊數(shù)據(jù)被美國(guó)國(guó)安局?jǐn)r截記錄。不過(guò)，美國(guó)國(guó)家情報(bào)總監(jiān)詹姆斯·克拉珀隨即否認(rèn)了《世界報(bào)》的上述指控。