France has called for an explanation for the “unacceptable” and “shocking” reports of NSA spying on French citizens. Leaked documents revealed the spy agency records millions of phone calls and monitors politicians and high-profile business people.

The US Ambassador to France Charles Rivkin was summoned by the French Foreign Ministry to account for the espionage allegations on Monday morning.

"I have immediately summoned the US ambassador and he will be received this morning at the Quai d'Orsay [the French Foreign Ministry]," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told press. He added that “we must quickly assure that these practices aren't repeated.”

The media scandal triggered a phone call between US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande who, according to the White House, discussed “legitimate questions” raised by US “friends and allies” about how the surveillance capabilities are employed. Obama reportedly assured Hollande that the US was reviewing the way it gathers intelligence.

In addition, citing the report on French publication Le Monde, Interior Minister Manuel Valls spoke out on national television against US spy practices.

“The revelations on Le Monde are shocking and demand adequate explanations from the American authorities in the coming hours,” said Valls on television channel Europe 1.

The nation’s largest veterans group says the Veterans Affairs Department and Pentagon are not doing enough to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

Calling current medical protocols and treatments at VA and DoD “limited and inadequate,” the American Legion urged the two departments to provide more non-pharmaceutical care and invest research dollars in complementary and alternative medical therapies such as acupuncture, yoga and biofeedback.

In a new report, a seven-member Legion committee largely found that DoD and VA have “no well-defined approach to the treatment of TBI” and veterans who seek care at VA for PTSD are 2½ times more likely to be prescribed opioid pain medications than those experiencing chronic pain.

“The fact that there is an emphasis on drugs as opposed to other treatments, that these guys and gals are going in there with issues and the answer is to prescribe them drugs, is incredible. There are alternatives,” said William Detweiler, chairman of the panel that drafted the report, titled “The War Within,” and a past national commander of the American Legion.

The report advocates for research on non-medical alternative care and medical treatments such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, for traumatic brain injury, a therapy currently under study in DoD.

The first two of four DoD-sponsored HBOT studies have found no significant benefit from using pressurized oxygen on troops with persistent symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury. But Detweiler said more independent study must be undertaken, not only with HBOT but other treatments such as acupuncture.

“To some extent, I wonder if these studies are tainted before they start,” Detweiler mused, discussing the pressure he believes physicians and the government feel from pharmaceutical companies that manufacturer psychiatric and pain medications. “We need to get the wolf out of the hen house and have independent studies on these therapies.”

Before he found relief from crippling back pain with an electrode embedded in his spine, retired Army First Sgt. Justin Minyard downed OxyContin, oxycodone and Vicodin pills and sometimes slapped on a Fentanyl patch prescribed by Veterans Affairs Department doctors to vanquish his pain.

The Iraq war veteran, who first hurt his back during search and recovery operations at the Pentagon on 9/11, became addicted to the powerful painkillers, living life in a fog and counting the minutes until his next dose, he said.

“I was taking enough pills daily to treat four terminally ill cancer patients,” Minyard testified before Congress on Thursday.

According to media reports, the Government Accountability Office, and widows and retired troops speaking before a House Veterans Affairs health panel Thursday, VA physicians are over-prescribing medications, writing scripts for addictive drugs and issuing multiple medications to patients without regard to their distribution, side effects or potential lethality.

Data obtained by the Center of Investigative Reporting through the Freedom of Information Act published last month shows prescriptions for opiates like hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone and morphine have increased 270 percent in the past 12 years at VA.

The investigation also found that on average, VA has issued more than one opiate prescription per patient for the past two years.

The hearing took a detailed look at VA’s oversight of prescriptions, the transition of care and medications between the Pentagon and VA when troops leave active duty, and quality control measures at VA to ensure patient safety.

Witnesses tearfully described lives shattered by addiction, unmanaged pain and accidental drug overdoses.

Heather McDonald found her husband Scott “cold and unresponsive” on Sept. 13, 2012. Among the causes of death for the 35-year-old former Army specialist: liver failure caused by drug toxicity.

Her husband never was offered or received a test to monitor whether the drugs he was prescribed were harming his kidneys or liver.

“Tests that can save lives are not being performed,” McDonald said. “A simple ‘I am in pain’ seems to be a good enough evaluation to prescribe painkillers.”

Dr. Robert Jesse, principal deputy under secretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration, expressed deep regret to the widows and former troops and said VA historically has been at the forefront of chronic pain management and mental health treatments associated with prescribing opiates.

He added that VA is working to address issues with ongoing initiatives and improved training.