WHEN it emerged two years ago that America’s National Security Agency (NSA) was spying electronically on European leaders, France’s Socialist president, François Hollande, called it “totally unacceptable”. He had words with the Americans and there was a minor fuss, but it soon died down.
There was a similar show of indignation on June 24th, after the revelation by WikiLeaks that from 2006 to 2012 the NSA had spied on three French presidents: Mr Hollande and his two centre-right predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac. After an emergency meeting of the French national defence council, the Elysée again called the practice “unacceptable”. The Americans had given “undertakings” to France in 2013 and 2014, which should be “strictly respected”. Yet this time the protests are more awkward, since France is busy legalising electronic-eavesdropping powers for its own spies.
The revelations, published on June 23rd by Mediapart, a website, and Libération, a daily, have not so far unveiled state secrets. They consist of classified NSA reports, based on intercepted phone calls by French presidents and senior officials, mostly in Paris, Washington and New York. Among the documents is a list of French surveillance targets and their telephone numbers, including the president’s mobile. The American embassy in Paris, understood to be the...
from The Economist: Europe http://ift.tt/1KcoHAO
No comments:
Post a Comment