Emmanuel Thomas, Lagos
June 24, 2015 – Wikileaks owned by Julian Assange has published intelligence reports of United States National Security Agency(NSA) spying on France in the last 10 years.
The website published documents from the NSA concerning targeting and signals intelligence intercepts of the communication of high level officials from successive French government in the past 10 years.
“The top secret documents derive from directly targeted NSA surveillance of the communications of French Presidents Francois Hollande (2012–present), Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012), and Jacques Chirac (1995–2007), as well as French cabinet ministers and the French Ambassador to the United States”, Wikileaks said in a press release.
The documents, it said also contain the “selectors” from the target list, detailing the cell phone numbers of numerous officials in the Elysee up to and including the direct cell phone of the President.
“Prominent within the top secret cache of documents are intelligence summaries of conversations between French government officials concerning some of the most pressing issues facing France and the international community, including the global financial crisis, the Greek debt crisis, the leadership and future of the European Union, the relationship between the Hollande administration and the German government of Angela
“Merkel, French efforts to determine the make-up of the executive staff of the United Nations, French involvement in the conflict in Palestine and a dispute between the French and US governments over US spying on France”, it added.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the French people have a right to know that their elected government is subject to hostile surveillance from a supposed ally.
“We are proud of our work with leading French publishers Liberation and Mediapart to bring this story to light. French readers can expect more timely and important revelations in the near future, ” Asange said in the statement.
