The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has since early June been reporting on leaked documents obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, told a Brazilian television program Sunday that the NSA read emails of the Presidents of Brazil and Mexico.
From NBC News:
Glenn Greenwald told Globo news program “Fantastico” that a document dated June 2012, showed that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s emails were being read one month before he was elected to office.Greenwald, who writes for the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper but lives in Rio de Janeiro, said the emails included communications from Nieto indicating who he would name in his Cabinet.He also reported that the NSA collected the data through an undefined association between U.S. and Brazilian telecommunications companies.The journalist told the Associated Press, in an email, that the document did not contain any specific messages intercepted from Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff.However, it did reveal which aides she had communicated with, and tracked patterns of how those aides communicated among one another and with third parties.
The report drew condemnation from the Brazilian government and demands for an explanation from the White House, and a news outlet in Brazil is reporting that President Dilma Rousseff is considering canceling an upcoming trip to the US.
From the Washington Post:
In a sign that fallout over the spy program is spreading, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that President Dilma Rousseff is considering canceling her October trip to the U.S., where she has been scheduled to be honored with a state dinner. Folha cited unidentified Rousseff aides. The president’s office declined to comment.The Foreign Ministry called in U.S. Ambassador Thomas Shannon and told him Brazil expects the White House to provide a prompt written explanation over the espionage allegations.Mexico similarly expressed its concerns to the U.S. ambassador and the U.S. administration, according to the Post.
Greenwald also wrote in July, in The Guardian and in Brazilian newspaper O Globo, that the US spied on millions of emails and calls of Brazilians by partnering with a large unnamed US telecommunications company that in turn partners with other telecommunications companies in foreign countries.
That report prompted the Brazilian government to say that it would pressure the United Nations to take measures to protect the privacy of international internet communications, according to a July New York Times article.
Once again, these latest NSA leaks seem less focused on protecting the privacy of American citizens and more on exposing the activities of foreign intelligence operations.
Someone else noticed that, too.
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