One can only wonder if this was the outcome Snowden wanted all along.
The United States’ ambassador to France Charles H. Rivkin has been summoned by the French foreign minister following claims made by the Le Monde newspaper group Monday that the National Security Agency spied on millions of French citizens.
Le Monde made the allegations it said based on documents it secured from the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters at a European Union foreign ministers meeting that the ambassador has been asked to go to the foreign ministry in Paris “immediately” to explain the allegations.
According to the report, over a 30-day period between December last year and January 2013 the NSA’s top-secret “US-985D” program intercepted data on over 70 million phone calls made in France.
“When a telephone number is used in France, it activates a signal which automatically triggers the recording of the call. Apparently this surveillance system also picks up SMS messages and their content using key words,” the French newspaper reported, explaining how the NSA collects the information.
Le Monde said that when it presented its evidence to authorities in the U.S. no comment was offered.
France’s Interior Minister Manuel Vallas was said to have described the revelations as “shocking.”
On Sunday, a report by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, also based on documents leaked by Snowden, said that the U.S. had infiltrated the e-mail system of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The Mexican government vowed to send what the Associated Press called a “diplomatic note” to the Washington as a result.
Thanks Eddie!
Disclosure of the existence of the massive domestic spy operations of the NSA, would by implication alert all friends and foes of the USA of our digital intelligence capabilities. Disclosure of the nature and scope of the warrentless violations of our BILL OF RIGHTS was ABSOLUTELY NECCESSARY. Anyone who doesn’t think these disclosures were neccessary, lacks loyalty to fundamental American values and would readily abandon our Heritage. It’s interesting to see the ones who readily surrender such defining cornerstones of the American Character. It is of little consequence that those in charge of misleading this country, suffer further embarassment…