© Flickr.com/ocularinvasion/сс-by-nc
Mexico has ordered an investigation into allegations the United States spied on both President Enrique Peña Nieto before his election and his predecessor Felipe Calderon, the interior minister said Tuesday.
Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said he had asked the CISEN intelligence agency and federal police to conduct an "exhaustive" investigation to see whether such spying took place and whether any Mexican officials were complicit.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto ordered an "exhaustive" probe into claims that the National Security Agency, headquartered close to the US capital, hacked his emails while he was running for office last year. Mr. Peña Nieto also alleged that former president Felipe Calderon had been subjected to US eavesdropping while in office.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry condemned the new evidence of alleged spying over the country’s officials by US intelligence. France is also demanding explanations after a report that the US NSA secretly recorded millions of phone calls made in the country, its interior minister said Monday.
"The Mexican government strongly condemns the spying practice over communication tools and internet activity of the country’s state agencies and its citizens," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It added that such cases were completely unacceptable, unlawful and contrary to international legislation.
Thus the Mexican Foreign Ministry reacted to an article published by Germany’s Spiegel magazine. The publication says NSA "has been spying the email of Mexican ex-president Felipe Calderon (2006-2012) and the correspondence of several cabinet officials."
The Foreign Ministry notes in its statement that "President Barak Obama during a recent meeting with Mexican leader Enrique Peña Nieto pledged to conduct a thorough investigation (into the facts of alleged NSA spying over Mexican officials) and identify the responsible for this practice."
Washington’s intention to carry out the investigation was confirmed several days ago by State Secretary John Kerry during his talks with Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade.
In early September, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry addressed a note to US authorities pointing out the necessity to investigate the alleged facts of NSA’s wiretapping of Pena Nieto while he was presidential candidate and then president.
Earlier, Mexican media published facts that the NSA was using special software to spy in several Latin American countries. Media reported that these activities were aimed at collecting confidential data in military and energetic fields, as well as data on fighting drug trafficking.
A number of classified documents that have been revealed by well-known whistleblower Edward Snowden contain evidence that the US National Security Agency had been widely surveyed electronic exchanges between Mexican citizens, including politicians of the highest rank and even the former and the current Presidents themselves, for at least several years.
This surveillance has also helped the US to make several profitable investments in Mexican enterprises.
This is what the magazine Der Spiegel wrote recently.
The fact that NSA has been spying after Mexico's current President Pena Nieto has already been mentioned by Brazilian TV Globo. Now, evidence provided by Snowden showed that in May 2010, NSA hacked into public E-mail of Nieto's predecessor Felipe Calderon.
The access to Calderon electronic exchanges gave the US spies "diplomatic, economic and leadership communications which continue to provide insight into Mexico's political system and internal stability," the magazine cites an NSA top secret internal report as saying. The operation to hack into presidential email account was dubbed “Flatliquid” by the American e-spooks.
The irony of this story is that from all Mexican presidents, Calderon cooperated with the US probably closer than any other one.
In 2007, Calderon “blessed” the creation of a secret facility for electronic surveillance, Mexican newspaper Excelsior wrote in June.
The surveillance on President Nieto started when he was campaigning for office in the early summer of 2012, the report goes on. The NSA targeted his phone and the phones of nine of his close associates to build a map of their regular contacts. From then it closely monitored those individuals’ phones as well, intercepting 85,489 text messages, including those sent by Nieto.
Now, Barack Obama has promised to President Nieto to investigate into this story and to punish those who would be found guilty of hacking into private E-mail.
Another NSA operation in Mexico dubbed “Whitetamale” allowed the agency to gain access to emails of high-ranking officials in country’s Public Security Secretariat, a law enforcement body that combats drug cartels and human trafficking rings. The hacking, which happened in August 2009, gave the US information about Mexican crime fighting, but also provided access to "diplomatic talking-points," an internal NSA document says.
In a single year, this operation produced 260 classified reports that facilitated talks on political issues and helped the Americans plan international investments.
Economic espionage is a motive for NSA spying, which the agency vocally denied, but which appears in the previous leaks.
France's foreign minister announced Monday the "immediate" summoning of the US ambassador over a report that American spies eavesdropped on millions of calls made by French citizens.
"I have immediately summoned the US ambassador," Laurent Fabius told reporters as he arrived for an EU foreign ministers meeting, adding a meeting would take place "this morning" at the ministry in Paris.
"In light of the information from Le Monde I immediately summoned the US ambassador, who will be received this morning at the Quai d'Orsay (the address of the foreign ministry in Paris)," Fabius said on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg.
"This type of practice between partners, which violates privacy, is totally unacceptable and we must ensure very quick that it is not still continuing," Fabius said.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls also labelled the revelations "shocking" and "completely unacceptable" on the part of an ally.
France is demanding explanations after a report that the US National Security Agency secretly recorded millions of phone calls made in the country, its interior minister said Monday.
Manuel Valls described the revelations in Le Monde newspaper as "shocking", in an interview with French radio Europe 1.
The US National Security Agency secretly recorded millions of phone calls made in France, daily Le Monde reported on Monday, citing documents from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
The spy agency taped 70.3 million phone calls in France over a 30-day period between December 10 and January 8, 2013, Le Monde reported in its online version.
According to the paper, the NSA automatically picked up communications from certain phone numbers in France and recorded text messages under a programme code-named "US-985D."
Le Monde said the documents gave grounds to think the NSA targeted not only people suspected of being involved in terrorism but also high-profile individuals from the world of business or politics.
US authorities declined comment to the French daily on the "classified" documents.
The Le Monde article followed similar revelations by German weekly Der Spiegel that US agents had hacked into the email account of former Mexican president Felipe Calderon.
Mexican authorities have said they will be seeking answers from US officials "as soon as possible" following the allegations.
Snowden, who has taken refuge in Russia, is wanted in the United States for espionage and other charges after leaking details of the NSA's worldwide snooping activities.
Voice of Russia, AFP, RT
No comments:
Post a Comment