Once again a country has been under watch by an ally; this time it is France’s turn. The revelations were first reported in French daily Liberation and on news website Mediapart on June 22, 2015, which said the US’s National Security Agency (NSA) spied on presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande during the period of 2006 until May 2012 (at least). Subsequently, many international news agencies quoted the same source. In response, French President Hollande held an emergency meeting of ministers and army commanders on June 24, 2015 after the WikiLeaks revelations and in the statement said, “France will not tolerate actions that threaten its security and the protection of its interests.”
The French foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador to discuss the matter while the US embassy declined to comment. A statement from the US National Security Council said it was not targeting and would not target Hollande’s communications. The statement did not say whether spying had taken place in the past.
While Paris and Washington have good ties in general, UN Security Council veto holder France fiercely maintains its independence on foreign policy and, over the last two years, there have been moments of friction and irritation on both sides. For instance, Hollande was disappointed by President Barack Obama’s last minute decision not to strike Syrian government chemical weapons’ facilities in 2013. US officials have frequently, in private, lambasted France’s tough stance in talks over Iran’s nuclear programme. Moreover, a few years back, Sarkozy considered restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks without US involvement and Hollande feared a Greek euro zone exit back in 2012.
WikiLeaks said on Twitter that it would release more documents giving further evidence as to the US’s true goals in its mass espionage of France. However, it is hard to understand or imagine what motivates an ally to spy on allies that are often on the same strategic positions in world affairs. The recent documents included summaries of conversations between French government officials on the global financial crisis, the future of the European Union, the relationship between Hollande’s administration and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, French efforts to determine the makeup of the executive staff of the UN and a dispute between the French and US governments over the US spying on France. The documents also contained the cell phone numbers of numerous officials in the Elysee presidential palace, including the direct cell phone of the presidents.
Ever since documents leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed in 2013 that the NSA had been eavesdropping on the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it has been understood that the US had been using the digital spying agency to intercept the conversations of allied politicians. Edward Snowden was the most popular whistleblower, who revealed the NSA’s espionage activities against European countries. Later, Glen Greenwald, in his book No Place To Hide, described the NSA’s espionage operations in details. According to Glen Greenwald, there are thousands of NSA surveillance programmes that are startling in size and scope.
Experts believe that many of the programmes are aimed at the US population but dozens of countries around the world, including democracies, typically considered US allies, such as France, Brazil, India and Germany also are targets of indiscriminate mass surveillance. In his book, Glen Greenwald also claims that the NSA was operating a programme called ‘Five Eyes’ in which the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are facilitating and sharing information with the NSA. The ‘Boundless Informant’ programme is one of the most comprehensive programmes, counting all telephone calls and e-mails every day from around the world with mathematical exactitude.
Earlier, the Obama administration remained under severe criticism from Germany’s Chancellor Merkel. In an angry exchange with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel compared the snooping practices of the US with those of the Stasi, the ubiquitous and all-powerful secret police of the communist dictatorship in East Germany. Later, Germany insisted on a no-spying pact with the US. However, the current revelations would likely pave a way towards a comprehensive agreement among European countries with the US aimed at curbing NSA activities against the US’s allies and for a regional no-spying pact.
The writer is a freelance columnist