(AA) – The United States has spied on the last three French presidents, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and current leader Francois Hollande over the last 10 years, according to National Security Agency (NSA) secret documents obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
The documents were made public late Tuesday by French newspaper Liberation and the French online investigative and opinion website Mediapart.
In a report entitled Espionnage Elysee (Elysee spying), WikiLeaks said: “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.”Â
The infamous whistleblowing site, which rose to fame publishing damning documents regarding the U.S. military’s activities in Afghanistan, added: “The documents 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 cellphone of the president.”
According to WikiLeaks, the top secret intelligence documents are ” summaries of conversations between French government officials concerning some of the most pressing issues facing France and the international community”, such as “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”.
Ironically, the summaries also include a dispute between Paris and Washington over the issue of the U.S. spying on France.
WikiLeaks defended its revelations saying it “provides much greater insight into U.S. spying on its allies, including the actual content of intelligence products deriving from the intercepts, showing how the U.S. spies on the phone calls of French leaders and ministers for political, economic and diplomatic intelligence”.
The French presidency did not make any immediate comment. French channel BFMTV, quoting sources in the Elysee,  said Hollande will hold a Defense Council meeting Wednesday morning to “assess the nature” of the revelations.
