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Wikileaks published more damning details of U.S. spying on Brazil's government Saturday, just days after President Dilma Rousseff said she had faith Washington has rolled back snooping.
The latest release includes a list of the NSA's top targets in Brazil, with the agency taking a particular interest in key financial and economic figures in what Wikileaks described as “intensive interception.”
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RELEASE: Top Secret NSA high priority target list for #Brazil https://t.co/CrND9y5iLE pic.twitter.com/J2ydRW1HCT
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks)
July 4, 2015
“Our publication today shows the U.S. has a long way to go to prove its dragnet surveillance on 'friendly' governments is over,” said Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
The list itself includes 29 phone numbers – all linked to high level Brazilian officials. Many of the numbers are identified as being associated with senior figures in Brazil's finance ministry, along with the head of the country's central bank.
Although its unclear exactly when the list was developed by the NSA, some details in the document suggest it may have been produced around 2013; meaning it's difficult to know how many Brazilian officials could still be subject to targeted surveillance by the NSA.
In total, eight of the 29 numbers listed are accompanied by the designator S2C51, indicating they were of special interest to the NSA’s international financial policy branch. Along with finance ministry officials, other top government figures singled out by the NSA's financial policy arm included current planning minister Nelson Henrique Barbosa Filho, and former chief of staff Gilberto Carvalho.
The rest of the list is largely comprised of Brazilian diplomats and foreign affairs staff, along with a slew of numbers linked to Rousseff and her close aides. One phone number listed as “+87057100XXXX” appears to have been the satellite phone in Rousseff's presidential jet.
“Even on her official travels, President Rousseff is not safe from interception,” Wikileaks stated.
Brazilian ambassadors in France, Geneva, Germany and the United States also make the list, indicating their private communications have been monitored by the NSA.
The publication comes less than a week after Rousseff said during a visit to the White House that “things had changed” between the United States and Brazil.
"The change is particularly due to the fact that President Obama and the U.S. government have stated on several occasions that they would no longer engage in intrusive acts of spying on friendly countries. I believe President Obama," Rousseff said.
During her visit to Washington, Rousseff and Obama made a handful of agreements on bolstering bilateral trade.
However, Assange questioned, “If President Rousseff wants to see more US investment in Brazil on the back of her recent trip as she claims, how can she assure Brazilian companies that their US counterparts will not have an advantage provided by this surveillance?”
Pointing to the seemingly vast number of top Brazilian officials that have been spied on, he added, “Even if U.S. assurances of ceasing its targeting of President Rousseff could be trusted, which they cannot, it is fanciful to imagine that President Rousseff can run Brazil by talking to herself all day.”
