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French president Francois Hollande called for an emergency meeting with his defense council Wednesday morning, after WikiLeaks released documents showing the United States has been spying on all of France's presidents since 2006.
“The French people have a right to know that their elected government is subject to hostile surveillance from a supposed ally,” said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
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RELEASE: Espionnage Élysée - how the NSA bugged Hollande, Sarkozy and Chirac https://t.co/uflJlxeJdO pic.twitter.com/k8hDycaxNV
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks)
junio 23, 2015
According to the documents, President Francois Holland himself has been a target of the spying program, which listened to and recorded phone calls made by the president, as well as his ministers and the French ambassador to the U.S.
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has responded to the leaked documents, denying any wrongdoing.
“We are not going to comment on specific intelligence allegations. As a general matter, we do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike,” said NSA spokesperson Ned Price.
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The revelations come as France has given its domestic intelligence and surveillance services controversial greater powers to combat jihadist networks, with more permissions to bug phones and to carry out mass surveillance on the internet.
It is unknown if the documents were provided by Edward Snowden. According to sources cited by IT industry website The Register, it is believed that one other former NSA official is handing new information to WikiLeaks.
