WikiLeaks revelations
Assange blows whistle on US
THE leaders of Germany, France, Italy and the UN were all targets of spying by the US intelligence service, according to the latest revelations by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks said the US National Security Agency (NSA) allegedly listened in on telephone conversations between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in 2008.
It also revealed details from a 2011 meeting between Merkel, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Italy’s expremier Silvio Berlusconi.
In a call allegedly intercepted by the NSA, Ban complimented Merkel on her efforts to fight climate change and bring other EU leaders on board.
Ban reportedly said that without continued leadership on the issue from the EU, it would be hard for the UN to make a commitment at a thenupcoming conference in Poznan, Poland.
The UN leader also expressed optimism that the recent election of Barack Obama as US president presented an opportunity to get the US more closely involved in climate change negotiations.
German media reported last year that the NSA listened in on the chancellor’s office for decades, including on Merkel’s predecessors, citing WikiLeaks documents.
“Today we showed that UN secretary-general Ban KiMoon’s private meetings over how to save the planet from climate change were bugged by a country intent on protecting its largest oil companies,” WikiLeaks founder and editor, Julian Assange, said.
“It will be interesting to see the UN’s reaction, because if the secretary-general can be targeted without consequence, then everyone, from world leaders to street sweepers, is at risk,” he said.
The UN was aware of the report, said Stephane Dujarric, Ban’s spokesman, yesterday. “We call on all member states to respect the sanctity and the inviolability of diplomatic communications between leaders and those diplomatic communications emanating from the UN,” Dujarric said.
Other documents made available by WikiLeaks mention secret agreements between Japanese and European trade representatives and a threeway meeting between Merkel, Sarkozy and Berlusconi.
In October 2011, Merkel and Sarkozy are said to have put pressure on Berlusconi over his country’s debts. Their tone had been “harsh toward the Rome government,” according to WikiLeaks. The document appears to be based on comments made by Berlusconi’s foreign policy adviser, Valentino Valentini. Sarkozy is reported as warning Berlusconi his country’s financial institutions “could soon ‘pop’ like the cork in a champagne bottle”.
According to WikiLeaks, the NSA also tapped the phone of leading figures at the World Trade Organisation and UN High Commissioner for Refugees. – ANA-DPA