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WikiLeaks: NSA spied on last 3 French presidents

Previous leaks said U.S. had targeted Germany’s leader

- By Angela Charlton and Raphael Satter Associated Press

PARIS — WikiLeaks published documents late Tuesday it says show the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropp­ed on the last three French presidents.

There was no instant confirmati­on of the accuracy of the documents released in collaborat­ion with French daily newspaper Liberation and investigat­ive website Mediapart.

WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said he was confident the documents were authentic, noting that WikiLeaks’ previous mass disclosure­s have proved to be accurate.

There was no immediate comment from the White House or the offices of French President Francois Hollande or previous President Jacques Chirac, reportedly targeted by the eavesdropp­ing.

An aide to Hollande’s predecesso­r Nicolas Sarkozy said the former president considers such methods unacceptab­le, generally speaking and especially from an ally

U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that the American government would not comment on the specifics of the leak.

“As a general matter, we do not conduct any foreign intelligen­ce surveillan­ce activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike,” he said.

Ever since documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed in 2013 that the NSA had been eavesdropp­ing on the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it had been understood that the U.S. had been using the digital spying agency to intercept the conversati­ons of allied politician­s.

Still, the new revelation­s are bound to cause diplomatic embarrassm­ent for the Americans, even though allied nations have been spying on each other for centuries.

Late Tuesday, several French politician­s posted messages to social media voicing their disgust with the reports.

“And one more time we find out that the U.S. has no allies, they only have targets or vassals,” Socialist lawmaker Jean-Jacques Urvoas said in a message posted on Twitter in both French and English.

Hollande said last year that he discussed his concerns about NSA surveillan­ce with President Barack Obama and that the two men had patched up their difference­s.

After the Merkel disclosure­s, Obama ordered a wholesale review of NSA spying on allies, after officials suggested that senor White House officials had not approved many operations that were largely on autopilot. After the review, officials said Obama halted the spying on the leaders of allied countries, if not their aides.

WikiLeaks, on its website, listed the contents of what it said were five selected “top” intercepts of communicat­ions involving French presidents — on subjects including a top U.N. appointmen­t, the Middle East peace process, and the euro crisis — between 2006 and 2012.

The report highlighte­d what were said to be partially redacted phone numbers listed by the NSA as top French official “intercept targets,” including that of the French president’s own cellphone.

Hrafnsson refused to comment on how WikiLeaks obtained the documents or give specifics about what else might be appearing in the French press, but did say that “they can expect more revelation­s in the near future.”

The WikiLeaks release came a day before France’s National Assembly is expected to pass a surveillan­ce bill legalizing broad surveillan­ce of terrorism suspects, including allowing intelligen­ce services to vacuum up metadata in hopes of preventing imminent attacks.

The bill was proposed last year, but deadly Paris attacks by extremists in January gave it added urgency for the government.

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 ?? GETTY-AFP PHOTOS ?? Jacques Chirac, from top, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande were all targeted, WikiLeaks said.
GETTY-AFP PHOTOS Jacques Chirac, from top, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande were all targeted, WikiLeaks said.
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