It was only two months ago that France’s socialist president, Francois Hollande, in his quest to show just how great his allegiance was to the eat tax the rich “fairness doctrine” and socialist causes espoused by the glorious leader on the other side of the Atlantic, and to said glorious leader himself, that France was prepared to almost singlehandedly invade Syria (and surrender shortly thereafter) on the basis of several fabricated YouTube clips. So strong was the socialist bond.
Less than 60 days later, how quickly the alliances within the second coming of the Comintern have changed: over the weekend, Spiegel and Le Monde revealed that the US NSA secretly monitored tens of millions of phone calls in France and hacked into former Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s email account. The spy agency monitored 70.3 million phone calls in France over a 30-day period between December 10 and January 8 this year, Le Monde reported in its online version, citing documents from Snowden. And so, recently demoted to B-grade economic status in Europe, France – America’s European lap dog in virtually everything – is suddenly apopleptic and shocked, shocked, that spying went on here.
AP has more on hilarious French response:
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, on a trip to Luxembourg for a meeting with his EU counterparts, said the US ambassador had “immediately” been summoned to his ministry for a meeting Monday morning.
“These kinds of practices between partners that harm privacy are totally unacceptable. We have to rapidly make sure that they are no longer implemented in any circumstance,” he told reporters.
Why hilarious? Because apparently France thought that while the US can spy daily on hundreds of millions of Americans, the spy agency would somehow exempt France. Of course, the question of why the NSA actually bothered is somewhat relevant: it’s not as if the NSA would learn anything actionable. Still, the sudden fracas between these two comrades in false flag arms nations, is quite enjoyable.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, meanwhile, described the revelations as “shocking”, in an interview with Europe 1 radio.
According to the paper, the NSA automatically picked up communications from certain phone numbers in France and recorded certain text messages under a programme code-named “US-985D.”
Le Monde said the documents gave grounds to believe that the NSA targeted not only people suspected of being involved in terrorism but also high-profile individuals from the world of business or politics.
Not just France: bossom NAFTA buddy Mexico too:
The Le Monde article followed revelations by Der Spiegel — also based on documents provided by Snowden — that US agents had hacked into the Mexican presidency’s network, gaining access to Calderon’s account.
According to the report, the NSA said this contained “diplomatic, economic and leadership communications which continue to provide insight into Mexico’s political system and internal stability.”
The agency reportedly said the president’s office was now “a lucrative source.”
Mexican authorities said they would be seeking answers from US officials “as soon as possible” following the allegations.
Get in line pal. As for the French, if you will pardon our French, denouement:
Valls said France would demand “precise explanations by US authorities in the coming hours.”
Or what: surrender?
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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/976Mn2Oh3rI/story01.htm Tyler Durden