Wikileaks: NSA Wiretapped Brazilian President And Other Officials
On Saturday, Wikileaks disclosed that the National Security Agency wiretapped the phones of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and other country officials, according to sputniknews.
At Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's office line in her presidential palace and at her jet phone, her phone lines had been tapped, said Wikileaks.
The agency is also said to have spied on 29 lines including the following: head of Brazil's central bank as well as Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, former minister of foreign affairs from 2013 to 2015; Gen. Jose Elito Carvalho Siqueira, director of the institutional security cabinet, an executive office directly responsible for aiding the president in matters of national security; and Brazil's ambassadors to the U.S., Germany, and France.
Hence, the United States has waged an "economic espionage campaign" against Brazil by spying on officials that are managing Brazil's economy, including the head of its Central Bank, WikiLeaks adds, according to usatoday.
Gilberto Carvalho, chief of staff to former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, expressed his discontent at the findings in an interview with The Intercept, reporting on leaked documents.
He labelled the NSA's alleged move as an act of "maximum indignation" and a "violation of Brazilian sovereignty."
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange confirmed the findings. "Our publication today shows the U.S. has a long way to go to prove its dragnet surveillance on 'friendly' governments is over." He added that US assurances of finishing his spying activities against Rousseff cannot be "trusted, and the Brazilian leader herself must guarantee that the surveillance has ceased on her other officials," according to presstv.
Currently, Assange, an Australian, has taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, which has granted him asylum, even as he avoids charges of sexual assault in his native country. The United States has sought to file a national security case against him.
