US spy agency NSA monitored 122 world leaders

US spy agency NSA monitored 122 world leaders
Sun Mar 30, 2014 17:03:21

New leaks by the US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden demonstrates that the NSA collected data on 122 world leaders in a single month.

According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, the intelligence database included 300 files only on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

According to the document, the leaders of 122 nations were among the high-ranking targets of the US spy agency.

However, only 12 names were revealed by German journalists in the weekly journal as an example.

With the heads of state arranged alphabetically by first name, the list begins with ‘A’ as in Abdullah Badawi, the former Malaysian prime minister.

He’s followed by Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who appears so high due to being mentioned under his alias, Abu Mazin.

The catalogue of world leaders under surveillance goes on with the heads of Peru, Somalia, Guatemala and Colombia right up to Aleksander Lukashenko of Belarus.

The list is completed by Yulia Tymoshenko at No.122, who used to be Ukrainian prime minister from February to September 2005 and from December 2007 till March 2010.

Merkel appears on the document between former Mali president, Amadou Toumani Toure, and Syrian president, Bashar Assad.

Snowden’s documents in recent months revealed details about the US government’s snooping operations.

On Friday, General Keith Alexander stepped down from the leadership of the NSA after an almost nine-year tenure.

Global outrage over the spying activities spiked after an earlier document revealed that the NSA had illegally eavesdropped on the phone conversations of 35 world leaders, including the German leader.

Relations between the United States and Germany soured in the wake of revelations that the NSA had spied on Merkel.

Snowden leaked top secret US government spying programs under which the NSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are monitoring millions of American and European phone records and tracking the online communications of all people around the world.

RA/MB

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