The Indian Embassy in the United States figures on a list 38 diplomatic missions that were targeted by US intelligence agencies for spying, according to a newly-leaked National Security Agency document, attributed to whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Citing the leaked document, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that other “targets” mentioned on the NSA list include a host of US allies — Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey, apart from EU missions and the embassies of France, Italy and Greece.
The document that reportedly describes the operation as “close access domestic collection” details “an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target, from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables to the collection of transmissions with specialised antennae”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, currently visiting Brunei, sought to play down the bugging allegations, commenting that nearly all National Governments use “lots of activities” to safeguard their interests and security. “I want to see the allegations and I need to find out what the truth and what the situation is,” Kerry told a news conference, and then went on to say: “I will say that every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs and National security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security and all kinds of information contributes to that. All I know is that is not unusual for lots of nations.”
A day after German weekly Der Spiegel reported on the US bugging of European Union offices and extensive snooping on German phone calls and emails, the Guardian report said the US intelligence service codename for the bugging operation targeting the EU mission at the United Nations was “Perdido”.
The operation against the French mission to the UN was named “Blackfoot”, while the one against its embassy in Washington was called “Wabash”. The operations against the Italian mission were named “Bruneau” and “Hemlock”, while those against Greece’s were referred to as “Powell” and “Klondyke”.
A leaked 2007 document speaks of a bugging method, codenamed Dropmire, for the operation “implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy, DC”. Another leaked document, relating to 2010, does not mention the UK, Germany or other western European allies.
The documents leaked by Snowden included a floor plan of the EU mission in midtown Manhattan, the report said, adding: “The methods used against the mission include the collection of data transmitted by implants, or bugs, placed inside electronic devices, and another covert operation that appears to provide a copy of everything on a targeted computer’s hard drive.”
Although the latest documents are said to be part of an NSA haul leaked by Snowden, the report said it was not clear in each case whether the surveillance was being exclusively done by the NSA or by the FBI or the CIA, or a combination of them.
Meanwhile, even as Snowden remain stuck in legal limbo in Moscow airport, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has asserted that future leaks from Snowden cannot be stopped. In an interview to ABC News, Assange said: “look, there is no stopping the publishing process at this stage. Great care has been taken to make sure that Mr Snowden can’t be pressured by any state to stop the publication process.”
Speaking from Ecuador’s embassy in london where he has been living for more than a year after being granted asylum, Assange called Snowden “a hero”, who has told Americans and the world “that there is mass unlawful interception of their communications, far beyond anything that happened under Nixon”.