NSA spied on calls in Spain, report claims
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A Spanish newspaper published a document yesterday that it said shows the US National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone — the latest revelation about alleged American spying on allies.
The El Mundo newspaper report came as Spain summoned the US ambassador in Madrid to express its displeasure over the reports of spying on allies.
Last week the French paper Le Monde reported similar allegations of US spying in France and German magazine Der Spiegel said Washington had tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. The leaders of Brazil and Mexico also were reportedly spied on. A European summit last week was dominated by anger over US spying and Germany was sending its spy chiefs to Washington to demand answers.
El Mundo said the bar graph document titled “Spain — Last 30 days” showed daily call traffic volume between December 10, 2012, and January 8, 2013. It says the NSA monitored the numbers and duration of the calls, but not their content. It does not show the numbers.
El Mundo said the Metadata system used by the NSA could also monitor e-mails and phone texts, although these were not shown on the graph.
The newspaper said the document was leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who is wanted by the US but has been granted asylum in Russia.
Just as the Le Monde report, the El Mundo story was co-written by Glenn Greenwald, who originally revealed the NSA surveillance program based on leaks from Snowden. El Mundo said it had reached a deal with Greenwald to have the exclusive on the Snowden documents relating to Spain.
US Ambassador James Costos met with Foreign Ministry officials for 45 minutes yesterday.
Afterward, the ministry made no direct reference to the El Mundo report but called on US authorities to hand over all the necessary information concerning “supposed eavesdropping carried out in Spain.”
Spain warned the US “of the importance of preserving the climate of confidence existing in bilateral relations and to know the extent of practices, which if true, are inappropriate and unacceptable between friendly allies,” the ministry said in a statement.
Costos, for his part, reminded Spain how it has benefited from US intelligence.
The US “acknowledges that some of our closest allies have raised concerns about the recent series of unauthorized disclosures of classified information,” the ambassador said.
He said the programs referred to in the media “are national security programs that have played a critical role in protecting citizens of the United States. They have also played an instrumental role in our coordination with our allies and in protecting their interests as well.”
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