Greenwald Claims NSA Spied on Mexican, Brazilian Presidents

The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald revealed to a Brazilian television audience on Sunday that the NSA has been spying on the Brazilian and Mexican presidents

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Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who first published the documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, testifies before a Brazilian Congressional committee on NSA's surveillance programs in Brasilia on Aug. 6, 2013.

The National Security Agency’s extensive digital dragnet has allegedly been used to intercept information and communications made by the Brazilian and Mexican presidents. The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald disclosed the latest revelation concerning the NSA’s clandestine campaign to collect vast amounts of digital information from web users across the globe on a Brazilian television program over the weekend.

According to documents leaked to Greenwald by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the agency began reading Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s emails at least a month before the head of state was elected in 2012. While Greenwald claims the leaked documents were less precise on how extensive the agency spied on Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, the NSA did use a program that would have allowed them to open emails and personal chats sent by the Brazilian leader.

“If the facts of the report are confirmed, they would be considered very serious and would constitute a clear violation of Brazil’s sovereignty,” said Brazilian Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo during an interview with Brazilian daily O Globo. Earlier this summer, Greenwald reported that the NSA has been indiscriminately collecting and storing emails and telephone calls made by millions of Brazilians.

[AP]