Google – AFP, 2 Sep 2013
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Mexican
President Enrique Pena Nieto (R) and Brazilian counterpart Dilma
Rousseff in
Santiago on January 26, 2013 (Mexican Presidency/AFP/File)
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BRASILIA —
The American ambassador to Brazil was summoned by authorities on Monday over
new allegations that the US National Security Agency spied on President Dilma
Rousseff, an official said.
US
journalist Glenn Greenwald, a Guardian newspaper columnist who obtained secret
files from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, told Globo television that the agency
snooped on the communications of Rousseff and Mexican President Enrique Pena
Nieto.
A Brazilian
foreign ministry spokesman said US Ambassador Thomas Shannon "was called
to explain" the claims made by Greenwald, who is based in Rio de Janeiro.
"If
these facts prove to be true, it would be unacceptable and could be called an
attack on our country's sovereignty," Justice Minister Jose Eduardo
Cardozo said.
A spokesman
for Pena Nieto declined to comment and said any reaction would be released in a
statement.
Greenwald
told Globo on Sunday that a document dated June 2012 shows that Pena Nieto's
emails were being accessed, one month before he was elected.
The NSA
also intercepted some of Pena Nieto's voicemails. The communications included
messages in which the future leader discussed the names of potential cabinet
members.
As for
Rousseff, the NSA said in the document that it was trying to better understand
her methods of communication and interlocutors using a program to access all
Internet content the president visited online.
Rousseff,
who is due to make a state visit to Washington in October, held a working
meeting to study the revelations in the Globo report, the channel said.
The NSA
program allegedly allows agents to access the entire communications network of
the president and her staff, including telephone, Internet and social network
exchanges.
Cardozo met
with US Vice President Joe Biden in Washington last week to discuss the matter.
The United
States has rejected a Brazilian offer to negotiate a bilateral agreement on
surveillance.
In July,
Greenwald co-wrote articles in O Globo newspaper revealing that the US
government had a joint NSA-CIA base in Brazil to gather data on emails and
calls flowing through the country.
Snowden, a
former NSA contractor, is now a fugitive in Russia under temporary asylum.
He is
wanted by Washington on espionage charges linked to media disclosures about US
surveillance programs.
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Mexican
President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City,
on September 2, 2013. (AFP,
Omar Torres)
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