Obama und Rousseff - end of the freeze?

Ever since the NSA's spying on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff came to light, relations between Brasilia and Washington have been particularly icy. The G20 meeting in Australia brought the leaders face to face.

Deutsche Welle, 16 Nov 2014

For more than a year, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has been waiting in vain for an apology from her American counterpart Barack Obama. It was over twelve months ago when the story broke that the NSA had spied not only on Brazilian businesses and citizens, but also on the president herself.

Unlike German Chancellor Angela Merkel, no one suspected Rousseff of feigning her outrage. She immediately cancelled her planned state visit to the White House in September 2013. Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and US Secretary of State John Kerry all renewed the invitation several times, but Rousseff has doggedly refused, and Obama has still not issued a personal apology, or indeed even considered such an apology necessary. If he had, he could have easily done it shortly after the fact at the 2013 G20 meeting in St Petersburg. Another chance to approach one another came at this year's summit in Australia.

The G20 meeting in 2013 yielded no
relaxation of tensions

Neither friend nor enemy

Traditionally, the relationship between the two countries has been good, if not particularly strong. "Brazil has always viewed the US hegemony skeptically," Matthew Taylor, political researcher at American University in Washington, DC, told the BBC recently. The problems are much more deeply rooted than any personal animosities.

The relationship blossomed for a short period during the presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1994-2001), who threw his support behind the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a proposal that came from President George H. W. Bush. This was quickly cut short by Cardoso's successor Lula da Silva, who - along with other Latin American heads of state - condemned the plan as another tool of US domination. Brazil's complaint to the World Trade Organization against US cottons subsidies did the rest, although larger diplomatic complications never came to pass.

The two largest economies in the Americas remain far removed from any free trade agreement. Juan Carlos Hildalgo, Latin American analyst from the CATO Institute in Washington, offers this to consider: "In her first term, Dilma Rousseff focused even more than her predecessor da Silva on South-South cooperation." And when it comes to the North, a relationship with the European Union is more important than the United States.

Altogether, the EU is Brazil's most important trade partner, accounting for more than one fifth of Brazil's foreign trade. China and the US follow with around one-sixth of foreign trade combined.

Brazil's share of US trade on the other hand is well below three percent. For the United States, the development of relations with the EU and China has priority over partnerships in the Americas.

Together with Angela Merkel, Dilma
 Rousseff has launched a UN-initiative
against US spying

Mutual disinterest

But the US and Brazil are planning a visa deal to ease entry from both sides. And Obama has recently showed more interest in Latin America. Yet more pressing questions are plaguing both leaders: Obama's forces are in demand in Syria and Ukraine. At home he is fighting to secure his legacy against a Republican-dominated Congress. And Dilma Rousseff is heavily involved in the after-effects of her reelection in late October: She must put together a new cabinet with which to lead her country out of the economic doldrums.

Now, the two leaders have had to face each other at the G20 summit in Australia. Obama had already congratulated Rousseff on her reelection, and expressed his desire to meet her in Brisbane. "There will be polite exchanges, but certainly no substantial strides in relations," hypothesized Marcos Troyjo, leader of the BRIC lab at Columbia University in New York.

Political scientist Paz Neves also doesn't hold out much home for rapid convergence: "In the White House, there are approximately two state receptions per year. Rousseff isn't going to get another invitation so quickly."

But if anyone is supposed to make a move, says Paz Neves, it's the Brazilian president who should give a sign: "The ball is clearly in Dilma Rousseff's court."

Xi and Putin look to bolster influence in Latin America

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-07-15

Xi Jinping shakes hands with Vladimir Putin in Fortaleza, Brazil, on July 14,
2014. (Photo/Xinhua)

Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin are looking to bolster their countries' influence in Latin America amid rising anti-US sentiment in the region, reports Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese.

Washington has long viewed Latin America as its "backyard," Duowei said, dating back 200 years to the Monroe Doctrine, a US foreign policy stating that further efforts by European nations to interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring US intervention.

The doctrine, along with the related Roosevelt Corollary from the early 20th century–which states that the US will intervene in European-Latin American conflicts to enforce legitimate European claims on their behalf, rather than having Europeans press their claims directly–have allowed the US to keep its hold on Latin America, treating it as a testing ground for US hegemony and power politics, Duowei said.

According to Duowei, US control of the region began to slip from the 1970s as Latin America began to resent Washington's influence, sparking a "de-Americanization" movement. After the end of the Cold War, Washington tried to increase its economic influence in Latin America by pushing liberal reforms, but the strategy has depreciated Latin American currencies and failed to bring the economic prosperity originally envisioned, leading to an even stronger backlash, Duowei said.

This eventually led to the establishment of regional economic and political blocs, starting with the signing of an economic integration agreement between Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia in the Cuban capital of Havana on April 29, 2006. The Union of South American Nations formed in May 2008, while the Bank of the South was established in September 2009 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela. From October 2008, Brazil and Argentina also declared that they would gradually abandon the US dollar in bilateral trade.

The global financial crisis in 2008 also hit the US hard and greatly diminished its international influence, including in Latin America, paving the way for traditional rivals such as China and Russia to make inroads into the region. Latin America, for its part, has been welcoming toward Chinese and Russian investment as a means to speed up the de-Americanization trend, Duowei added.

Venezuela, for example, has welcomed China as an export destination for its oil so that it can lessen its reliance on the US market. China's imports of Venezuelan oil have been rising steadily to the point where China is now Venezuela's fourth largest oil export destination. In June 2013, Nicaragua also approved a bill to grant a 50-year concession to the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company to build the landmark waterway.

Last year, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the Monroe Doctrine is "over," but that has done little to win back trust from Latin America, Duowei said, especially when former CIA staffer and whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the US National Security Agency spied on phone conversations, emails and voice-over-IP services in Brazil and 13 other Latin American countries, including Columbia and Mexico. This led to Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela offering Snowden political asylum, while Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff canceled her scheduled trip to the US.

Chinese president Xi Jinping raised eyebrows last year when he made a trip to Central and North America as one of his first official state visits and signed deals that showed off China's economic prowess, Duowei said. He will soon be visiting Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba between July 17 and July 23. His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, in an effort to find new economic partners after being isolated by the West due to the Crimea crisis earlier this year, will visit Cuba, Argentina and Brazil between July 17 and July 23. Both leaders will appear at the sixth BRICS Summit in Brazil on July 15 and July 16.

Washington does not appear ready to give up its "backyard," Duowei says, which is why US vice president Joe Biden made a trip to Latin America between June 16 and June 19 ahead of Xi and Putin's visits, but given the rising tide of anti-US sentiment and the desire to de-Americanize, it appears Chinese and Russian presence in Latin America will only keep growing stronger, Duowei said.　

Brazil passes online privacy law as Web governance conference starts in Sao Paulo

Deutsche Welle, 23 April 2014

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has ratified a bill guaranteeing Internet privacy and access to the Web. It comes as Sao Paulo hosts a global conference on Internet governance.

The legislation, which was passed by parliament late on Tuesday, puts limits on the metadata that can be collated from Internet users in Brazil. It also makes Internet service providers not liable for content published by their users and requires them to comply with court orders to remove offensive material.

Rousseff, who was in Sao Paulo for the opening of the NetMundial global conference on Internet governance, has been at the forefront of efforts to formally recognize Internet freedom and privacy.

Rousseff has been pushing for
measures on Internet governance

Last year, when it was revealed that she had been under surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA), Rousseff cancelled a state visit to the US and started to champion Internet freedom and privacy.

Speaking at the opening of NetMundial, she said that "the Internet we want will only be possible in a scenario of respect for human rights, in particular the right to privacy and freedom of expression."

Despite her differences with the US, Rousseff praised Washington for its decision to hand over the management of ICANN and IANA, which manage the Internet's global domain name system, next September.

"I salute the US government's recently announced plan to replace its links to IANA and ICANN with a global management of those institutions," she said on Wednesday.

During the two-day conference, government officials, industry executives and academics from around the world are expected to agree on a set of principles to enhance online privacy that does not overly restrict the Internet's self-regulated nature.

They will also debate how to govern the Internet after the US hands over the reins at ICANN. The meeting's resolutions are non-binding, but Brazil hopes they can serve as the foundation for further discussions on Internet governance.

The main challenge is to find common ground between different governments and corporate Internet giants like Facebook and Google, who are opposed to more regulation.

ng/rc (AP, Reuters)

Rousseff backs EU-Brazil cable project

Deutsche Welle, 24 February 2014

Brazil and the EU plan to establish a communications network complete with undersea cable to circumvent the US National Security Agency. It's the outcome of a visit to Brussels by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

Brazil and the EU welcomed on Monday a German proposal to create a European network to avert US surveillance. At a summit in Brussels, Rousseff said the joint project would "guarantee the neutrality" of the Internet.

Brazilian telecoms provider Telebras and Spain's IslaLink plan major shares in the cable project priced at $185 million (135 million euros). European and Brazilian pension funds would put up the remainder.

The cable would span the Atlantic Ocean, from the Portuguese capital Lisbon to Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil.

Last year, it emerged that the National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on Rousseff's email and phone communications. US President Barack Obama apologized to Merkel for surveillance of her mobile phone.

"We have to respect privacy, human rights and the sovereignty of nations. We don't want businesses to be spied upon," Rouseff told a news conference in the presence of top EU officials.

"We will continue to enhance data protection and global privacy standards," said President Herman Van Rompuy.

Brussels has since scrutinized EU-Us agreements on data transfers, demanding increased guarantees for the protection of data of citizens in the EU.

The EU is a major trading partner with Brazil, receiving more than 20 percent of Brazil's exports and accounting for a similar share of its imports.

Talks on a long-envisaged free-trade deal were however delayed at the summit, officials said.

ipj/dr (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

Access to one of the building's floors requires US
government clearance

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US under fire in global press freedom report

Google -  AFP, 12 February 2014

Protestors hold up placards featuring a picture of former NSA contractor Edward

 Snowden and with the world Asylum on it during a march against the spying methods

 of the US in Hamburg, northern Germany on December 28, 2013 (DPA/AFP/File,

Bodo Marks)

Paris — Conflicts continued to weigh heavily on the media last year but press freedom was also under increasing threat from abuses by democracies like the United States, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.

In its annual World Press Freedom Index, the Paris-based media rights watchdog warned of the "growing threat worldwide" from the "tendency to interpret national security needs in an overly broad and abusive manner".

The United States was singled out for its pursuit of intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, the conviction of WikiLeaks informer Bradley Manning and the secret seizure of phone records from the Associated Press.

The group, known by its French acronym RSF, said the United States had suffered "one of the most significant declines" in press freedom last year, dropping 13 places to 46th in the 180-country index, wedged between Romania and Haiti.

"Countries that pride themselves on being democracies and respecting the rule of law have not set an example, far from it," RSF said.

Syria remained especially deadly for journalists last year, with RSF reporting nearly 130 media professionals killed in the country since its conflict began in March 2011.

Syria's overall ranking of fourth from the bottom was unchanged, but RSF has raised concerns about a surge in kidnappings.

Armed conflicts hurt press freedom elsewhere, with Mali falling 22 spots to 122nd and the Central African Republic dropping 43 places to 109th.

The top-ranked countries were Finland, The Netherlands and Norway, unchanged from last year.

At the bottom again were Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan, described by RSF as "news and information black holes and living hells for the journalists who inhabit them".

Britain dropped three places in the ranking to 33rd, with RSF blaming the "disgraceful pressure" it put on newspaper The Guardian over its reporting of Snowden's revelations of widespread spying by the US National Security Agency.

In Asia, Japan dropped five spots to 59th, with RSF criticising the adoption late last year of a new "intelligence protection" law that stiffens penalties for those who spill state secrets.

China, which dropped one spot to 175th, "continues to censor and jail dissident bloggers and journalists", RSF said.

Bulgaria remained the lowest-ranked European Union country in the index, but was "closely challenged" by Greece, which is ranked 99th after years of financial pressure on the media and some violence against journalists.

The report also highlighted "noteworthy rises" in countries where "violence against journalists, direct censorship and misuse of judicial proceedings are on the decline" -- including in Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic.

Here are some selected rankings from the index:

1. Finland

2. The Netherlands

3. Norway

...

14. Germany

16. Ireland

18. Canada

23. Belgium

28. Australia

33. Britain

39. France

42. South Africa

46. United States

59. Japan

109. Central African Republic

111. Brazil

112. Nigeria

122. Mali

127. Ukraine

140. India

148. Russia

152. Mexico

154. Turkey

158. Pakistan

159. Egypt

...

177. Syria

178. Turkmenistan

179. North Korea

180. Eritrea

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  Government

Let us speak of government. We're not speaking of your government, but of any government - the way it works, how it survives, how it has survived, the way it campaigns, and how it elects leaders. It's going to change.

Years ago, I told you, "When everybody can talk to everybody, there can be no secrets." Up to this point on this planet, government has counted on one thing - that the people can't easily talk to each other on a global scale. They have to get their information through government or official channels. Even mass media isn't always free enough, for it reports that which the government reports. Even a free society tends to bias itself according to the bias of the times. However, when you can have Human Beings talking to each other all at once, all over the planet without government control, it all changes, for there is open revelation of truth.. …”

Brazil demands explanation over US spying on IMF

Google - AFP, 13 November 2013

Brazil called an unscheduled meeting of the International Monetary Fund executive

 board Wednesday to discuss reports that the United States spied on the institution,

the country's IMF representative told AFP (AFP/File, Yuri Gripas)

Washington — Brazil called an unscheduled meeting of the International Monetary Fund executive board Wednesday to discuss reports that the United States spied on the institution, the country's IMF representative told AFP.

"A meeting was held on my request... I wanted to have some explanations," said Brazil's executive director at the IMF, Paulo Nogueira Batista.

Nogueira Batista would not divulge what was said at the meeting, citing the directors' obligation to keep their discussions confidential.

But the meeting was the first public sign from the institution of anger over reports that the US National Security Agency had extended its massive efforts to spy on both US rivals and allies to the IMF and the World Bank.

According to news reports late last month, citing unnamed US officials, President Barack Obama ordered the NSA to end its electronic surveillance of the two global financiers.

But the White House officially has not acknowledged that it spied on them.

Nogueira Batista, whose government has directly protested to Washington over the NSA's purported tapping of the email of President Dilma Rousseff, said as the country's executive director at the IMF he had a right to call the unscheduled executive board meeting.

He said that IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde did not attend the meeting.

Both the IMF and the World Bank have refused to comment officially on the issue.

"We are aware of the news report and have no comment to offer at this stage," an IMF spokeswoman told AFP Wednesday.

Germany and Brazil circulate UN draft resolution on condemning surveillance

Deutsche Welle, 2 November 2013

Germany and Brazil have circulated a draft resolution to a UN General Assembly committee that calls for an end to excessive electronic spying. The resolution comes after leaks revealed mass surveillance by the US.

The draft resolution by Germany and Brazil was sent to the assembly's human rights committee on Friday.

The resolution does not name any specific countries, but it does follow a series of reports of US mass international surveillance. Alleged eavesdropping on Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have sparked surprise and anger in Brazil and Germany.

The disclosures were leaked to media organizations by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The German-Brazilian draft would have the assembly declare that it is "deeply concerned at human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications."

The draft would also call on UN member states "to take measures to put an end to violations of these rights and to create the conditions to prevent such violations, including by ensuring that relevant national legislation complies with their obligations under international human rights law."

The resolution will likely undergo changes as it is debated in the General Assembly's human rights committee.

General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding but they do reflect world opinion and carry political weight.

hc/jm (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Stonewalled by US, Germany's attitude to Snowden shifts

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NSA scandal journalist Greenwald urges Germany to protect Snowden

Deutsche Welle, 28 October 2013

The journalist who worked with US whistleblower Edward Snowden has urged Germany to offer protection to the former intelligence operative. Meanwhile, Berlin is to debate claims the US spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In an interview with German television on Monday, Brazil-based Glen Greenwald said Germany should offer asylum to former US intelligence operative Edward Snowden, who is currently being granted temporary asylum in Russia.

Through the British newspaper The Guardian, US journalist Greenwald uncovered details of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program early this year based on leaks from Snowden, a former NSA contractor.

In an interview with German public broadcaster ARD, Greenwald said the extent of spying activity of the NSA - including the eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone - would not be known without information made available by Snowden.

"Germany is precisely one of the countries that has most benefited from these revelations, from the start," said Greenwald.

"Rather than thanking him or being grateful or just doing their duty under the law to protect people who are being politically persecuted, the German government has turned its back on him and allowed its ally the United States to threaten his political rights and persecute him."

"I think it really is up to the German people to ask why that is," said Greenwald, who no longer works for The Guardian.

Special parliamentary session

Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, is set to debate the spying affair on November 18 - signifying something of a change of heart on the part of Merkel's government. Such a debate had been requested by opposition parties weeks ahead of the German general election on September 22, but this was refused.

The formation of a special committee to discuss the NSA affair is also seen as likely, something that would require the approval of a third of Bundestag lawmakers. While the opposition Green and Left parties have only about a fifth of seats in the assembly, the CDU/CSU grouping and its expected coalition partner the SPD have said they would support an "appropriate" motion by the opposition.

Greenwald said that Snowden would be a "logical choice" to answer questions as a witness at the committee, but that he would need a guarantee that his basic rights would be respected. Several German deputies have also called for Snowden to be summoned.

However, the office of Chancellor Merkel said there were no plans to ask Snowden to attend.

The German government on Monday said it has learnt nothing new of about the spying affair since it came to light on Monday. A representative of the chancellor also refused to answer a question about whether Obama had apologized to Merkel.

"I never report on the confidential conversations of the chancellor," said the spokesman.

White House mulls changes

Meanwhile, the White House has said it believed some constraints were needed in light of recent revelations. As well as the spying on the German chancellor, the NSA is accused of tapping millions of phone calls of Spanish citizens the space of just a month. It is also accused of carrying out vast online trawling operations in that country.

"We recognize there needs to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

"We also need to ensure that our intelligence resources are most effectively supporting our foreign policy and national security objectives, that we are more effectively weighing the risks and rewards of our activities," Carney said.

The head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee took a tougher line, calling for a "total review of all intelligence programs."

Senator Dianne Feinstein said her committee had been informed of the NSA's collection of phone records under a secret order. But she said the committee had been kept in the dark as to the extend of the surveillance.

"Unlike NSA's collection of phone records under a court order, it is clear to me that certain surveillance activities have been in effect for more than a decade and that the Senate Intelligence Committee was not satisfactorily informed," she said.

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of US allies - including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany - let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed."

rc/ph (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters, ARD)

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US spying allegations to be reviewed by Americas commission

Google – AFP, 21 October 2013

This photo, taken on May 31, 2006, shows the National Security Agency

in Fort Meade, Maryland (AFP/File, Paul J. Richards)

Washington — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said Monday it will review allegations of US spying in detail during its next period of hearings, which starts next week.

The sessions by the Washington-based body come amid fresh controversy caused by former US security contractor Edward Snowden.

France and Mexico angrily demanded swift explanations Monday about Snowden's latest leaks, alleging that the United States had spied on millions of phone communications.

Allegations of US spying on foreign individuals and governments in the past year "have been of enormous concern" for the commission, said IACHR executive secretary Emilio Alvarez.

The allegations have even breached once-strong ties between the United States and Brazil, with President Dilma Rousseff even postponing a long-planned visit to Washington over the matter.

IACHR, an independent body of the Organization of American States, will hold its 149th session from October 28 to November 1, hearing 52 of the 217 cases requested.

Including its March session earlier this year, the commission will have held 114 hearings in 2013, the highest number in the last six years.

"We see it as a sign that the system is strengthened and the participants are reaffirming their confidence in the system, as far as the hearing mechanism is concerned," Alvarez told reporters.

The commission will also weigh in on the prisoner situation at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay after hunger strikes there, US immigration reform and judicial independence in Latin America.

Other sessions will focus on use of drones, refugee cases in the Americas and freedom of expression in Ecuador, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil.

Colombia will have the most hearings with five cases, mainly over allegations of repression against indigenous people and other groups during social protests. Venezuela, Mexico and the United States each have four cases.

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Mexico demands US answers on German media reports of spying

Google – AFP, 21 October 2013

Felipe Calderon, former President of Mexico, pictured in New York on

 September 26, 2012, had his email account hacked by the NSA, according to

reports (AFP/File, Stan Honda)

Mexico City — Mexico has demanded answers from Washington following a report in a German weekly that US agents hacked into former president Felipe Calderon's email account.

Der Spiegel cited documents provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden as the source of its report, which claimed that the NSA has spied on the Mexican government for years.

"The Mexican government reiterates its categorical condemnation of the violation of privacy of institutional communications and Mexican citizens," Mexico's foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday.

"This practices is unacceptable, illegitimate and contrary to Mexican law and international law," the statement read, adding that it will ask US officials for answers "as soon as possible."

In May 2010 the NSA hacked into the email service of the Mexican presidency, and were able to access president Calderon's email messages, according to Der Spiegel.

"In a relationship between neighbors and partners there is no room for the practices that allegedly took place," the Mexican statement read.

Snowden, who has taken refuge in Russia, is wanted in the United States for espionage and other charges after leaking details of the NSA's worldwide snooping activities.

In September, US journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has access to documents leaked by Snowden, reported that the spy agency hacked current Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's emails before his election last year.

Greenwald also told Brazil's Globo television that the NSA had monitored the online activities of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, as well as those of state-run energy giant Petrobras.

The disclosures led Rousseff to slam the United States in an address to the United Nations and to scrap a planned state visit to Washington.

In September Pena Nieto said that in a telephone call, Obama promised to investigate the spying allegations.

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Brazil announces secure email to counter US spying

Google – AFP, 14 October 2013

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia on October 8, 2013 (AFP/File,

 Evaristo Sa)

Brasilia — Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced Sunday that her government was creating a secure email system to try and shield official communications from spying by the United States and other countries.

"We need more security on our messages to prevent possible espionage," Rousseff said on Twitter, ordering the Federal Data Processing Service, or SERPRO, to implement a safe email system throughout the federal government.

The agency, which falls under Brazil's Finance Ministry, develops secure systems for online tax returns and also creates new passports.

The move came after Rousseff publicly condemned spying against Brazilian government agencies attributed to the United States and Canada.

"This is the first step toward extending the privacy and inviolability of official posts," Rousseff said.

After bringing her complaints against US intelligence agencies to the United Nations General Assembly last month and canceling a state visit to Washington, Rousseff announced that the country will host an international conference on Internet governance in April.

In recent months, Brazilian media outlets have published documents showing that the US National Security Agency's spied on Rousseff's official communications, her close associates and state-controlled oil giant Petrobras.

The information was revealed by Edward Snowden, a 30-year-old former NSA contractor who has sought refuge in Russia and is wanted by the United States after revealing details of the agency's massive snooping activities.

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Brazil hackers mistake NASA for NSA in spying payback

Google – AFP, 17 Sep 2013

A view of the Vehicle Assembly Building on September 11, 2009 at

the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (AFP/File, Karen Bleier)

BRASILIA — Hackers have hit back in retaliation for US cyber-spying on Brazil but mistook the US space agency NASA for the National Security Agency (NSA), a news website reported here Tuesday.

"Some activists decided to protest this US practice but it seems that they picked the wrong target," a specialized blog of the Brazilian news portal Uol said.

"They hacked NASA's web page and left the message: Stop spying on us," it said.

The hackers' message also called on the United States not to attack Syria.

A NASA spokesman confirmed that a Brazilian hacker group last week posted a political message on a number of NASA websites.

"At no point were any of the agency's primary websites, missions or classified systems compromised," said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.

"We are diligently taking action to investigate and reconstitute the websites impacted during web defacement incident," he said.

The attack followed recent disclosures that the NSA spied on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's email communications and on the state-run energy giant Petrobras.

The disclosures were based on documents obtained by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Brasilia slammed the alleged spying as "unacceptable" and demanded explanations from Washington.

Rousseff postponed a state visit to Washington in protest over allegations of US cyberspying on her country.

Rousseff announced the decision after discussing the espionage row with US President Barack Obama Monday in a telephone call.

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