WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Liudmila Chernova — Earlier on Tuesday, WikiLeaks began publishing a collection of “Top Secret” intelligence reports from the US National Security Agency (NSA) that involved intercepts of high-level officials including Presidents Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.
“We are not targeting and will not target the communications of President Hollande.”
Price noted that the United States works closely with France on all important international matters.
“Indeed, as we have said previously, we do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike.”
According to WikiLeaks, the Top Secret documents included the summaries of French government officials' conversations about the most urgent issues in France and the world, including the international financial crisis, the Greek debt, as well as the future of the European Union.
In April 2015, an espionage scandal erupted in Germany when local media revealed that the country’s federal intelligence agency BND had provided technical assistance to the NSA to spy on prominent political and business leaders throughout the European Union.
The developments followed the 2013 revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who disclosed that the US intelligence agency had been collecting data on European targets for years.
