NSA reportedly spied on European Union offices

According to a "top secret" document obtained by Edward Snowden

Published June 29, 2013 8:00PM (EDT)

As the fate of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden hangs in the balance, more revelations exposing the breadth and depth of America's classified surveillance program continue to emerge. On Saturday, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that a "top secret" document, obtained by Snowden, reveals that the secretive government agency spied on European Union offices.

From Der Spiegel, translated to English by Google Translate:

In a "top secret" classified NSA paper in September 2010 describes how the intelligence attacked the EU's diplomatic representation in Washington.

Thus, not only bugs were installed in the building in the U.S. capital, but also the internal computer network was infiltrated. In this way, the Americans not only get access to meetings at the premises of the EU , but also to e-mails and internal documents on the computers.

The document, which Der Spiegel saw only "in part," also claims responsibility for eavesdropping on the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, which houses the European Council:

Apparently, the U.S. Secret Service is responsible for eavesdropping, which took place in Brussels. A little more than five years of EU security experts were several failed calls that had apparently been considered a remote maintenance facility in the Justus Lipsius building. There sit the EU Council of Ministers and the European Council.

The news comes only two days after it was revealed that the NSA has been tracking American email meta-data for the past ten years.


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

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Edward Snowden Espionage Eu Nsa Spying