NSA, British counterpart reportedly targeted Israeli leader Ehud Olmert in 2009
LONDON -- British and U.S. spies targeted a senior European Union official, German government buildings, and the office of an Israeli prime minister, according to the latest leaked documents from Edward Snowden published on Friday.
Other targets from 2008 to 2011 included foreign energy companies and aid organizations, said Britain's Guardian and the New York Times, citing secret documents from the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor.
Snowden has shone a light on widespread surveillance by the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ, the alleged extent of which has upset many U.S. allies and fueled a heated debate about the balance between privacy and security. He is living in Russia under temporary asylum.
The newspapers reported that in January 2009 GCHQ and the NSA had targeted an email address listed as belonging to the Israeli prime minister, who at the time was Ehud Olmert. Spies also monitored email traffic between then-Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his chief of staff, Yoni Koren, the newspapers said.
But Gen. Keith Alexander, the four-star Army general who leads the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, told CBS News senior correspondent John Miller in an interview broadcast on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday the NSA doesn't choose who to spy on. They target the subjects and the countries that other U.S. agencies, including the State Department, ask for intelligence on
"That's one of the ones that the White House and I think our principals are looking at. What is the appropriate measures? What should we do? And what are we gonna stop doing?" Alexander asked. "From my perspective, when we look at that it has to be both ways. Our country and their country has to come to an agreement to do the same. It can't be either way."
The Guardian said the disclosure that GCHQ had targeted German government buildings in Berlin was embarrassing for British Prime Minister David Cameron since he had signed an EU statement condemning the NSA's spying on Merkel.
GCHQ said it was aware of the reports but did not comment on intelligence matters. A spokesman said: "Our work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate."
Other targets in Friday's reports were said to include the United Nations Children's Fund, French aid organization Médecins du Monde, French oil and gas firm Total, and French defense company Thales Group.
Joaquin Almunia, the European competition commissioner who oversees anti-monopoly investigations and has been involved in a long-running case involving Google, was another to appear in GCHQ documents, although it was not clear who ordered the surveillance.
An NSA spokeswoman said the agency did not use espionage to help U.S. businesses.
"We do not use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of - or give intelligence we collect to - U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line," the spokeswoman said.
"The intelligence community's efforts to understand economic systems and policies, and monitor anomalous economic activities, are critical to providing policy-makers with the information they need to make informed decisions that are in the best interest of our national security."
However, the European Commission said if it was true one of its senior officials had been targeted it would be "unacceptable."
"This piece of news follows a series of other revelations which, as we clearly stated in the past, if proven true, are unacceptable and deserve our strongest condemnation," a spokesman said.
"This is not the type of behavior that we expect from strategic partners, let alone from our own member states."