BERLIN – French President François Hollande convened high-level emergency meetings Wednesday after the disclosure of purported top-secret reports showing that the United States has spied on him and two predecessors.
The U.S. ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, was summoned to the French Foreign Ministry following the revelations by the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks.
The disclosures, nearly two years after the publication of documents showing that Washington had snooped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, touched off a new round of indignation in Europe over U.S. intelligence-gathering efforts targeting its allies.
In France, politicians across the political spectrum – including Hollande himself, who called the spying “unacceptable” – chided the United States, which often cites France as among its oldest allies.
Yet the details also appeared to come as no real surprise. In a statement, Hollande said the French had already questioned U.S. officials about “these acts” as early as 2013. The earliest of the leaked reports go back to 2006, and the most recent is from May 2012, the month Hollande took office as president.
The White House said in a statement that President Barack Obama spoke with Hollande earlier Wednesday and reiterated to him a commitment made in late 2013 that “we are not targeting and will not target the communications of the French president.”
The phrasing, leaving open the possibility that communications were targeted in the past, was strikingly reminiscent of the language Obama used to reassure Merkel in 2013. The White House said he personally assured her then that the United States “is not monitoring and will not monitor” her calls.
The WikiLeaks documents, published late Tuesday in cooperation with two French media outlets, appeared to show that the United States had targeted Hollande’s personal cellphone. It also suggested that U.S. agents had intercepted communications between his predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, and high-level staff.
The documents suggested the surveillance had been broad but not particularly revealing.
They contain insights into French discussions of issues related to the Palestinian territories, the United Nations and the Greek financial crisis.
Perhaps the most ironic disclosure was an intelligence report dated March 10, 2010, noting that then-President Sarkozy intended to raise a number of sensitive questions regarding U.S.-French intelligence-sharing. Sarkozy, the U.S. report stated, believed “the main sticking point is the U.S. desire to continue spying on France.”
Other insights came off almost as common knowledge, including one 2008 U.S. intelligence report headlined: “Sarkozy sees himself as the only one who can resolve the world financial crisis.”
One leaked report, however, provided potentially embarrassing details regarding relations between Paris and Berlin.
Dated May 2012, the report claimed that Hollande had authorized secret meetings in Paris on the Greek debt crisis that included members of Merkel’s political opposition in Germany. A top French official, according to the document, warned Hollande to keep the meetings out of the public eye to avoid creating “diplomatic problems” if Merkel found out that Hollande was “going behind her back.”
Previous disclosures by WikiLeaks and various global media outlets have relied on a trove of information stolen by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
A WikiLeaks spokesman, Kristinn Hrafnsson, would not disclose the source of the French leaks.
Politicians in France were quick to snipe at Washington as Hollande met with security officials and lawmakers.
“The French need to realize that the United States – and by that I mean the U.S. government and not the American people – is not an allied country nor a friend,” Marine Le Pen, head of the far right National Front, said in a statement.
Alain Juppé, a former prime minister and a leading presidential contender in 2017, tweeted: “3 French Presidents wired. Unacceptable. France cannot simply issue a press release and has to demand an explanation from its American partner.”
Jean-Jacques Urvoas, the Socialist president of France’s National Assembly, also tweeted: “Once again we rediscover that the United States does not have allies, it merely has targets or vassals.”
In a statement on the WikiLeaks website, founder Julian Assange said: “The French people have a right to know that their elected government is subject to hostile surveillance from a supposed ally. ... French readers can expect more timely and important revelations in the near future.”
Virgile Demoustier in Paris contributed to this report.
