Yesterday, Glenn Greenwald gave more revelations of just how far the NSA snooping has gone. In an interview with the Brazilian equivalent of Face the Nation, This Week and Meet the Press, Greenwald revealed that at one point, the NSA was looking in on the emails of the presidents of Mexico and Brazil.
Greenwald told Globo news program "Fantastico" that a document dated June 2012, showed that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's emails were being read one month before he was elected to office.
Greenwald, who writes for the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper but lives in Rio de Janeiro, said the emails included communications from Nieto indicating who he would name in his Cabinet.
He also reported that the NSA collected the data through an undefined association between U.S. and Brazilian telecommunications companies.
The journalist told the Associated Press, in an email, that the document did not contain any specific messages intercepted from Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff.
However, it did reveal which aides she had communicated with, and tracked patterns of how those aides communicated among one another and with third parties.
"It is clear in several ways that her communications were intercepted, including the use of DNI Presenter, which is a program used by NSA to open and read emails and online chats," he told the AP.
Brazilian officials are up in arms. Brazilian Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo said that his government would summon the U.S. ambassador to demand an explanation for actions that, if true, would be "a clear violation of Brazilian sovereignty." He also made noises about taking the matter to the UN. No official word yet from Mexico.
It's hard to blame Brazil for being upset. There is no defensible reason to snoop on the emails of a head of government whose country is in no way linked to terrorism. If this is in fact true, it's yet more proof that George W. Bush--for whom the blame for the NSA's program truly rests--is an international criminal.
11:21 AM PT: From Fran1 in the comments: Der Spiegel reports that the NSA spied on the French Foreign Ministry as well.