The US Ambassador to France Charles Rivkin was summoned by the French Foreign Ministry to account for the espionage allegations on Monday morning.
"I have immediately summoned the US ambassador and he will be received this morning at the Quai d'Orsay [the French Foreign Ministry]," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told press. He added that “we must quickly assure that these practices aren't repeated.”
In addition, citing the report on French publication Le Monde, Interior Minister Manuel Valls spoke out on national television against US spy practices.
“The revelations on Le Monde are shocking and demand adequate explanations from the American authorities in the coming hours,” said Valls on television channel Europe 1.
Ambassador Rivkin refrained from commenting on the spy allegations on Monday morning and told Reuters that French-US ties are the “best they have been for a generation.”
Le Monde revealed in a report based on the security leaks of former CIA worker Edward Snowden that the NSA recorded 70.3 million phone calls between December 10, 2012, and January 8, 2013.
The NSA reportedly carries out its espionage in France using a program called ‘US-985D’ which is able to listen in on specific telephone calls and pick up on text messages according to key words used.
Moreover, Le Monde also wrote that it had reason to believe that the spying was not just limited to citizens suspected of being involved in terrorism. According to the data released by Snowden the NSA also eavesdropped on politicians and prominent business figures.
The newspaper did not give any indications as to the identity of the high-profile people.
France is not the only EU nation to be targeted by NSA surveillance. Germany took issue with the US government after it was revealed the NSA was tapping phone lines and recording electronic data in the country.
The EU will take steps to curtail US data mining on Monday in a vote to change data protection rules. The European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties is expected to decide on the issue that would authorize fines for violation of EU data protection.
The US maintains that its spying activities are in the interests of national security and protect against terrorism. However, Snowden leaks released by Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald showed the NSA had monitored Brazilian state-owned oil giant Petrobras and infiltrated the electronic communications of the Brazilian and Mexican presidents.
‘Investment benefits’
Mexico has also demanded an explanation for reports released by Der Spiegel on extensive spying on Mexican top officials and politicians.Der Spiegal revealed that former President Felipe Calderon had also been a target for NSA espionage. Citing a classified internal report, it said the US monitors "diplomatic, economic and leadership communications which continue to provide insight into Mexico's political system and internal stability."
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Mexico slams US NSA spying on Felipe Calderon
"This practice (acts of spying carried out by NSA) is unacceptable, illegal and against Mexican and international law," Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The condemnation came after German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported that an NSA division known as "Tailored Access Operations" said in May 2010 that it had gained access to then-President Calderon's email account, and obtained a "lucrative" source of information.
Calderon served as president of Mexico from December 1, 2006 to November 30, 2012.
The news magazine said that the information regarding the alleged NSA hacking of Calderon's account was in a document leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
In September, Brazil’s Globo TV reported that the NSA spied on private communications of the Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The report was based on documents released by Snowden.
The Mexican president called on US President Barack Obama to order a probe into allegations that the NSA has spied on his private communications.
On September 2, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry also said that it had called on Washington to conduct an “exhaustive investigation” into the issue, and condemned “any kind of spying against Mexican citizens in breach of international law."
Snowden, a former CIA employee, leaked two top secret US government spying programs under which the NSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are eavesdropping on millions of American and European phone records and the Internet data from major Internet companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
The NSA scandal took even broader dimensions when Snowden revealed information about its espionage activities targeting friendly countries.
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