NSA spied on French Presidents, Ministers and Top companies

French journal Liberation and Medialpart revealed that the NSA spied on two of France’s economy ministers and spied on the country’s largest enterprises.

According to National media that cited Wikileaks as the source, the NSA spied on French Economy Ministers and France enterprises. The French journal Liberation and Medialpart, earlier this week, revealed that the NSA had spied on some 100 French companies, “including almost all of the CAC 40.”

“New documents published by WikiLeaks, in partnership with Libération and Mediapart, reveal the scale of operations by US intelligence services against French interests. Five summary reports of the National Security Agency (NSA) show that officials and diplomats were spied between 2004 and 2012, including Pierre Moscovici and Baroin during their visit to Bercy.“

“Never evidence of a massive economic espionage from France, orchestrated at the highest levels of the US government, had been established as clearly.” wrote Liberation.

According to the document published by Wikileaks, Pierre Moscovici, former minister of the economy under French President Francois Hollande, and Francois Baroin, minister the economy under the Sarkozy’s administration, were reportedly subject to cyber espionage by the NSA.

The US state-sponsored hackers mainly targeted French companies in telecommunications, energy and healthcare industries. Wikileaks also revealed that the US spies also monitored all deals valued at above $200 million.

“An aggressive strategy that appears in a secret document setting out priority objectives of the United States in the economic field. Dubbed “France: economic developments” and dated 2012, this note is the NSA’s doctrine on the matter. It aims to collect all relevant information on French business practices, relations between Paris and the international financial institutions, the approach to issues in the G8 and G20, or large foreign contracts involving France. This last point, one of the most sensitive, is detailed in a subsection entitled “Contracts feasibility-negotiations of foreign education.“

The documents highlight that the information gathered were shared with key US administrations, including the Department of Homeland Security, Commerce, command of US forces in Europe.

The last chapter of the NSA saga come after revelations from WikiLeaks last week that the NSA has wiretapped the last three French presidents (Hollande, Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac) between 2006 and 2012.

France representative said that the Government “will not tolerate any acts that threaten its security.”

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –France, NSA)