In yet another chapter regarding the United States' international espionage, information recently came to light that in 2007, the NSA made a list of six priority objectives it should spy on.
The governments of the late President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Russia comprised the list made by the NSA, according to an official memo revealed by The New York Times.
According to information published by news agency EFE, the operations carried out by the U.S. government included spying on the official emails of the leaders of said countries and, in the specific case of Venezuela, spying on the top ten officials of the Ministry of Planning and Finances.
According to the documents revealed by The New York Times, the purpose of the NSA's operations in Venezuela was to "help American decision-makers prevent Venezuela from achieving its objective of regional leadership and applying policies that negatively impact the global interests of the United States".
In 2007, the date on the memo leaked last week, the administration of President George W. Bush saw the government of Chávez as a potential leader in Latin America, so the NSA undertook the task to "evaluate" Chávez's progress in his initiatives to pursue regional power objectives in politics, economics, energy and ideology", quoted EFE.
According to the leaked memo, one of the main fears of the U.S. government was an eventual interruption of oil supplies from Venezuela, the third-largest provider of oil to the U.S.
The leak of these documents comes at a time of growing political tension after Edward Snowden, a former NSA analyst, revealed classified information regarding an alleged secret U.S. program which included espionage acts around the globe, as well as the interception of phone and internet communications of various global leaders.
So far, NSA authorities have not made any comments.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
