Allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency spied on millions of French citizens are set to overshadow vital talks on the future of Syria.
Top-ranking politicians from both sides of the Atlantic will come face to face on Tuesday just one day after a report in Le Monde claimed the NSA recorded 70 million phone calls and text messages over a 30-day period.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his French counterpart, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, at the meeting of the so-called London 11, which aims to resolve the ongoing crisis in Syria. However, French officials have said that Fabius will also seek to raise the issue of NSA surveillance with Kerry when they meet in the British capital.
France would also like to see the NSA discussed at ameeting of the European Council which will take place on the same day. European officials told FORBES that the French have approached EC President Herman Van Rompuy, who has the final say on the conference agenda, and asked him to table a discussion on the NSA. Coincidentally, the meeting will also discuss the digital economy, focusing on cybersecurity and other key issues.
Kerry said that “protecting the security of our citizens in today’s world is a very complicated, very challenging task” as he arrived in Paris to meet with Arab leaders ahead of the London 11 conference.
In a bid to ease trans-Atlantic tensions,Barack Obamaphoned his French counterpart, President François Hollande, on Monday to reassure him that the U.S. is examining its intelligence gathering practices.
In a statement, the White House said: “The president and President Hollande discussed recent disclosures in the press – some of which have distorted our activities and some of which raise legitimate questions for our friends and allies about how these capabilities are employed.
President Obama “made clear that the United States has begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share.”
Fabius, the French Foreign Minister, was furious when he read Le Monde’s report, immediately summoning U.S. Ambassador Charles Rivkin to his office to ask for an explanation.
“We must quickly ensure that these practices aren’t repeated,” Fabius said. “We were warned in June about the Prism programme and we reacted strongly but obviously we need to go further.”
He added: “This sort of practice between partners that invades privacy is totally unacceptable and we have to make sure, very quickly, that this no longer happens.”
Ambassador Rivkin declined to comment on his discussions with Fabius other than to insist that relations between France and America are the “best they have been for a generation.”
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter responsible for publishing much of the top-secret material leaked by Edward Snowden, wrote the story in Le Monde. His piece claimed the NSA recorded 70.3 million phone calls made by French citizens between December 10, 2012 and January 8, 2013.
The report suggested that recording was triggered every time certain phone numbers made a call. Text messages containing certain key words were also stored, along with the metadata of the communications. The program was named US-985D and is alleged to have recorded communications from terrorists as well as officials, politicians and business people.
Between February 8 and March 8, 2013, the NSA collected 124.8 billion pieces of telephone data from around the world, Le Monde continued, and 97.1 billion pieces of computer data.
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