NSA 'tracked 60 million phone calls in Spain in a month'

America’s National Security Agency (NSA) has spied on over 60 million telephone calls made in Spain and 46 million in Italy in one month alone, documents leaked by Edward Snowden show

US warns partners that Edward Snowden files may disclose secret cooperation: Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor Photo: REX FEATURES

By , and Nick Squires in Rome

1:49PM GMT 28 Oct 2013


Intelligence services in America intercepted 60.5 million telephone calls in Spain over the course of just month, according todata obtained by Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

The National Security Agency (NSA) recorded the telephone calls between December 2012 and January 2013, noting where the call was made, the series number of the handset used, the number of the SIM card and the duration of the call. The content was not recorded.

During the same period they also secretly monitored 46 million calls in Italy.

Italian intelligence sources said they had "no evidence" to support the claim, which was made on Cryptome, a US-based website that gathers intelligence on spying, surveillance and national security. They did, however, increase security around the American embassy in Rome.

James Costos, America’s ambassador to Spain, has been summoned by Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, to explain the revelations. He was due to meet Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, Spain’s European secretary of state, on Monday, in a meeting organised on Friday, after El Pais published reports suggesting the monitoring of communications – but without giving details.

The article in El Mundo shows a day-by-day account of American eavesdropping. Written by Glenn Greenwald – the Brazil-based American journalist, who has worked with former CIA contractor Edward Snowden to publish the NSA spying revelations – the article stated that on one day alone, December 11, a total of 3.5 million calls were recorded.

On December 30, New Year’s Day and Jan 2 no calls were monitored.

“The interception carried out by the United States also includes the intrusion in personal information through the internet browser, email and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook,” the authors write.

El Mundo claims that the Americans used software called “Boundless Informant” to process the information obtained.

Interception of telephone calls is illegal under Spanish law 25/2007, which forbids the conservation of data relating to electronic communications and public networks.

The El Mundo newspaper report comes a week after the French paper Le Monde reported similar allegations of US spying in France, and German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Washington tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. The leaders of Brazil and Mexico are also reported to have been spied on.

A European summit last week was dominated by anger over the reported extent of US spying on allies and Germany was sending its spy chiefs to Washington to demand answers.

At a European Union summit on Friday, Mrs Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said they would press the Obama administration to agree by year’s end to limits that could put an end to the alleged American eavesdropping on foreign leaders, businesses and innocent citizens.

Nine European Parliament deputies were visiting Washington on Monday to get more information on the US mass surveillance by the NSA.

 

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013

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