[UPDATE]- Statement from President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz made the following statement on reports that EU offices have allegedly been bugged by the US authorities, shown below the original post.
The document suggests that in addition to installing bugs in the building in downtown Washington, DC, the EU representation's computer network was also infiltrated. In this way, the Americans were able to access discussions in EU rooms as well as emails and internal documents on computers.
According to those documents the US bugged the offices of European Union member state offices in Washington and at the UN and gained access to computer networks used at those location, The Verge reported.
In addition to NSA efforts to listen in on EU representatives in the US, the agency is said to have spied on telecommunications at the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels (pictured above), where the Council of the European Union sits. EU member states have offices at the building with internet connections and phone lines, and it's presumed that the NSA tapped into at least some of those communications. It's not clear if this information comes from the same document, but Der Spiegel reports that five years ago security officers at the Justus Lipsius building traced some missed calls to NSA offices at a NATO building in Brussels.
This follows previous revelations by Snowden, who accessed and stole classified information before fleeing to Hong Kong, regarding a secret NSA program named Prism, where data from large tech companies on millions of Americans has been, and continues to be, collected by the Obama administration. Those companies include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.
Other leaked information from Snowden's treasure trove of classified documents includes the U.S hacking into Chinese Mobile Phone Companies and stealing SMS data.
Those leaks and others have led to charges of espionage to be leveled against Snowden as he fled Hong Kong, supposedly to Russia where it is believed he is at the moment, although there are some serious questions of whether he is still there or not, since nobody but Wikileaks officials, who are protecting him and aiding him in avoiding arrest, have actually seen him.
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[UPDATE]- Statement from President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz made the following statement on reports that EU offices have allegedly been bugged by the US authorities:
"I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of US authorities spying on EU offices. If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations. On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations."
Full Wake up America NSA scandal coverage found here.
