14 DAY TRIAL // The National Security Agency spied on the communications of other governments before and during the 2009 United Nations climate negotiations in Denmark.
According to the Huffington Post, the NSA was monitoring other countries ahead of the conference. “Analysts here at NSA, as well as our Second Party partners, will continue to provide policymakers with unique, timely, and valuable insights into key countries’ preparations and goals for the conference, as well as the deliberations within countries on climate change policies and negotiations strategies,” reads the file.
This means that the NSA was trying to find intelligence to deliver to US lawmakers so that they could adjust their speeches in a timely manner ahead of the meeting.
“Leaders and negotiating teams from around the world will undoubtedly be engaging in intense last-minute policy formulating; at the same time, they will be holding sidebar discussions with their counterparts -- details of which are of great interest to our policymakers,” the file confirms.
The meeting in question took place in December 2009 in Copenhagen and was the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The event brings together officials from 195 countries where issues such as the rising greenhouse gas emissions and their impact are discussed.
The methods used to gather info are not elaborated in the document, aside from mentioning that it would be capturing signal intelligence such as calls and emails.
This isn’t the first time it has been revealed that the NSA was spying on lawmakers across the globe. So far, reports have indicated that the intelligence agency has tapped the phones of world leaders, including Germany’s Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
The United Nations, embassies, European Union diplomats and other officials have also been on the list of entities that the NSA and its allies have been spying on.