The 35 “top secret” NSA targets for telephone intercepts include the Japanese Cabinet office, Bank of Japan officials – including Haruhiko Kuroda, the current governor of the bank – finance and trade ministry members and fossil fuel departments at Mitsubishi and Mitsui.
The WikiLeaks release follows earlier revelations that the US was spying on North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies France and Germany.
The Japanese authorities and the 2 corporations had no speedy response to the postings, which went up on the WikiLeaks web site late afternoon Japan time.
In a statement, Wikileaks said the top-secret documents, “demonstrate the depth of US surveillance of the Japanese government”.
The documents, marked “top secret”, reportedly show that the US was listening in on conversations at Japanese government ministries and offices.
The US National Security Agency is spying on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe like German Chancellor Angela Merkel due to his subservient behavior, a political analyst says. One of the reports was shared with the United States’ “Five Eyes” intelligence partners: Australia, Canada, UK and New Zealand.
The trade leaks are particularly sensitive, published on the day of final talks to complete the Trans Pacific Partnership between Japan, the US, Australia, and nine other countries.
The documents demonstrate intimate knowledge of internal Japanese deliberations on several key issues.
WIKILEAKS published evidence of the United States spying on its ally Japan yesterday, including a list of government and business targets.
VICE News was not able to independently confirm the accuracy of the documents, but the leak is the latest in a series of alleged NSA materials released by WikiLeaks.
The lesson for Japan is this: do not expect a global surveillance superpower to act with honour or respect.
Japanese Foreign Ministry press secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura said Japan and the United Statesare in communication about the issue of NSA “information collection” but declined to provide details. There is only one rule: “there are no rules”, he said. According to the documents from WikiLeaks, the agency had also bugged Japan’s G8 proposals on climate change, which were highly confidential.
Representatives from both the United States and Japan are in Hawaii this week for high-profile regarding an Asia-Pacific free-trade bloc that would make up 40 percent of the world’s economy.
Source: Dispatch Times
