NSA Wikileaks 2015: What Foreign Leaders Have Said About US Spying

So much for friends with benefits. New documents published by WikiLeaks revealed the U.S. has been spying on French presidents for years. The documents show that the National Security Administration (NSA) has been spying on current French President Francois Hollande, as it had on his predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac. The revelation comes after earlier releases showing the U.S. spied on other world leaders. At this point, the U.S. has been developing quite the reputation.

Several world leaders have condemned the spying and Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff canceled a 2013 state visit to the U.S. over such revelations. While President Obama reassured France that the spying had stopped, we thought it would be a good time to see what some leaders have said about NSA activities.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff

Rousseff canceled a planned visit to the U.S. and addressed the U.N. calling the NSA spying "unacceptable." According to the Guardian, she said:

"Tampering in such a manner in the affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and is an affront of the principles that must guide the relations among them, especially among friendly nations. A sovereign nation can never establish itself to the detriment of another sovereign nation. The right to safety of citizens of one country can never be guaranteed by violating fundamental human rights of citizens of another country."

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman

In response to spying by U.S. and Australian agencies, Aman said that spying could be "severely damaging" to relations because "such activities are not done amongst close friends."

French President François Hollande

Following the latest developments, Hollande said such actions as "unacceptable" between allies. Citing the 2013 Snowden spy leaks, Hollande said:

"President Obama unambiguously reiterated his firm commitment, initially made in November 2013 after the Snowden affair... to end the practices that may have taken place in the past and that are unacceptable between allies."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Merkel was one of the first leaders known to be target by the NSA, when it was revealed that the agency targeted her cell phone. Merkel said that the matter left U.S.-German relations "deeply shaken," and,

"We need trust ... Spying among friends is never acceptable."

Additionally, foreign ministries in Spain, Italy, Mexico and China expressed displeasure at NSA activity.

Meanwhile, world leaders are not the only targets of the NSA. The agency also attempted to reverse engineer anti-virus software in order to spy on users. Software companies from Russia, Finland and the Czech Republic were targets, however, U.S. and British firms were not. The NSA has also been trying to hack companies that create firewalls, encryption software and online message boards.