JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and not the United States may have hacked into former French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s communications network.
National Security Agency documents released by Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who disclosed massive amounts of secret U.S. documents, include a statement from U.S. officials that indicate the hacking of Sarkozy’s communication network in May 2012 may have been by Israel, the French daily Le Monde reported Friday.
According to the documents, some of which were published by LeMonde, French officials who discovered the breach sought clarification from American officials. The U.S. denied perpetrating the hacking and vouched for four allies: Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
About Israel, the NSA said, according to the documents, that it “intentionally did not ask either Mossad or ISNU whether they were involved as France is not an approved target for joint discussions.” ISNU is Israel’s cyberintelligence unit.
The statement has raised suspicions that Israel was responsible for the hacking, which took place in the last week of Sarkozy’s presidency.
Reports last week of NSA monitoring of calls made by French and German citizens prompted the foreign ministries of both countries to summon their American ambassadors for an explanation and, according to reports, could hamper U.S. foreign policy.
