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Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Italy summons US envoy over WikiLeaks spying reports
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleItaly’s Foreign Ministry says Tuesday it has summoned the US ambassador to Rome over reports of widespread US surveillance of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, among several other European leaders.
US ambassador John Phillips is called in “for clarification on the media reports that allege Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi and some of his close associates were subjected to wiretapping in 2011,” it says in a brief statement.
According to Italy’s La Repubblica and Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, classified documents released by WikiLeaks reveal the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on leaders from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, as well as the party-loving Italian billionaire.
Another document shows the NSA listened in on talks between Berlusconi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Netanyahu asked Berlusconi to help him improve relations with Washington that were strained by plans for Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem.
— AFP
The Times of Israel Community.