The National Security Agency has been exposed for spying on the last three French presidents.
The website Wikileaks revealed classified documents that reveal the NSA targeted the communications of Presidents Hollande, Sarkozy and Chirac. In addition, the spy agency targeted cabinet ministers and the French ambassador to the U.S.
The news of the Wikileaks release was published in the French daily newspaper Liberation.
“The French people have a right to know that their elected government is subject to hostile surveillance from a supposed ally,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in the statement, adding that more “important revelations” would soon follow.
President Obama has told French President Hollande that the NA is “not targeting and will not target” his communications.
A spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council reiterated the President’s position.
“Indeed, as we have said previously, we do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike,” NSC’s Ned Price said.
“We work closely with France on all matters of international concern, and the French are indispensable partners.”
The WikiLeaks documents show the NSA spied on items about “the global financial crisis, the Greek debt crisis, the leadership and future of the European Union, the relationship between the Hollande administration and the German government of Angela Merkel, French efforts to determine the make-up of the executive staff of the United Nations, French involvement in the conflict in Palestine and a dispute between the French and US governments over US spying on France.”
A Jewish mother was one of two victims of anti-Semitic attacks in the Paris area.
The woman was injured by three African women who attacked because the Jewish woman complained about their children throwing a soccer ball at her daughter.
As the trio of women were attacking the Jewish woman, witnesses say they were shouting anti-Semitic slogans and comments. One witness said the assailants yelled “Hitler didn’t finish the job” and “that Jews were a filthy race.”
One of the women said the victim needed more beatings.
The woman was treated in a hospital for her injuries and required several days of recovery.
“Increasingly, banal conflicts involving Jews degenerate into anti-Semitic incidents and assaults,” the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism wrote in a statement, which urged police to “get to the bottom of what happened.”
The BNVCA also reported that a 16-year-old Jewish boy was attacked by four men of Middle Eastern descent. He was struck in the face and had his phone stolen from him while a fifth man told the gang of four to “break” the victim of the assault.
The boy required emergency eye surgery at Rothschild Hospital.
On the heels of France approving dramatic expansion of their spy powers which would allow the government to collect the metadata of all citizens without a warrant, now Canada is moving toward expanding their spy powers.
The Anti-Terror Act was spurred by last year’s attack on the Parliament. The bill flew through House of Commons and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been a strong supporter of the bill. The Senate is expected to approve the act before June.
The act gives the spy agency permission to work overseas along with making preventative arrests of terrorism suspects. The police would also be allowed to make arrests and detain individuals without a charge. Promotion of terrorism by any means including the internet would become a crime.
“There is a high probability of jihadist attacks from within,” Canadian Defence Minister Jason Kenney said. “The threat of terrorism has never been greater.”
Critics say the bill is too sweeping. The opposition includes four former Prime Ministers and five justices of the Canadian Supreme Court.
“This bill will almost certainly lead to a chill on freedom of speech,” said Allan Weiss, professor of humanities at York University. “It is filled with vague wording that would make it possible for the government to label virtually anything it disagreed with as harmful to Canada’s national interests.”
The French parliament has passed a law that would strengthen intelligence services saying that the changes would improve their ability to fight Islamic extremists.
The law passed 438-86. The bill was written three days after the Islamic attacks in Paris in January that left 17 people dead. Socialist government leaders say the new bill takes into account changes in technology.
Critics of the bill say that it is an extension of mass surveillance that further increases the government’s infringement on the personal freedom of citizens.
The focus is on the government now being allowed to collect massive amounts of metadata that would detail the times and places that citizens visit during their day. Similar to the collection of data that was exposed being done by the NSA in the USA.
An Islamic terrorist who had been planning to carry out attacks on French churches has been arrested after he accidentally shot himself in the leg.
The 24-year-old terrorist, whose name is being withheld by authorities, was found with guns, bulletproof vests and notes about intended targets after he called an ambulance for his self-inflicted wound.
French police say the man is a computer science student who had been under observation as a security risk since last year.
AFP news agency reported the suspect was wounded in the leg after a dispute.
In addition to the weapons, police found in the suspect’s car blue lights and orange police armbands that led investigators to believe the terrorist would pose as a police officer to gain entry to churches for attacks.
Police also said that a woman found murdered Sunday morning in what they thought was a random attack was killed by the terrorist suspect in what could have been a practice run.
Attacks on churches would be new for France as previous attacks took place on synagogues.
Islamic terrorist group ISIS has released a new propaganda video aimed at Americans saying there is “no safety” for any citizen and threatening to conduct a 9/11 style attack.
“America thinks it’s safe because of the geographical location,” the video states. “Thus you see it invades the Muslim lands, and it thinks that the army of the Jihad won’t reach in their lands. But the dream of the American to have safety became a mirage. Today there is no safety for any American on the globe. The mujahedeen before, although they had less resources, attacked New York and bombed the Twin Towers in September 11 attacks. That blessed incursion was a fatal blow. All praise is due to Allah, the American economy was shaken.”
In addition to the threats on America, the video features clips of ISIS attacks in the Middle East, the attack on Canada’s Parliament Hill and testimony of Amedy Coulibably, the French terrorist who was part of last year’s massacres.
ISIS burned down the homes of 10 Christian families in Nineveh on April 7th. The group is also setting up traps to kill Christians when they enter their homes.
“Some of the houses in the village are burned. Some are bombed and destroyed. Some are robbed. We heard of one man who tried to enter his house and as soon as he opened the door, the house exploded,” a Christian man named Ayad said in a video interview with the World Council of Churches. “As ISIS forces leave, they are planting explosions inside the houses so that if people return they will be victims of the blast.”
A French government fact sheet on the Iranian nuclear deal, not meant for public view but leaked to the Times of Israel, shows that Iran could be able to quickly generate material needed for a nuclear bomb.
The deal allows Iran use of the IR-2 and IR-4 centrifuges, which can rapidly create highly enriched uranium that is needed for nuclear weapons.
In addition, the deal allows Iran to continue their research and development on the IR-4, IR-5, IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges. The IR-8 centrifuge could enrich uranium at 20 times the speed of the current IR-1 centrifuges. The document released by American officials did not specify this fact.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been assailed by American officials after he said the deal was “very bad” for Israel and paves the way for Iran to create a nuclear bomb. The French document appears to back up the claims of Netanyahu that were criticized by American officials.
This is the second time documents have conflicted with the American “fact sheets” on the Iranian deal.
Israeli analysts noticed differences between the American and Iranian fact sheets just days after the announced deal. Ehud Ya’ari of Israel’s Channel 2 News noticed that while the U.S. says restrictions on enrichment last 15 years, Iranians say it’s only 10. The Iranians also said that they can continue R&D on centrifuges, which the French document confirms, and the American documents say is not permitted.
French officials have announced they will increase monitoring of cash payments and small bank accounts in an attempt to stop the funding of homegrown terrorists.
Finance Minister Michel Sapin said that after the Islamic terrorist attacks that killed 17 people it was necessary to “fight against the use of cash and anonymity in the French economy.”
“It’s a terrorism that is low cost to carry out but has major impact,” Sapin told a news conference. “This low-cost terrorism feeds on fraud, money laundering and petty trafficking.”
The biggest change is that French account holders will not be allowed to make deposits of more than 1,000 euro in cash, down from 3,000 euro. Foreign visitors had a higher cap of 15,000 euro but that will be cut to 10,000. This is done for the benefit of tourism.
The government will also require anyone trying to exchange more than 1,000 euros in cash into other currencies to show an identity card. And if more than 10,000 euros are transferred the government will be notified.
ISIS has released a statement that they plan to “Blow up the White House, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower.”
ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani outlined the group’s plot to take over Portugal, Spain, Paris and Rome in a 30 minute broadcast. The message, aimed at the West, is called “So They Kill And Are Killed”. The title is a reference to a verse in the Koran.
“We won the day Europe and U.S. dreamt of reclaiming Tal Hamis, Mosul, Sinjar, Tikrit, Qaim, Derna, Tell Abyad, and more,” stated the ISIS mouthpiece, as transcribed by Ynet News.
“We — with Allah’s help — want Paris, before Rome and Islamic Iberia and after we blow up the White House, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower before Paris, and Rome,” al-Adnani warned. “The Muslims will return to power, to be the vanguard and lead in every place.”
Intelligence experts say the message is really an attempt to boost the morale among the members of ISIS after a series of big losses to Iraqi troops and U.S. airstrikes.
A Jewish cemetery in Sarre-Union, France was vandalized over the weekend with more than 300 graves defaced by at least 5 teenagers.
Police say that five teens between 15 and 17 are in custody after the youngest of the group turned themselves into authorities and admitted the crime. The teen is denying there was an anti-Semitic motive despite their targeting a Jewish cemetery.
In addition to knocking over or destroying over 300 tombstones, the teens destroyed a monument to Holocaust victims.
While the youngest perpetrator claims there was no anti-Semitic motive to the crime, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the actions “a vile, anti-Semitic act, and insult to the memory of the dead.”
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that the actions of the teens were an “odious act against religious freedom and intolerance.”