The U.S. Bugged the United Nations' Headquarters
The NSA bugged the United Nations' headquarters in 2012, hacking into its videoconferencing and spying on the diplomatic work of other countries, according to yet another leak released by Edward Snowden, this time published by Germany's Der Spiegel weekly magazine.
The leaked documents also show that the U.S. spied on offices of the European Union, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The documents show the U.S. bugged the European legation to the U.N. as well as contain the full IT infrastructure of their office, and a floor plan.
"The data traffic gives us internal video teleconferences of the United Nations (yay!)," one document said. The spying operation reportedly served very little security purpose and was strictly part of an intelligence operation called "Special Collection Service," which spied on more than 80 countries worldwide.
In the weeks after the U.S. hacked into the teleconference system, the number of intercepted communications rose to 458 from 12, according to the leaked documents. These new, damaging revelations come a week after journalist Glenn Greenwald pledged to continue coordinating an effort to report on the leaked spying document after his partner was detained by British authorities.