WikiLeaks Reveals NSA Was Spying On Japanese PM

WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing organisation recently revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was actively spying on some of Japan’s high-profile citizens, including the current Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.

Along with high-profile people, NSA was also spying on corporations like Mitsubishi. According to the documents from WikiLeaks, the agency had also bugged Japan’s G8 proposals on climate change, which were highly confidential. They were also allegedly spying on Japan’s secret World Trade Organisation (WTO) plan.

The whistleblowing organisation has not yet revealed the sources of their documents, but it is most likely to be coming from the cache of unpublished documents released to the journalists by former NSA worker, Edward Snowden.

Julian Assange, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks says that this revelation shouldn’t come as a surprise because of the fact that the US has become a global surveillance superpower.

But there’s one surprise to this whole revelation. The term of spying on Shinzo, dates from when he was serving his first term in the office, that lasted from September 2006 to September 2007. It was during that time when US President Barack Obama said that Japan is “one of America’s closest allies in the world.”

This revelation will then become a major embarrassment to the US and President Obama, especially.

Japan is not alone in being put under this sort of surveillance. The reports also reveal similar details that the NSA had been spying on their allies Brazil, France and Germany.

Julian Assange says, “In these documents we see the Japanese government worrying in private how much or how little to tell the United States, in order to prevent undermining of its climate change proposal or its diplomatic relationship.”

“And yet we now know that the United States heard everything and read everything, and was passing around the deliberations of Japanese leadership to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. The lesson for Japan is this: do not expect a global surveillance superpower to act with honour and respect. There is only one rule: there are no rules.”