Secret documents reveal more than 1,000 targets of American and British surveillance in recent years,including the office of an Israeli prime minister,heads of international aid organizations,foreign energy companies and a European Union official involved in anti-trust battles with American technology businesses. Britains General Communications Headquarters,working closely with National Security Agency,monitored communications of senior European Union officials,foreign leaders including African heads of state and sometimes their family members,directors of UN and other relief programmes,and officials overseeing oil and finance ministries,according to the documents. Details of the surveillance are described in documents from the NSA and Britains eavesdropping agency,known as GCHQ,dating from 2008 to 2011. The documents were leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The reports show that spies monitored the email traffic of several Israeli officials,including one target identified as Israeli prime minister,followed by an email address. The prime minister at the time of the interception,in January 2009,was Ehud Olmert. The following month,spies intercepted the email traffic of the Israeli defence minister,Ehud Barak,according to another report. Two Israeli embassies also appear on the target lists. Olmert in a telephone interview Friday said the email address was used for correspondence with his office,which he said staff members often handled. He added that it was unlikely that any secrets could have been compromised. This was an unimpressive target, Olmert said. Barak has said publicly he used to take it for granted that he was under surveillance. Also on the lists is Joaquín Almunia,vice-president of the European Commission. Multiple UN missions are listed as targets,including Unicef and UN Institute for Disarmament Research. So is Médecins du Monde,a medical relief organization going into war-ravaged areas.
