Extensive British Spying Throughout Africa Revealed in Le Monde
Top-secret British surveillance operations targeted the
director of the World Trade Organization, several multinational
corporations, a top French businessman, and heads of state across
Africa, according to a new series of reports by Le Monde.
On Tuesday, the French newspaper began publishing the revelations,
which include a wide range of previously undisclosed details about
British covert activities across the world. The reports were produced in
partnership with The Intercept and are based on documents provided by
the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The series of stories focuses largely on the controversial work of
the U.K.’s electronic surveillance agency Government Communications
Headquarters, or GCHQ. According to Le Monde, in March 2009, the British
agency spied on Pascal Lamy,
then the head of the World Trade Organization and member of the French
socialist party. Between 2008 and 2009, it also targeted Octave Klaba, the founder of the French company OVH, one of Europe’s largest internet hosting companies; Emmanuel Glimet, a French trade and economy official; phone lines at the French ministry of foreign affairs; and several multinational French corporations, including the energy company Areva, oil giant Total, and the defense conglomerate Thalès.
Beyond France, the disclosures highlight the U.K.’s extensive spying operations across Africa.
In 20 countries across the continent, GCHQ monitored current and former
heads of state, prime ministers, diplomats, military and intelligence
chiefs, as well as leading figures in the business and finance industry,
Le Monde reports. Among those who were subject to the surveillance,
which involved intercepting communications as they were being beamed
between satellites, was a close British ally — Kenyan President Mwai
Kibaki and his strategic advisers. Other targets included Nigeria’s
President Umaru Yar’Adua and his private secretary; Ghana’s President
John Kufuor; Sierra Leone’s leader Ernest Koroma; and the presidential
palace in Luanda, Angola. Prominent business figures were also
monitored, such as Nigerian billionaire Tony Elumelu, regarded as one of
Africa’s richest and most influential men, and Chris Kirubi, a wealthy
Kenyan businessman and radio-station owner who was described by Forbes
in 2011 as the country’s “most flamboyant tycoon.”
But not all of the people on the surveillance lists were high-flying corporate and political elites. Le Monde reports that GCHQ spied on the employees of two major telecommunications companies
— the South African firm MTN and Kuwait-based Zain. The agency focused
in particular on “roaming managers” working for the companies in at
least 15 African countries, including Gabon, Ivory Coast, Tunisia,
Congo, and Mali. Roaming managers who work for cellphone companies
organize partnerships between different carriers across the world,
ensuring that when you travel overseas on vacation or a business trip
you can use your phone to connect to a local network and make calls and
receive messages.
