U. S. spied on three French presidents, says Wikileaks

(AGI) Rome, June 24 - Tensions have risen between the U.S. andFrance after Wikileaks revealed that U.S. intelligence spied onthe last three French presidents. After an emergencymeeting of the Defence Council, French President FrancoisHollande said: "Between allies this is unacceptable andincomprehensible." French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius hassummoned the American ambassador, Jane Hartley, to explain. Shewill be received on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Quai d'Orsay.Later Mr Hollande and U.S. President Barack Obama will discussthe issue in a phone call. The new facts follow revelationsthat the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) spied on GermanChancellor Angela Merkel when she was leader of the CDU partyin 2000. The NSA spied on Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy andthe current president Francois Hollande from 2006 to May 2012,according to documents classified as top secret and released byWikileaks. The agency also tapped the phones of severalministers, MPs and diplomats. However, the main news is thespying itself. The only noteworthy details were Mr Sarkozy'sbid to start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks without involvingthe U.S., or that Mr Hollande feared Greece would leave theeurozone in May 2012. The documents also showed that Germany'sBND intelligence agency had cooperated with the NSA to spy onofficials and companies in Europe, and allowed the Americans touse its Bad Aibling listening post in Bavaria to spy on theFrench president and the EU in Brussels. The founder ofWikileaks, Julian Assange, has pledged that new revelationswould follow. National Security Council spokesman Ned Pricesaid: "We are not targeting and will not target thecommunications of President Hollande." . .