In 2010, the National Security Agency (NSA) gained access to an email domain belonging to the Mexican government. This essentially gave them access to the messages of then-President Felipe Calderon, as well as other high-ranking officials in the government. The surveillance, which continued for several years, yielded a wealth of information about the country's politicians and political system, according to a report in the German magazine Der Spiegel.
The program called "Flatliquid" is the latest revelation from Edward Snowden.
Der Spiegel, however, in addition to this revelation, presented other spicy details about the NSA's activities in Latin America. The article states:
For two weeks in early summer 2012, the NSA, responsible for monitoring the Mexican government, analyzed data obtained from the cellphones of Peña Nieto and “nine other close associates.” The analysts used software to connect this data into a network, which displayed it in a graphic that resembled a swarm of bees. The software then filtered out Peña Nieto’s most relevant contacts and placed them in a database called “DishFire.”
According to internal documents, the agency had 85,489 text messages that had passed through the phones of Peña Nieto and some of his associates. This technology “could find a needle in a haystack,” the analysts said.
The NSA's interest in Latin America extends far beyond Mexico. Greenwald revealed in September that the agency had used the software to scrutinize communications between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and her aides. Rousseff recently canceled a trip to Washington in protest at the revelations of the agency's actions and, by extension, U.S. policy.
Source: secnews.gr
