Image by wikicommons

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and not the United States may have hacked into former French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s communications network.

National Security Agency documents released by Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who disclosed massive amounts of secret U.S. documents, include a statement from U.S. officials that indicate the hacking of Sarkozy’s communication network in May 2012 may have been by Israel, the French daily Le Monde reported Friday.

Image by wikicommons

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

According to the documents, some of which were published by LeMonde, French officials who discovered the breach sought clarification from American officials. The U.S. denied perpetrating the hacking and vouched for four allies: Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

About Israel, the NSA said, according to the documents, that it “intentionally did not ask either Mossad or ISNU whether they were involved as France is not an approved target for joint discussions.” ISNU is Israel’s cyberintelligence unit.

The statement has raised suspicions that Israel was responsible for the hacking, which took place in the last week of Sarkozy’s presidency.

Reports last week of NSA monitoring of calls made by French and German citizens prompted the foreign ministries of both countries to summon their American ambassadors for an explanation and, according to reports, could hamper U.S. foreign policy.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount