Reports US tapped French phones 'false'

US intelligence chief James Clapper has denied reports that US spies recorded data from 70 million phone calls in France in a single 30-day period. The director of national intelligence said the report in Le Monde newspaper contained "misleading information". In a separate story, the newspaper said the US bugged French diplomats and used the information to sway a key UN vote. Both reports were based on leaks from fugitive ex-US intelligence worker Edward Snowden.

"Recent articles published in the French newspaper Le Monde contain inaccurate and misleading information regarding US foreign intelligence activities," Clapper said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"The allegation that the National Security Agency collected more than 70 million 'recordings of French citizens' telephone data' is false."

Mr Clapper said he would not discuss details of surveillance activities, but acknowledged "the United States gathers intelligence of the type gathered by all nations".

His statement did not mention the second set of allegations about the National Security Agency (NSA) programmes that allegedly monitored French diplomats in Washington and at the UN.

The paper laid out how US spies used computer bugs and phone-tapping techniques to monitor French diplomats at the UN and in Washington.

German magazine Der Spiegel had previously reported the monitoring of French diplomats, and the Washington Post had revealed the existence of a global cyber-spying programme called Genie.

But Le Monde's story gives details of how US agents used the intelligence, apparently gathered from French diplomats under the Genie programme.

It quotes a document issued by a directorate of the NSA as stating that the data helped the US sway a Security Council vote on a resolution imposing new sanctions on Iran on 9 June 2010.

The US had apparently feared losing the vote, and needed French support.

The document quotes America's former UN envoy Susan Rice as saying the NSA's information helped the US "keep one step ahead in the negotiations".

On Monday, Le Monde alleged that the NSA spied on 70.3 million phone calls in France between 10 December 2012 and 8 January 2013.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he had asked for a full explanation of those claims from US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Share this article: