IPFS News Link • Surveillance
Portrait of the NSA: no detail too small in quest for total surveillance
• theguardian.com, Ewen MacAskill and James BallBut long before Ban's limousine had even passed through the White House gates for the meeting, the US government knew what the secretary general was going to talk about, courtesy of the world's biggest eavesdropping organisation, the National Security Agency.
One NSA document – leaked to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden just a month after the meeting and reported in partnership with the New York Times - boasts how the spy agency had gained "access to UN secretary general talking points prior to meeting with Potus" (president of the United States). The White House declined to comment on whether Obama had read the talking points in advance of the meeting.