The latest bombshell revelations from Edward Snowden's leaked documents show that the NSA bugged, spied on and even cyberattacked European Union institution offices allowing them to "access discussions in EU rooms as well as emails and internal documents on computers" claims Der Spiegel based on a "top secret" document obtained by Snowden and seen by Spiegel.
The NSA, reports Spiegel, planted bugs in EU Washington, DC offices and infiltrated the EU representation's computer network.
Spiegel also reports that the NSA cyberattacked the Justus Lipsius Building in Brussells where the EU Council of Ministers and the European Council is located.
These are potentially explosive revelations.
UPDATE: Strong EU reactions to these latest revelations are coming fast and furious. According to Reuters:
Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said that if the report was correct, it would have a "severe impact" on relations between the EU and the United States.
"On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the U.S. authorities with regard to these allegations," he said in an emailed statement.
UPDATE: It's
now reported that the top secret documents seen by Der Spiegel also reveal massive US spying in Germany, the most in any EU country, to the tune of a half-billion phone calls, emails and text messages a month monitored by the NSA.
The US classifies Germany as a "third class" partner and says "We can attack the signals of most foreign third-class partners, and we do it, too."
This is a level of spying that the Stasi secret police could only dream of back in the day.