New Snowden documents show US spied during G20 in Toronto

The United States reportedly conducted widespread surveillance while world leaders were gathered in Toronto for the G20 summit in 2010 and that Canada knew about it, Voice of Russia reported. Documents supplied by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the US converted its Ottawa embassy into a security command for six days in June 2010 as world leaders met in Toronto. The covert operation was known to Canadian authorities, CBC News reported. The briefing notes, stamped "Top Secret", show the US turned its Ottawa embassy into a security command post during a six-day spying operation by the National Security Agency while US President Barack Obama and 25 other foreign heads of state were on Canadian soil in June of 2010. An NSA briefing note describes the American agency's operational plans at the Toronto summit meeting and notes they were "closely co-ordinated with the Canadian partner." The NSA and its Canadian "partner", the Communications Security Establishment Canada, gather foreign intelligence for their respective governments by covertly intercepting phone calls and hacking into computer systems around the world. The secret documents do not reveal the precise targets of so much espionage by the NSA — and possibly its Canadian partner — during the Toronto summit. Both NSA and CSEC were implicated, along with British counterpart GCHQ, for monitoring phone calls and email of foreign leaders and diplomats at the 2009 G20 summit in London. In addition, it was recently reported that CSEC hacked into phones and computers at the Brazilian government’s department of mines. These revelations also came via documents from Snowden, who has received asylum in Russia. The documents have rocked political capitals around the world. NSA spies on everyone from leaders of US allies to millions of Americans. Personal information has been scooped up by the agency’s penetration of major internet and phone companies.