Brazil President Rousseff Asks Canada to Explain Its Spying

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff at the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2013. She condemned the US for spying on her country and others., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

October 7, 2013

Brazil’s Leader Asks Canada to Explain Its Spying

By SIMON ROMERO and IAN AUSTEN
New York Times

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, crisply demanded an explanation on Monday from Canada over revelations that a Canadian intelligence agency had spied on Brazil’s mining and energy ministry and a top Brazilian diplomat, a development contributing to festering resentment in Brazil over the targeting of the nation by foreign intelligence agencies.

Ms. Rousseff called the spying “unacceptable between countries that are supposed to be partners,” expressing her indignation in a stream of Twitter messages. Her government summoned the Canadian ambassador in Brazil, Jamal Khokhar, to respond to the news report describing the Canadian surveillance, which was broadcast Sunday night on the Globo television network.

The report fueled speculation from senior Brazilian officials and Ms. Rousseff herself that the spying may have involved efforts to obtain information for Canadian mining companies, instead of focusing on security threats. While ties are generally warm between Brazil and Canada, the countries have a history of bitter trade disputes involving aircraft and beef exports.

The report, based on documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor for the United States’ National Security Agency, to Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist living in Brazil, showed how the Canadian agency, the Communications Security Establishment Canada, targeted the cellular and electronic communications of personnel within Brazil’s mining and energy ministry.

According to the Globo report, the Canadian agency also monitored the telephone communications of Brazil’s former ambassador to Canada, Paulo Cordeiro de Andrade Pinto, now an under secretary in Brazil’s Foreign Ministry for Africa and the Middle East, and recommended cooperating with the N.S.A.

The information about Canada’s surveillance activities comes after months of revelations of the N.S.A.’s spying on Brazilian targets, including Ms. Rousseff, her top aides and Petrobras, the national oil company. Disappointed with American explanations of the spying, Ms. Rousseff recently postponed a state visit to Washington that had been scheduled to take place this month.

Publicly at least, Brazil’s call for an explanation was met by silence in Canada.

Lauri Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Communications Security Establishment, said the agency “does not comment on foreign intelligence-gathering activities.” Officials for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office and the Department of National Defense, which is responsible for the agency, also declined to comment.

While there was little criticism from politicians and prominent Canadians about the eavesdropping, there did seem to be some confusion about why Brazil would have been a target.

Like those of the N.S.A., most of the Communications Security Establishment’s activities are shielded from public view. Founded during World War II, it operated under secret cabinet orders until its role was clarified under antiterrorism legislation introduced in late 2001.

The agency has a budget of about $442 million a year and a sweeping mandate that allows it to acquire “foreign intelligence” that may be of use to Canada. While technically part of the Canadian military, it works closely with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, a civilian agency, and is building a new headquarters adjacent to its offices.

Wesley Wark, a professor at the University of Ottawa who studies Canada’s national security agencies, said he had never found any evidence that they gather intelligence for private business. He said it was unlikely that the Brazilian interceptions were any different. “It’s not clear to me in the Brazilian case what they would get for the risks they would take,” he said. Instead, he said, Canada most likely was processing data from Brazil that was captured by the N.S.A. through the Five Eyes security alliance that includes Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

Simon Romero reported from Rio de Janeiro, and Ian Austen from Ottawa.