Great Britain Spied On Algeria Through Its Governmental Telecommunications Office

Algeria is among the 20 African countries spied on by the British Intelligence Services (GCHQ) between 2009 and 2010, revealed Thursday, December 8, the French daily newspaper Le Monde in collaboration with the site “The Intercept”.

The two media outlets’ revelations are based on the espionage-related archives held by the former consultant of the American National Security Agency (NSA) fugitive Edward Snowden who entrusted them to Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.

“The identity of the targets is in the lists of hundreds of the GCHQ interceptions including heads of state, prime ministers in office or leaving power, diplomats, military and intelligence leaders, opposition figures and the main players in the economic and financial life of twenty African countries,” wrote Le Monde, which published a graphic depiction of the targeted countries including Algeria and Libya. Algeria is in the category of countries whose diplomats were largely spied on.

The British intelligence services targeted Algerian diplomats including the Algerian ambassador to Riyadh at the time, according to the same source. They also spied on the Libyan Foreign Minister. Tunisia and Morocco are not on the list.

According to the reports consulted by the two media outlets, the British Secret Services have wantonly diverted “satellite communications flows for spying purposes”. “It is the political, economic and strategic sovereignty of these territories often governed by leaders allied to Great Britain that is thus violated,” said Le Monde.