Posted on 10/30/2013 8:11:42 PM PDT by NYer
The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday.
The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13.
The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said that the NSA monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the lead-up to the conclave, which was held amid tight security in the Sistine Chapel.
The information gleaned was then reportedly divided into four categories — “leadership intentions”, “threats to financial system”, “foreign policy objectives” and “human rights”.
At that time, Benedict XVI was Pope, suggesting that the Vatican may also have been monitored during the last few weeks of his papacy.
The allegations follow a report on Cryptome, a website that gathers intelligence on surveillance and national security, which claimed the US intercepted 46 million telephone calls in Italy between Dec 10 2012 and Jan 8 January 2013.
The monitoring of communications, including emails, continued after Benedict’s resignation in February and encompassed the election of Pope Francis.
“It is feared that the great American ear continued to tap prelates’ conversations up to the eve of the conclave,” the weekly magazine said.
It added that there were “suspicions that the conversations of the future Pope may have been monitored”, but provided no hard evidence or quoted sources for the claim.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Ping!
For all the the intelligence they gather, our Government still makes mostly incredibly stupid decisions.
NSA spied on my Auntie at the Church potluck..
Took pictures up her dress..
Something stinks to High Heaven about all of the Snowden crapola.
In case anyone is wondering, Obama didn’t know anything about this either. Just getting ahead of Jay Carney...
Who is Edward Snowden?
Why does nothing stick to Obama or Putin?
NSA! NSA! NSA!
I call BS.
Someone is trying to shed a bad light on NSA, and I suspect it is Obama.
He’ll use it for his duration and torch it for the next guy.
Obama has know knowledge of any thing Machiavellian.
Shay... Right...
“No knowledge”
Just a simple rube that wants to help.
Maybe old Pope Francis is a master spy.
It could happen, but something is amiss here.
Are we to believe that Obama is all wigged out that the Pope holds certain confidences?
Makes Hillary’s paper files seem so quaint...
Shameless & lawless.
I do not believe it.
It has been a well managed agency for ages.
I do think spying is out of control, but I think it is hilarious that Obama uses it more than 4 times as much as any predecessor and he gets none on him.
The world has had ears since the dawn of man.
Now there are whispers in the Temple.
You think the Vatican never had ears?
Everyone tends to place trust in men of high positions, and low positions.
Particularly in positions that require discretion.
The garbageman has every opportunity to sift though your stuff.
Obama is a lousy Vicar, and he is a lousy Postman for us, but there he is taking notes.
Now he has the IRS and the Medical community reporting to him, all for love of the poor.
Obama is up to this to his eyeballs and he has infiltrated the inner sanctums of the NSA and he HAS infiltrated the Church.
He is begging people to sign up for data collection.
So let’s stick it to him.
He gets away with it by acting like the Vicar, postman or garbageman.
He is sifting though every detail while he claims he knows NOTHING.
You want the office scuttlebutt?
Ask the janitor.
They are in everyone’s office and empty the trash.
Want to keep their trust?.
Keep it under your hat.
There are so many people singing about NSA, that I cannot think that it is not purposeful.
:-)
I cannot believe old Putti Pute bugged the entire G20 leaders with such a simple KGB trick?
He is an old KGB officer.
Who the hell as a G20 leader picked up a USB FOB in his swag bag and jacked that into their confuser?
Smells fishy.
Something is all amiss.
Meanwhile,the people don’t seem to care that they are spying on Them OR their Leaders, and I think that is the game.
Well, the leaders don’t seemed concerned, so why should We care about snooping on Us?
The old frog in the pot trick.
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