The US spied on senior Japanese politicians and major companies including giant conglomerate Mitsubishi, according to documents released Friday by WikiLeaks, which published a list of at least 35 targets.
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The apparently economic and politically-motivated spying started back during the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which ran from September 2006 until September 2007. The reports also reveal similar details that the NSA had been spying on their allies Brazil, France and Germany. Ministers of 12 countries in the region, including the US and Japan, the largest economies participating in the talks, have gathered on the Hawaiian island of Maui to discuss a free-trade bloc that would encompass about 40 percent of the world’s economy. There was no immediate reaction from Tokyo.
Pictures of the “flaperon” show that it is missing its drive arm, which directed up-down movement – but there appears to be relatively mild damage at the location where the drive arm tore away, said William Waldock, a former U.S. Coast Guard officer and a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, who teaches aircraft search and rescue.
While close allies, the United States and Japan have struggled to come to a consensus over their auto manufacturing sectors and Japan’s desire to protect agricultural products.
Abe, stressing the Japan-US alliance as the cornerstone of its diplomacy, wants to enact the bills soon, but opponents say they will drag officially pacifist Japan into foreign wars.
2009 report derived from intelligence intercepts of officials within the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The list includes Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet, the natural gas division of trading house Mitsubishi Corp. and the petroleum division of trader Mitsui & Co.
“In these documents we see the Japanese government worrying in private how much or how little to tell the United States, in order to prevent undermining of its climate change proposal or its diplomatic relationship”, Assange said in a statement. Wikileaks said the U.S. passed the information to Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand, the so-called “Five Eyes” group.
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Washington spied on its key ally, Japan, and passed intelligence on to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK, WikiLeaks has revealed.
