FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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US intelligence denies reported spying on the Vatican

US intelligence denies reported spying on the Vatican

Rome - United States security services denied an Italian magazine report suggesting that they had spied on the Vatican, possibly even listening in to Pope Francis before his election to the papacy.

"The National Security Agency does not target the Vatican. Assertions that NSA has targeted the Vatican, published in Italy's Panorama magazine, are not true," National Security Agency spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in a statement late Wednesday.
 
Panorama, a weekly owned by the family of former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, claimed that the NSA's surveillance on European partners stretched to tracking the phones of Roman Catholic bishops and cardinals.
 
Without naming sources, it said snooping activities went on from December 10, 2012, to January 8, 2013, but added there were "fears" that they continued until March 12, the day the conclave to elect Pope Francis started.
 
The Rome guesthouse where the Argentine-born pontiff stayed while he was still a cardinal was among the surveillance targets, the magazine alleged.//DPA
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