UK spied on foreign delegates at two G20 summit meetings in London: report

The phone calls of foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 were intercepted and their computers monitored on the instructions of the British government, which hosted the event, The Guardian reported today.

Relying on documents seen by the newspaper,  the rport said a number of delegates were tricked into using internet cafes set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.

The revelation comes with the UK preparing to host another summit on Monday – for the G8 nations, all of whom attended the 2009 meetings, which were the object of the systematic spying.

According to the newspaper, the revelations were likely to lead to some tension among visiting delegates who would want Prime Minister David Cameron to explain whether they were targets in 2009 and whether the exercise would be repeated this week.

The disclosure raises fresh questions about the boundaries of surveillance by Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and its American sister organisation, the National Security Agency, whose access to phone records and internet data had been defended as necessary to effectively counter terrorism and serious crime.

The G20 spying seemed to have been organised for the largely mundane purpose of securing an advantage in meetings. Among the targets are long-standing allies such as South Africa and Turkey.

Meanwhile, Russia, Turkey and South Africa yesterday expressed outrage over revelations that the UK and the US spied on foreign delegates at G20 meetings in London in 2009.

The UK's charge d'affaires was summoned by the Turkish government to explain a newspaper report that finance minister Mehmet Simsek had been put under surveillance during the talks.

Moscow meanwhile expressed concern that communications made by then president Dmitry Medvedev as also some Russian lawmakers had been intercepted while he was in the UK, and according to some Russian lawmakers it could harm ties between the two countries.

According to British prime minister David Cameron, he would not comment on intelligence matters, but the revelations would likely be embarrassing as he hosted G8 leaders at a summit in Northern Ireland.

The claims were based on documents leaked by former US spy Edward Snowden, who had already raised the hackles of Washington with the revelation  last week of a massive US internet surveillance system (See: US Senators grill NSA chief over mass surveillance revelations).

According to The Guardian news paper, South African computers had also been singled out for special attention, prompting Pretoria to warn against the abuse of privacy and "basic human rights".

According to the foreign ministry the country, had solid, strong and cordial relations with the UK and would call on their government to fully investigate the matter with a view to take strong and visible action against any perpetrators.