It turns out that the NSA was spying on all Vatican communications too, including those of pope Francis even before he became the pope and was just cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. The report is from an Italian newsmagazine and has not been confirmed but given all that we know about the NSA’s activities, it would not be at all surprising.
The [Italian] news magazine Panorama said the same NSA eavesdropping program that angered leaders in Germany, France, Spain and Mexico also listened in on calls to and from the Vatican, including the phones in the Santa Marta guesthouse that housed Bergoglio and the rest of the College of Cardinals.
…Panorama, which said that Bergoglio had been identified as a “person of interest” by the NSA dating back to the 2005 conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI, said recorded communications from the Vatican were categorized in one of four sections: leadership, financial system threats, foreign policy objectives and human rights issues.
“It is feared that the great American ear tapped prelates’ conversations right up to the conclave,” Panorama said.
Since the NSA insists that it does this spying only against suspected terrorists, we have to assume that they fear that the Vatican is harboring some kind of terrorist cell and that Francis may be one of the plotters.
I wonder if he will be treated the same way that other suspected terrorists are treated if he should ever try to make a visit to the US. Maybe he will be interrogated at length at the border by the Customs and Border Protection agency people, strip searched, have all his papers and electronic equipment confiscated, and then turned away. The fact that he seems to dislike wealth and ostentation and urges concern for the poor also makes him somewhat suspicious, perhaps even a commie, no?
You cannot be too careful when fighting terrorism. These people are sneaky and in their determination to ruin ‘our way of life’, they may have groomed Francis from the time he was a young boy to become a sleeper agent.
Even more suspicious, while he was a cardinal he co-authored a book with a Buenos Aires Rabbi. Obviously a running dog of the international Zionist conspiracy or something.
Now at last the National Spook Agency can tell us The Infallible One’s internet search questions!
Me, I wanna see the Vatican’s rank in a list of pedo-porn access proportionate to national population.
Most likely the NSA wanted to listen in on his conversations with God, since they can’t tap Yahweh’s phone or track His browsing history. It is only natural that the NSA would want to keep an eye on a known mass-murderer from the Middle East.
He was a Cardinal when spied on and is now Pope, leader of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. He’s spent his life instilling the fear of God into Catholics, backed up by the threat of eternal torment in the flames of Hell. He has -- and is preaching terror to millions. Ergo, he’s a terrorist.
Well, given Bergoglio’s close links to far-right mass murderers and torturers when he was head of the Jesuit order in Argentina, I have to say the NSA could have some justification in this case.