On Tuesday, WikiLeaks released a batch of classified documents revealing how the NSA was tapping different world leaders, including former Italian leader Berlusconi. Later that day, the Italian Foreign Ministry called US Ambassador John Philips to clarify the uncomfortable findings.
However, Sommossa thinks it was simply a desperate attempt to "save face" amid the embarrassing reality, which shows that Italy is "nothing but a [US] colony, which has an illusion of freedom."
"We all always knew that the Americans were spying on us and influenced our politicians, but we didn't have evidence and that allowed us to pretend that such things never happened," Sommossa said.
And what about Italian counter-intelligence services — how could they not prevent the wiretapping of the country's prime minister or even worse — did they help the NSA, the author posed a critical question.
If Italian security services helped the Americans to tap their own leader, then "[Italy] isn't just a servant of America, but a slave," Sommossa concluded.
According to WikiLeaks, the NSA had bugged meetings between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Berlusconi, as well as talks of key EU and Japanese trade ministers on "trade red-lines."
WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organization founded in Iceland in 2006 to disseminate documents, photos and video of political or social significance, according to the organization's Facebook page. The website gained prominence when it publicized a trove of classified diplomatic cables between heads of state and government.
