WikiLeaks: US spied on NATO's top official

BRUSSELS – U.S. diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks appear to show that the United States has been snooping on NATO's top official using secret sources on his own staff.

Confidential cables from the U.S. mission to NATO released Friday by WikiLeaks, the site that has published many secret U.S. government memos, said American diplomats received information on the private conversations of Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen from "a member of the NATO international staff."

Instead of the staffer's name, the phrase "strictly protect" was used in one cable dated Sept. 10, 2009. The cable dealt with Fogh Rasmussen's proposal to improve ties with Russia by establishing contacts with the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-dominated alliance designed as a counterweight to NATO.