Bu$h and Blair bugged the rest of the world


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Topic: Politics > Politics-USA
User: "Ethic"
Date: 27 Feb 2004 09:39:24 PM
Object: Bu$h and Blair bugged the rest of the world
Friday 27 February 2004 By Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor - The Guardian
How Britain and the US listen to the rest of the world
Listening posts which tune into enemies, neutrals and even allies
The reach of the US and British intelligence agencies encompasses
not only those still working for the United Nations like its
secretary-general, Kofi Annan, but even those who have retired.
Take Hans von Sponek, the former UN diplomat, for example.
Speaking from his home in Geneva last night, Mr Von Sponek said he
had strong reasons for believing his phone is being bugged by the US.
"I am a small fish in all this," he said.
"But I feel uncomfortable at times, without being paranoid."
Mr Von Sponek, a strait-laced Prussian who was based in Baghdad
for the UN, is not the kind given to paranoia.
But, as a leading campaigner against Iraq sanctions, he has been
troublesome to America and Britain and a natural target for the
biggest joint intelligence operation in the world.
James Bamford, a specialist in intelligence, said that every 60
minutes the US and British intelligence agencies intercept millions
of telephone calls, emails and faxes.
He described the National Security Agency, the US eavesdropping
organisation, and its British counterpart, GCHQ, as "the largest
espionage organisation the world has ever known, one capable of
eavesdropping on conversations virtually anywhere on the planet".
Their joint operation is called Echelon.
Mr Bamford, author of Body of Secrets, about how the NSA and GCHQ
eavesdrop on the world, and who was given access to both organisations
and their officials, said last night of the alleged bugging of Mr
Annan:
"I am sure they did it."
He added :
"They could do it in a number of different ways. They would find out
where it [Annan's phone] goes in the New York exchange and do a wire
tap. They would want to go into his office if he had an encrypted
phone. You would want a receiver for that."
While the CIA and its British partner, MI6, tend to be the better
known parts of the intelligence community, it is the NSA and GCHQ
that produce the greatest amount of intelligence.
The NSA budget and staff levels far exceed those of the CIA.
There is plenty of evidence showing that in recent years the NSA and
GCHQ have listened to enemies, European allies and neutral countries.
A leaked NSA memo shows they targeted six swing countries on the
UN security council in the run up to the Iraq war last year.
At least two of those countries have confirmed they were bugged.
At the same time, according to the former cabinet minster, Clare
Short, the office of Mr Annan was also bugged.
The bulk of the intercepts by the NSA and GCHQ are pulled down
from the ether by powerful listening posts round the world.
A British listening post in Cyprus is capable of hearing a plane land
at the airport in Beijing, according to a visitor to the Mediterranean
site.
But the old ways are just as effective.
Bugs are planted in the offices and homes of targets by agents posing
as cleaners, photocopy engineers and other near invisible staff.
They are often placed behind light fittings or plugs.
The UN believes this is possible at its offices.
Mr Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, told a press conference yesterday
that there were regular sweeps of the secretary-general's office to
check for any bugs.
An electronic machine ...........................
More :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1157540,00.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday 26 February 2004
UK 'spied on UN's Kofi Annan'
"I have had conversations with Kofi in the run up to the war thinking
'oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and people will see what
he and I are saying"
-- Clare Short, Ex-Cabinet minister --
British spies listened in to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's office in
the run up to the Iraq war, former UK cabinet minister Clare Short says.
Ms Short said she had read transcripts of some of Mr Annan's conversations.
She said she recalled thinking, as she talked to Mr Annan: "Oh dear,
there will be a transcript of this and people will see what he and
I are saying."
Tony Blair said the claims were "deeply irresponsible" and appeared to
cast doubt on her future as a Labour MP.
Short's future ?
UN officials said they did not know whether the allegations were true
or not, but say such actions would have been illegal.
The secretary general's spokesman, Fred Eckhardt, said Mr Annan had
nothing to hide and that anyone who wanted to know his opinion on an
issue just had to ask him to his face.
At his monthly news conference the prime minister was repeatedly asked
about Ms Short's comments.
Mr Blair said : "I'm not going to comment on the work of our security
services - do not take that as an indication that the allegations made
by Clare Short are true.
"I really do regard what Clare Short has said this morning as totally
irresponsible, and entirely consistent."
Asked whether she should be prosecuted or face Labour Party discipline
Mr Blair said he would "have to reflect upon" her comments, adding :
"There will obviously be issues that arise... I am not in a position
to answer them at the moment."
He insisted the UK security services acted in accordance with domestic
and international law and in the best interests of this country, but the
UN said any British spying on Mr Annan would be illegal.
'Dangerous situation'
Ms Short's comments came the day after the dramatic collapse of the trial
of GCHQ whistle-blower Katharine Gun.
She had been accused of leaking a secret e-mail from US spies apparently
requesting British help in bugging UN delegates ahead of the Iraq
invasion.
The government says it will review whether changes are needed to the
Official Secrets Act in the wake of the case.
But it has denied claims the move to drop the case was politically
motivated.
There has been speculation ministers were worried about the disclosure of
secret documents during the trial, particularly the advice from Attorney
General Lord Goldsmith about the legality of war.
Lord Goldsmith said in a statement to the House of Lords: "It was a
decision on solely legal grounds ... and free from any political
interference."
Spies there 'for some time'
He said that although they believed they could prove the Official Secrets
Act had been breached, they had concluded they could not disprove
Mrs Gun's defence "of necessity" - believed to refer to her case that
she felt a duty to do something to save lives in an unlawful war.
However, Mr Blair said it would be a "very dangerous situation" if people
thought they could just "spill out allegations, whether false or true ...
and get away with it".
During an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme Ms Short said
British spies were involved in bugging Mr Annan's office in the run
up to war with Iraq.
"The UK in this time was also getting spies on Kofi Annan's office and
getting reports from him about what was going on," she said.
"These things are done and in the case of Kofi's office, it was being
done for some time."
Legal question
Asked if Britain was involved in this, she replied; "Well I know - I've
seen transcripts of Kofi Annan's conversations.
Asked to confirm if British spies were instructed to carry out operations
within the UN on people like Mr Annan, she said : "Yes, absolutely."
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said that many UN officials
always worked on the basis that they were being bugged.
But, he added, "that is not to say that it is acceptable if they are
not suspected of terrorism or other crimes".
Conservative leader Michael Howard said the situation was
"a complete mess".
"It's about time the prime minister got a grip on it and sorted it
out," he said.
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said it was not good enough for
Mr Blair to say he could not comment on the security services - especially
after publishing intelligence in his Iraq dossiers.
"Tony Blair must now come clean about this central accusation," he said.
----
"The UK in this time was also getting spies on Kofi Annan's office
and getting reports from him about what was going on"
--Clare Short--
Listen to the full Today programme interview :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3488548.stm
More :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3494090.stm
--------------------------------------------------------------------
19 January 2004 By BOB HERBERT The New York Times
A Single Conscience v. the State
Katharine Gun has a much better grasp of the true spirit of democracy
than Tony Blair.
So, naturally, it's Katharine Gun who's being punished.
Ms. Gun, 29, was working at Britain's top-secret Government
Communications Headquarters last year when she learned of an American
plan to spy on at least a half-dozen U.N. delegations as part of the
U.S. effort to win Security Council support for an invasion of Iraq.
The plans, which included e-mail surveillance and taps on home and
office telephones, was outlined in a highly classified National
Security Agency memo.
The agency, which was seeking British assistance in the project, was
interested in "the whole gamut of information that could give U.S.
policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to U.S. goals."
Countries specifically targeted were Angola, Cameroon, Chile,
Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan.
The primary goal was a Security Council resolution that would give the
U.S. and Britain the go-ahead for the war.
Ms. Gun felt passionately that an invasion of Iraq was wrong --
morally wrong and illegal.
More :
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/19/opinion/19HERB.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEdit
orials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1152323,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1084994,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8204-2004Feb26.html
http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.gun14dec14,0,1102755.story?c
oll=bal-oped-headlines
http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon12152003.html
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