UN bugging scandal widens

UN bugging scandal widens ^ | Friday, 27 February, 2004, 09:49 GMT | BBC News

[SunkenCiv]

UN bugging scandal widens
BBC
Friday, 27 February, 2004

The former UN chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Richard Butler, says his phone calls at the United Nations were bugged during his tenure from 1997 to 1999... Mr Butler said he was bugged by the Americans, British, French and Russians... He said that if he needed to make a private call to his contacts, he would leave the UN building in New York and either go to a busy cafe or walk in Central Park. Meanwhile ABC reporter Andrew Fowler said he had been told by Australian intelligence contacts that Hans Blix - the UN's most recent weapons inspector in Iraq - was also tapped... [F]ormer UK cabinet minister Clare Short... denied putting the UK or its security services at risk by her revelations, and accused the prime minister of using "pompous" distraction tactics.

[SunkenCiv]

Blunkett doubts over Short claims
BBC
Friday, 27 February, 2004

Home Secretary David Blunkett has said he will look into Clare Short's claims that Britain spied on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan... Ms Short's colleagues accuse her of trying to undermine Tony Blair. The former international development secretary has denied putting the UK or its security services at risk by saying Mr Annan's phone calls were bugged... Pressed about the transcripts she claims to have seen of Mr Annan's conversations, the home secretary said: "I wasn't shown any transcripts and I am one of the very few people - and Clare Short is not one of them - who have clearance for the full security material that comes through." ...Mr Blunkett's remarks came after ex-foreign secretary Robin Cook said he "would be surprised" if it were true Britain had intercepted the calls of Kofi Annan during the run up to the Iraq war. "This is part of Clare's political agenda to undermine the prime minister, and it is damaging both to the government and to the party which gave her all the privileges she enjoyed in government," he said... Ex-minister Jack Cunningham argued that Cabinet members had a duty to accept and comply with the obligations and privileges that came with their position. "Clare Short obviously has a personal agenda which is to attack, damage and undermine the prime minister at every opportunity and sadly, that's been the hallmark of her conduct and behaviour since she left the government," he said. Ex-Scotland secretary Helen Liddell said Ms Short's remarks were "completely unsubstantiated" and urged her to keep quiet... Ms Short's former deputy, George Foulkes, said she had no evidence for her claims and the fisheries minister, Ben Bradshaw, accused her of impugning Mr Blair's integrity.

[writer33]

This really shouldn't be surprising to anyone. They're equivalent to communists. And Communists did this type of thing all the time.

[DCPatriot]

#1. If the CIA or FBI didn't tap their phones we'd be screaming "WHY NOT?"

#2. These characters (the ones being tapped) don't have the American Constitution protecting them. And with what is and was at stake, they'd be idiots not to tap those lines.

Being Communist or Socialist or wearing black clothes have nothing to do with it.

[OpusatFR]

I thought this was about the cockroaches sitting in the Assembly.

[G.Mason]

"At his monthly news conference, Mr Blair insisted the UK security services acted in accordance with domestic and international law and in their country's best interests"

End of story.

[writer33]

Those are valid points. And you're right, they had more to hide than anyone, considering what has floated the surface over the last year.

[writer33]

That's an easy problem to take care of. :)

[EGPWS]

If you are sitting on an ant hill, and feel uncomfortable sitting there, relocate yourself.

[Peter Libra]

" Case Closed. Thanks GM. We who worked for GCHQ and their sub groups in the 1950s, eventually were in some grudging awe of American Intelligence services. To be honest,more so their incredible equipment capabilities. Cannot say too much, but we used the "AR 88" made by, I think, RCA. Short, is the type that if exiting the Titanic would register a complaint about the seating on the life boat. LOL.

[SunkenCiv]

This new debacle for Blair is a win-win for the US, IMHO.

Blair has tied the future of the UK to the US. If Labour rejects him / abandons him, Labour will pay at the polls. It was in control when the parliament voted to join the US' War on Terror. If it now abandons Blair, it will be turning its back on the crossover voters from across the hall.

The Conservative Party had a good run, but voters eventually recoiled because of its political machinations.

Attempts by the extreme lefties to take over the Labour Party will result in a shattering of the fragile coalition Blair managed to build, and the UK will elect a conservative majority.

And if Blair holds on, he'll have to stick with policies that are both pro-US, and anti-EU. Basically, it's "1984". ;')

But seriously, if Blair holds on, he'll be carrying with him a constituency that supports him strongly, and the next election will give him more than enough votes to form the next government, with or without the support of the extremists in his party or the Conservatives.

But the policies will remain pro-US and anti-EU.

There's an old joke: Margaret Thatcher was explaining British political parties to a US interviewer. "We have the Labour Party, which in your country would be the Socialist Party, and the Conservative Party, which in your country would be the Socialist Party." ;'D

Brent East elected a Liberal Democrat over the Labour incumbent and the Tory challenger. The pro-Labour editorial said that it was good news for Labour because it meant no Conservative victory in the next national election (nutty conclusion, since the district is previously solid for Labour, not for the Tories). The pro-Blair editorial said that it was good news because a Liberal Democrat beat a conservative in the middle 1980s, seeming to indicate a turning away from the Tory gov't, but then lost by 10,000 votes. The pre-election Tory op-ed said this:

Being a Tory gets easier by the minute
by Ed Vaizey
Sunday August 24, 2003

The Conservative Party conference in Blackpool in early October should go some way to answer the poser... By the time conference comes around, Iain Duncan Smith will have been Tory leader for just over two years. Duncan Smith is credited by his party with reconnecting the Conservatives with the public's agenda, something that they failed to do in 2001. As one strategist puts it, 'we are now starting to have policies on the issues that keep people awake at night'. Such issues do not include Europe, a subject where Duncan Smith has succeeded in turning down the volume. They do include, though, schools, hospitals and crime... Without having to look at a crib sheet, I can tell you that the Conservatives would abolish tuition fees, make exam bodies independent, put 40,000 more policemen on the street over the next decade, fund 20,000 more drug rehabilitation places, introduce a health passport and tackle the issue of funded pensions with a long-term savings plan... Better still, Government errors are seized on with a little more alacrity. Peter Hain's recent musings on the need to impose even higher taxes on middle-income earners was like the whiff of grapeshot to old Tory dogs. The new-found enthusiasm took me back to the hunger the Tories felt in the 1992 election campaign... A million more people now pay higher rate income tax, and average income families now face the prospect for the first time of an inheritance tax bill, because of rising property prices. The Tory mantra is likely to be that real reform, not higher taxes, means better public services. And better public services can therefore exist with lower taxes.

Saddam And Blair - The Two Big Losers
by Rodney Atkinson
23rd April 2003

Then of course Blair introduced to the Americans his very special friends and partners - the French and German Governments. The latter's Social Democrat Government has proved to be blatantly anti-American and much of its political Establishment overtly anti-semitic - no wonder its cities proved to be havens for most of the 9/11 terrorists. The French, traditionally anti-American, took no fewer than 81 trade stands at the Baghdad trade fair last year, led by a President who brokered the deal to supply Saddam with a nuclear power plant in the late 1980s. Both the leaders of the new Euro-State are dedicated to "competing for world hegemony" with the USA and seeing in the Euro the alternative to the Dollar not least in the Middle East (and therefore world) pricing of oil.

Here's one from the thrilling days of yesteryear, January 2001, more than seven months before the WTC and Pentagon attacks and mass murder of US citizens and others by Moslem Arab terrorists:

Britain 'is now the key power broker in EU'
by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels

Frits Bolkestein, the Dutch single market commissioner, said the era of French domination of the EU had given way to a new order of "shifting alliances" and "single-issue coalitions" in which Paris was just one player among many... The accession of up to 12 new EU members would cause the French-controlled system in Europe - known as 'le jardin a la franaise" - to "wither"... [T]he French network was weakening and English was becoming the working language... Mr Bolkestein said the... EU should stick to six basic tasks: securing the internal market; maintaining the stability of the euro, and pursuing common trade, agriculture, environment and foreign polices.

Puts a whole new face on French threats to keep countries out of the EU if they supported the US, eh?

A Man of Straw
by Christopher Hitchens
February 7, 2000

In principle, I rather detest articles or items that begin or end with the words, "You heard it here first." Nonetheless, this is what I told the readers of this column on December 28, 1998, in rounding off a whole series of uncannily, nay eerily, exact predictions about the Pinochet case: "I also know Jack Straw, and I think he'll contrive a 'humane' way to let Pinochet go home. Everything Straw does is modeled on Clinton, from 'zero tolerance' for dope to school uniforms and curfews for teenagers. People who preach 'law 'n' order' for the weak are invariably soft on crime when it comes to the strong."

[Prodigal Son]

Here's the whole article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3492146.stm

The former UN chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Richard Butler, says his phone calls at the United Nations were bugged during his tenure from 1997 to 1999.
He told Australian radio at least four UN Security Council members monitored his calls, and he would leave the UN building if taking a confidential call.

ABC Radio cited Australian intelligence sources as saying Hans Blix, the last weapons inspector, was also bugged.

Ex-UK minister Clare Short says the UK bugged UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"Of course I was (bugged)," Richard Butler told ABC radio.

"I was well aware of it. How did I know? Because those who did it would come to me and show me the recordings that they had made on others to help me do my job disarming Iraq."

Mr Butler said he was bugged by the Americans, British, French and Russians.

"I knew it from other sources," he said. "I was utterly confident that I was bugged by at least four permanent members of the Security Council."

Hit back

He said that if he needed to make a private call to his contacts, he would leave the UN building in New York and either go to a busy cafe or walk in Central Park.

Meanwhile ABC reporter Andrew Fowler said he had been told by Australian intelligence contacts that Hans Blix - the UN's most recent weapons inspector in Iraq - was also tapped.

"That's what I'm told, specifically each time he entered Iraq, his phone was targeted and recorded and the transcripts were then made available to the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK and also New Zealand," he said.

The United Nations has already said that any bugging of UN offices would be illegal and should end immediately.

The organisation was responding to claims on Thursday by the former UK cabinet minister Clare Short that British intelligence monitored calls by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

On Friday, Ms Short hit back after UK Prime Minister Tony Blair branded the claims "deeply irresponsible".

She denied putting the UK or its security services at risk by her revelations, and accused the prime minister of using "pompous" distraction tactics.

At his monthly news conference, Mr Blair insisted the UK security services acted in accordance with domestic and international law and in their country's best interests.

[ValerieUSA]

COOL!
I mean if we are stuck with the UN in our country, we may as well bug them.
If they don't like it, they can leave.

[ValerieUSA]

Thanks for the Thatcher quote. She's the bestest!

[Pappy Smear]

Having these people handy is the only redeeming feature about the US remaining in the UN, and keeping the UN in New York. My hope is that it is a wealth of intellegence gathering. If it is not, ugh, send in the wrecking ball.

[ValerieUSA]

Very insightful:

"People who preach 'law 'n' order' for the weak are invariably soft on crime when it comes to the strong."

[SunkenCiv]

[rimshot!]

It's only fair. They've been buggin' us for more than 50 years.

[SunkenCiv]

Heh heh... yeah... I remember how, under the Carter administration, the Soviets were permitted to build an embassy on a (rare) high spot in DC, bristling with all kinds of dishes and other obvious eavesdropping stuff.

When Eisenhower considered whether something (like letting the US be first to orbit a satellite) would be provocative, at least he had the security interests of the US in mind.

[SunkenCiv]

For example [get ready to rap]

William Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Albert Gore,
the people Willie pardoned on the way out the door

[G.Mason]

"Short, is the type that if exiting the Titanic would register a complaint about the seating on the life boat. LOL."

We need to come up with a "department of life boat seating", whose job function it would be, to ensure those being seated have all the "reqirements" required for that seat. ;)

[G.Mason]

Thanks for the info.