Report Of US Plan To Spy
On UN Members
Questioned
The
Washington Times
From combined dispatches
3-3-3
- LONDON -- A British Sunday
newspaper reported yesterday that the United States is waging a "secret"
campaign to eavesdrop on U.N. Security Council delegations in New York
in its battle to win votes in favor of war against Iraq.
-
- The London Observer said it
had obtained a memo describing what it called a "dirty tricks"
surveillance operation that involves interception of the home and office
telephone calls and the e-mail of U.N. delegates.
-
- However, the authenticity of
the memorandum was called into question and it was not clear from the
text published by the newspaper that "secret" surveillance, interception
of telephone calls and e-mail, or other extraordinary measures were
suggested.
-
- The Observer story was widely reported throughout the
Middle East and Europe and could complicate U.S. and British efforts to
win a new resolution in the Security Council.
-
- The Observer said the memo was
written by a top official at the National Security Agency (NSA), the
U.S. agency that intercepts communications around the world, and
circulated by e-mail to senior agents in the organization and to a
friendly foreign intelligence agency.
-
- The newspaper said the memo was
directed at senior NSA officials and advises them that the agency is
"mounting a surge" aimed at gleaning information not only on how
delegations on the Security Council will vote on any second resolution
on Iraq, but also "policies," "negotiating positions," "alliances" and
"dependencies" - the "whole gamut of information that could give US
policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to U.S. goals or to
head off surprises."
-
- The Observer identifies "Frank
Koza" as chief of staff in the "Regional Targets" section of the NSA.
Citing sources in Washington that it did not identify, the newspaper
said the NSA initiative was backed by National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice and had sparked divisions within the Bush
administration.
-
- The newspaper said that it had shown
the memo to three former intelligence operatives, whom it also did not
identify, who judged its "language and content" as authentic. The
newspaper also said it had confirmed that a man named Frank Koza does
work for the NSA at a senior post in the "Regional Targets" division of
the organization.
-
- The memo's authenticity was
questioned by Internet reporter Matt Drudge, who cited several
misspellings - including the name of the memo's author - on the document
as published by the Observer, and an incorrect version of the agency's
"top secret" stamp.
-
- Mr. Drudge, in an article
posted on his Web site (www.drudgereport.com), noted that the memo used
British spellings such as "favourable," "emphasise" and "recognise"
instead of the American use of the letter "z" in the spellings, and that
the spelling of the author of the memo was changed from "Frank Koza" to
"Frank Kozu" on the Observer Web site (www.observer.co.uk)
-
- The Observer posted a footnote
late Sunday after receiving "many queries from the United States,"
saying it changed the spellings for the convenience of its British
audience. The newspaper attributed other errors to typographical
mistakes.
-
- A later version of the
Observer Web site spelled the author's name correctly as "Frank Koza,"
but printed it all in upper case, followed by three question
marks.
-
- The memo describes orders to
staff at the NSA to step up surveillance "particularly directed at ...
U.N. Security Council members" to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence
on their voting intentions.
-
- The memo, dated Jan. 31, makes
clear that the targets of the heightened surveillance effort are the
delegations from the so-called "middle six" delegations at the U.N.
headquarters in New York, according to the British weekly. The six are
Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan.
-
- The United States, Britain and Spain
have sponsored a new U.N. resolution declaring Iraq in noncompliance
with earlier U.N. demands that it disarm, which would in effect
authorize the use of force.
-
- Nine votes are required to
adopt the resolution to avoid a veto by one of the five permanent
members: the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia. The
United States and Britain are lobbying for support while France and
Russia are lobbying to defeat the resolution without having to use their
vetoes.
-
- All site contents copyright � 1999-2003 News World
Communications, Inc.
-
- http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030303-14680312.htm
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