U.S. Spying on UN Delegates?

http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,905936,00.html

The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.
Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves interception of the home and office telephones and the emails of UN delegates in New York, are revealed in a document leaked to The Observer.

The disclosures were made in a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency - the US body which intercepts communications around the world - and circulated to both senior agents in his organisation and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency asking for its input.

The memo describes orders to staff at the agency, whose work is clouded in secrecy, to step up its surveillance operations 'particularly directed at... UN Security Council Members (minus US and GBR, of course)' to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members regarding the issue of Iraq.

 

Brilliant. Just when we thought the US couldn't become any less popular abroad.

"When you think that you've lost everything
You find out you can always lose a little more"
-Bob Dylan

 

Or is that just your trustworthy list?

Rates fine on mine. Though being effectively the sunday version of the Guardian (lefty), I wouldn't expect you to worship it's pages.

 

Here's a link to the text of the NSA memoradum

http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,905954,00.html

 

Dante is right. This has HOAX written all over it.

Kudos to Drudge for picking up on the obvious problems with the "memo". I'm sorry, but I find it hard to believe that a supposedly legitimate news organization would "translate" words in what was supposed to be the "actual" text of the memo from American English for its British readers.

http://www.drudgereport.com/matt.htm

London's OBSERVER newssheet altered words of a "top secret" email from a alleged National Security Agency worker -- an email which detailed a U.S. plan to spy on key U.N. Security Council members!

"The email was originally transcribed with English spellings standardised for a British audience," the paper claimed on Sunday after the DRUDGE REPORT revealed the oddity of an American government worker typing favorable as 'favourable', recognize as 'recognise' and emphasize as 'emphasise'.

MORE

Other errors also appeared in the paper's online document of the purported email text. The spelling of the NSA official's name was strangely changed from "Frank Koza" to "Frank Kozu"; and the top secret marker of "Top Secret//COMINT//XL" should have read "Top Secret//COMINT//X1" to conform to any government coding.

The multiple errors immediately ignited questions about the authenticity of the email and raised credibility issues over the entire OBSERVER report.

 

That's weak. US papers would "translate."

That's NOT weak. That makes the Observer look pretty bad.

 

I doubt a major US newspaper would translate if it were supposedly printing a "copy" of the memo.

 

This is definitely one of those deals where you want at least a couple of sources. The Observer, for their part, is going to the wall for it, so I don't expect them to back down from the story at this point.

Although I prefer to believe it's real, since it would mean Condi Rice will FINALLY be fired. I realize it's better for the nation if it's a hoax, but ruining the good name of the United States of America for the next decade or so is a small price to pay for getting Rice out of power.

 

he's right about the coding.

if one part of the coding is off it's completely fraudulent.

 

NO reason to be concerned YET

Point number one: Yes the observer isnt realy the greatest newspaper in europe (just like the rest of UK"s newspapers is garbage ).

Secondly, you are correct about some things. Much of the letter that was published this morning appeared strange....-see english spelling- they were so stupid to modify a piece of evidence so the brits would understand it.

Thirdly, untill it doesnt appear in the swiss newspaper NEUE ZUERICHER ZEITUNG untill then it will not be proven. Cause the NZZ is propbably the most objective (and most boring) press on the world market.

We all know that the US spies a lot and it is realy nothing new. But I consider them smart enough not to send around silly memos such as this one. (I may be mistaken though)

 

Just for those the haven't seen it. I have the original version of the Observer memo, since I
kept the browser window open.

My first impressions was their was no way an American wrote this. NOTE:: the British spellings.

(Mods) Please excuse me for posting this, but the Observer modified the original link.

---- Orignal memo that appeared on Observer site ---

To: [Recipients withheld]
From: FRANK KOZU@Chief of Staff (Regional Target) CIV/NSA
on 31/01/2003 0:16
Subject: Reflections of Iraq debate/votes at UN - RT actions and potential for related contributions
Importance: High
TOP SECRET/COMINT/XL

All,

As you've likely heard by now, the Agency is mounting a surge particularly directed at the UN Security Council (UNSC) members (minus US and GBR of course) for insights as to how to membership is reacting to the on-going debate RE: Iraq, plans to vote on any related resolutions, what related policies/ negotiating positions they may be considering, alliances/ dependencies, etc - the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises. In RT, that means a QRC surge effort to revive/ create efforts against UNSC members Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea, as well as extra focus on Pakistan UN matters.

We've also asked ALL RT topi's to emphasise and make sure they pay attention to existing non-UNSC member UN-related and domestic comms for anything useful related to the UNSC deliberations/ debates/ votes. We have a lot of special UN-related diplomatic coverage (various UN delegations) from countries not sitting on the UNSC right now that could contribute related perspectives/ insights/ whatever. We recognise that we can't afford to ignore this possible source.

We'd appreciate your support in getting the word to your analysts who might have similar, more in-direct access to valuable information from accesses in your product lines. I suspect that you'll be hearing more along these lines in formal channels - especially as this effort will probably peak (at least for this specific focus) in the middle of next week, following the SecState's presentation to the UNSC.

Thanks for your help

 

The U.S. Media really DOES suck


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/03/04/spy/

According to the LexisNexis news database, the only U.S. media outlet to bring the memo up by Monday was Fox News Sunday anchor Brit Hume. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., a member of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, told Hume that he hadn't seen the memo, but theoretically such surveillance "would be very aggressive" and might be "a topic of a hearing on the Intelligence Committee which probably would take place in the very immediate future." But no major American newspaper had run with the story.

 

Gringo, I saw that article too. It's take was that everyone spies on everyone, so the story is a) probably true and b) not that newsworthy.

 

But that's not why the U.S. media didn't pick it up. They didn't pick it up because they take their cue from the White House on the Iraq affair.

 

Give it time. It took the Trent Lott story a little bit of time, even though the major media dropped the ball at first.

I don't see how this isn't a huge story in some way. Either the Observer was totally duped, or the NSA has crossed many, many lines. Needless to say, I tend to believe the latter.

 

Speak of the @#$%

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...30304/ap_on_re_us/un_spying_on_delegations__2

 

And so the great game goes on.


Paging John Le'Carre... white courtesy phone.

 

If the Observer's got it right, then the NSA cuold use their skills. NSA should outsource its intelligence interception work to the Observer, which could then report on themselves and skip the middle-leaks.

 

Well that's the Brit press for you. A long way from the well-accepted and well-known practice of spooking the UN delegates to so-called "dirty tricks." What do the Observer supposes we are trying to do, get recordings of the Cameroonian Ambassador indulging in phone-sex calls between votes?

 

Re: Re: U.S. Spying on UN Delegates?

I have to love how the response is "The story is a fraud, besides, everybody does it."

And oh, by the way, here's your justification for a veto, even if the US lines up the necessary majority.

NOW can we fire Condi Rice?

 

Correct. Sorry if I left the wrong impression in my post.

I hate to sell out my anti-war brethren, but why is this a story? If, in fact, everyone does it?

The Salon piece makes the case that this isn't evidence of any US perfidy. Instead, they see it as evidence that the person who leaked it probably doesn't agree with US policy, and feels strongly enough about it to leak. Also, it is evidence in support of the notion that the pros at the NSA and other assorted agencies are upset that the Bushies are misusing their analysis to gain support for the war.

If I recall the Observer piece correctly, that piece painted this as some kind of underhanded US behavior.

I guess what I'm getting at is this...Salon and the Observer have taken the same story, and found two very different takes on Why It Matters.

Edited to say, I went back to the Observer, and the memo they cite in no way, shape, or form supports the notion that there's a dirty tricks campaign. The US is just trying to get more info.

To me, the fact that it's a big story overseas is more a symptom of (sadly, at this point, legitimate) negative feelings toward the US.

 

I recant my earlier flippancy.

and

Which is exatly what I'm talking about in this post.