“America Wiretapped Diplomats of UN Security Council Countries”

The Sunday edition of the British daily, The Observer, quoted an internal document from the US National Security Agency (NSA) and disclosed on Saturday that America was secretly tapping phone calls and emails of diplomats from countries to the UN Security Council to draw support for the war against Iraq.

The newspaper reported that the suspicion of wiretapping by America, which had been known tacitly among diplomats to the UN, was affirmed for the first time. The document, in a form of an order by chief of staff in the `Regional Targets` section of the NSA, Frank Koza, urges the paying of attention to internal communications (between every related countries) so as to be helpful for deliberation, discussion, and votes in the UN Security Council.

The ‘Regional Targets’ section executes monitoring missions against countries that America has a strategic interest in, and The Observer quoted analysis by former intelligence officers and reported that the internal communications mentioned in the document refer to telephones in offices and homes as well as emails.

The document was created on January 31st, four days after the Head of the UN Weapons Inspection Team Hans Blix submitted the tentative report about the results of weapons inspection in Iraq. It states that six countries including Angola and Cameroon, which reserve their position for invading Iraq, clearly as objects for intensive scrutiny, so as to suggest that those countries were the main objects for wiretapping.

The newspaper concluded that since the secret wiretapping actions, which seemed to be done at the request of National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, was revealed, the position of America, which was trying to draw support for the Second Resolution from the Permanent Member Nations of the UN Security Council, seems to have hit a snag.

According to an unnamed news source, at first, there was heated debate inside the Bush Administration whether to execute the plan or not because it would create serious problems if it was discovered.

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