Posted on 11-3-2003

Falling Off World Stage

Scene I by Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy in New York and Peter Beaumont,
Sunday March 9, 2003, Observer

The United Nations has begun a top-level investigation into the bugging of
its delegations by the United States, first revealed in The Observer last
week. Sources in the office of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan confirmed
last night that the spying operation had already been discussed at the UN's
counter-terrorism committee and will be further investigated.

The news comes as British police confirmed the arrest of a 28-year-old
woman working at the top secret Government Communications Headquarters
(GCHQ) on suspicion of contravening the Official Secrets Act. Last week The
Observer published details of a memo sent by Frank Koza, Defence Chief of
Staff (Regional Targets) at the US National Security Agency, which monitors
international communications. The memo ordered an intelligence 'surge'
directed against Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea with 'extra
focus on Pakistan UN matters'. The 'dirty tricks' operation was designed to
win votes in favour of intervention in Iraq. The Observer reported that the
memo was sent to a friendly foreign intelligence agency asking for help in
the operation. It has been known for some time that elements within the
British security services were unhappy with the Government's use of
intelligence information.

The leak was described as 'more timely and potentially more important than
the Pentagon Papers' by Daniel Ellsberg, the most celebrated whistleblower
in recent American history. In 1971, Ellsberg was responsible for leaking a
secret history of US involvement in Vietnam, which became known as 'the
Pentagon Papers', while working as a Defence Department analyst. The papers
fed the American public's hostility to the war.

The revelations of the spying operation have caused deep embarrassment to
the Bush administration at a key point in the sensitive diplomatic
negotiations to gain support for a second UN resolution authorising
intervention in Iraq. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were both challenged about the operation last
week, but said they could not comment on security matters. The operation is
thought to have been authorised by US National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice, but American intelligence experts told The Observer that a decision
of this kind would also have involved Donald Rumsfeld, CIA director George
Tenet and NSA chief General Michael Hayden. President Bush himself would
have been informed at one of the daily intelligence briefings held every
morning at the White House.

Attention has now turned to the foreign intelligence agency responsible for
the leak. It is now believed the memo was sent out via Echelon, an
international surveillance network set up by the NSA with the cooperation
of GCHQ in Britain and similar organisations in Australia, New Zealand and
Canada. Wayne Madsen, of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre and
himself a former NSA intelligence officer, said the leak demonstrated that
there was deep unhappiness in the intelligence world over attempts to link
Iraq to the terrorist network al-Qaeda. 'My feeling is that this was an
authorised leak. I've been hearing for months of people in the US and
British intelligence community who are deeply concerned about their
governments "cooking" intelligence to link Iraq to al-Qaeda.'

The Observer story caused a political furore in Chile, where President
Ricardo Lagos demanded an immediate explanation of the spying operation.
The Chilean public is extremely sensitive to reports of US 'dirty tricks'
after decades of American secret service involvement in the country's
internal affairs. In 1973 the CIA supported a coup that toppled the
democratically-elected socialist government of Salvador Allende and
installed the dictator General Augusto Pinochet. President Lagos spoke on
the telephone with Prime Minister Tony Blair about the memo last Sunday,
immediately after the publication of the story, and twice again on
Wednesday. Chile's Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear also raised the matter
with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Chile's ambassador to Britain Mariano
Fernández told The Observer: 'We cannot understand why the United States
was spying on Chile. We were very surprised. Relations have been good with
America since the time of George Bush Snr.' He said that the position of
the Chilean mission to the UN was published in regular diplomatic
bulletins, which were public documents openly available.

While the bugging of foreign diplomats at the UN is permissible under the
US Foreign Intelligence Services Act, it is a breach of the Vienna
Convention on Diplomatic Relations, according to one of America's leading
experts on international law, Professor John Quigley of Ohio University. He
says the convention stipulates that: 'The receiving state shall permit and
protect free communication on the part of the mission for all official
purposes... The official correspondence of the mission shall be inviolable.'

Scene II, No Claps No Speech
Mar 8 2003, The Mirror, by Paul Gilfeather

George W Bush pulled out of a speech to the European Parliament when MEPs
wouldn't guarantee a standing ovation.

Senior White House officials said the President would only go to Strasbourg
to talk about Iraq if he had a stage-managed welcome. A source close to
negotiations said last night: "President Bush agreed to a speech but
insisted he get a standing ovation like at the State of the Union address.
"His people also insisted there were no protests, or heckling. "I believe
it would be a crucial speech for Mr Bush to make in light of the opposition
here to war. But unless he only gets adulation and praise, then it will
never happen."

Mr Bush's every appearance in the US is stage-managed, with audiences full
of supporters.

It was hoped he would speak after he welcomed Warsaw pact nations to Nato
in Prague last November. But his refusal to speak to EU leaders
face-to-face is seen as a key factor in the split between the US-UK
coalition and Europe. The source added: "Relations between the EU and the
US are worsening fast - this won't help."