USA UNO SPYING

Observer: The long history of UN espionage

Spying at the United Nations helped to shape the UN Charter itself. But if spying is an inevitable part of global diplomacy, it won't necessarily help the Bush administration to win friends and influence people at a time of global crisis.

Ian Davis and David Isenberg
Sunday March 9, 2003
The Observer

Last Sunday's revelation, published in The Observer, of a 'top secret' US memo, supposedly showing that the NSA has eavesdropped on members of the UN Security Council in recent weeks for insights into their negotiating positions on Iraq, is shocking. But perhaps not for the reasons that might first come to mind.

While the US administration has refused to confirm or deny the authenticity of the memo, it is a sad truth that spying at the United Nations, both at the headquarters and among its various agencies and field missions is as old as the UN itself. The real significance of this story is what this rare public disclosure of such aggressive dipomatic tactics, whether seen as fair or foul, tells us about the atmosphere at the United Nations at a time when the world's diplomats stand starkly divided over the prospect of war on Iraq.

"Aus unerfindlichen Gründen taucht die UNO Story nicht in Amerikanischen Massenmedien auf. Der Observer hat vor einer Woche ein Geheimes NSA-Memo veröffentlicht das Beweist das die USA diverse Staaten und Diplomaten ausspioniert. Telefone werden abgehört und Leute überwacht um zu erfahren was die einzelnen Länder für meinungen zum Irak Krieg haben. Die UNO hat eine Untersuchung eingeleitet"