Washington Suspect in Greek Eavesdropping Scandal

Revelations that some of Greece's most prominent political and military figures had their phones tapped during the year of the 2004 Athens Olympiad, have set off a firestorm. Many Greeks appear certain that Washington is responsible. To add to the intrigue, according to this article from France's Liberation, is the mysterious suicide of a Vodaphone employee, and the suspicious behavior of the company after it uncovered the eavesdropping.

by Philippe Cergel

Translated By Pascaline Jay

February 4, 2005

Liberation - Original Article (French)

Who listened in on the heart of Greece for almost a year? The cell phones of the conservative Prime Minister, Costas Caramanlis, five of his secretaries, including Foreign Affairs and Defense, high military officials, a European Commissioner and the Mayor of Athens were tapped during the year of the August, 2004 Olympics, the most monitored Olympiad in the history of Games, with a 1.2 billion euro security budget.

'AMERICA IS LISTENING'

The government, which officially disclosed the facts of the case on Thursday, left the public hungry for more, after Athens announced that it was letting the Justice Department lead an investigation to discover who was responsible. But for the left-wing press, there’s no doubt who’s guilty: "America is listening," "Four antennas for one (American) Embassy," "America is spying against Greece," were the headlines of Friday’s opposition newspapers. This theory is also seen as "predominant" by the most popular right-wing newspaper, Eleftheros Typos, in a country where anti-Americanism is still quite visceral.

The secretaries of Public Order and Justice, Ghiorgos Voulgarakis and Anastasis Papaligouras, revealed that a list containing the names of 46 people who were targeted [by the eavesdropping]. The two secretaries were both on the list, along with a former socialist secretary, businessmen, journalists, peace activists and a dozen foreign citizens, notably Pakistanis and Iraqis, among which was a journalist from Al-Jazeera.

The phones were tapped between June 2004 and March 2005. The eavesdropping ended when Vodafone Greece, a subsidiary of the British company, uncovered the con and informed the Greek authorities. But by cutting the taps, Vodafone made the identification of the suspects impossible. Almost a year of preliminary investigation led nowhere: the only evidence was that the hacking took place in an area of downtown Athens, within which the British and American Embassies, among others, are located.

CONFIDENTIAL

Why did Vodafone deactivate the system before informing the authorities? This question is popping up in every column, and is part of the "ten questions" in the headlines of Eleftherotypia (central left-wing), while Kathimerini (conservative) believes that Greece is "at the mercy of spies." The other questions deal with the easyness with which the hackers were able to obtain the theoretically confidential phone numbers.

Even though all pictures illustrating the articles on the national security scandal are pictures of the American Embassy, the government denies that it intended to put the blame on Washington.

"There isn’t any problem with the country’s foreign relations," said the Foreign Affairs Secretary. Vodafone executives emphasize that they were legally obligated to deactivate the software as soon as they uncovered it, and deny any link between this case and the suicide of one of their employees on March 9 2005.

This case has caused anger in the opposition. "It's just the tip of the iceberg as far as lack of openness and decay is concerned," the leader of the socialists, George Papandreou, said. "It is obvious that these phone tappings have been done by foreign secret services, for security reasons in regard to the Olympic Games" a major political figure targeted by the investigation told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

At the moment, the Justice Department has only taken legal actions against an undisclosed party for "violations of telephone secrecy," without excluding the possibility of further actions for "spying."

Friday, in Brussels, the Greek European Commissioner Stavros Dimas managed to make the entire press room laugh: when his cell phone rang, he said: "It’s Vodafone, I’ll speak loudly and intelligibly to make it easier for them."