Report of plans by U.S. to spy on U.N. states questioned

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://dynamic.washtimes.com/twt-print.cfm?ArticleID=20030303-14680312

The Washington Times 
www.washingtontimes.com 

Report of plans by U.S. to spy on U.N. states questioned 

Published March 3, 2003 

     From combined dispatches 
     LONDON - A British Sunday newspaper reported yesterday that the United States is waging a "secret" campaign to eavesdrop on U.N. Security Council delegations in New York in its battle to win votes in favor of war against Iraq. 
     The London Observer said it had obtained a memo describing what it called a "dirty tricks" surveillance operation that involves interception of the home and office telephone calls and the e-mail of U.N. delegates. 
     However, the authenticity of the memorandum was called into question and it was not clear from the text published by the newspaper that "secret" surveillance, interception of telephone calls and e-mail, or other extraordinary measures were suggested. 
      The Observer story was widely reported throughout the Middle East and Europe and could complicate U.S. and British efforts to win a new resolution in the Security Council. 
     The Observer said the memo was written by a top official at the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. agency that intercepts communications around the world, and circulated by e-mail to senior agents in the organization and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency. 
     The newspaper said the memo was directed at senior NSA officials and advises them that the agency is "mounting a surge" aimed at gleaning information not only on how delegations on the Security Council will vote on any second resolution on Iraq, but also "policies," "negotiating positions," "alliances" and "dependencies" - the "whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to U.S. goals or to head off surprises." 
     The Observer identifies "Frank Koza" as chief of staff in the "Regional Targets" section of the NSA. Citing sources in Washington that it did not identify, the newspaper said the NSA initiative was backed by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and had sparked divisions within the Bush administration. 
     The newspaper said that it had shown the memo to three former intelligence operatives, whom it also did not identify, who judged its "language and content" as authentic. The newspaper also said it had confirmed that a man named Frank Koza does work for the NSA at a senior post in the "Regional Targets" division of the organization. 
     The memo's authenticity was questioned by Internet reporter Matt Drudge, who cited several misspellings - including the name of the memo's author - on the document as published by the Observer, and an incorrect version of the agency's "top secret" stamp. 
     Mr. Drudge, in an article posted on his Web site (www.drudgereport.com), noted that the memo used British spellings such as "favourable," "emphasise" and "recognise" instead of the American use of the letter "z" in the spellings, and that the spelling of the author of the memo was changed from "Frank Koza" to "Frank Kozu" on the Observer Web site (www.observer.co.uk) 
     The Observer posted a footnote late Sunday after receiving "many queries from the United States," saying it changed the spellings for the convenience of its British audience. The newspaper attributed other errors to typographical mistakes. 
     A later version of the Observer Web site spelled the author's name correctly as "Frank Koza," but printed it all in upper case, followed by three question marks. 
     The memo describes orders to staff at the NSA to step up surveillance "particularly directed at ... U.N. Security Council members" to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence on their voting intentions. 
     The memo, dated Jan. 31, makes clear that the targets of the heightened surveillance effort are the delegations from the so-called "middle six" delegations at the U.N. headquarters in New York, according to the British weekly. The six are Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan. 
     The United States, Britain and Spain have sponsored a new U.N. resolution declaring Iraq in noncompliance with earlier U.N. demands that it disarm, which would in effect authorize the use of force. 
     Nine votes are required to adopt the resolution to avoid a veto by one of the five permanent members: the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia. The United States and Britain are lobbying for support while France and Russia are lobbying to defeat the resolution without having to use their vetoes. 

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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