Revealed: US
dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war
By Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy
in New York
and Peter Beaumont
The United States is conducting
a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations
in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against
Iraq. Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves
interception of the home and office telephones and the emails of UN
delegates in New York, are revealed in a document leaked to The Observer.
The disclosures were made
in a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency
- the US body which intercepts communications around the world - and
circulated to both senior agents in his organisation and to a friendly
foreign intelligence agency asking for its input.
The memo describes orders
to staff at the agency, whose work is clouded in secrecy, to step up
its surveillance operations 'particularly directed at... UN Security
Council Members (minus US and GBR, of course)' to provide up-to-the-minute
intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members
regarding the issue of Iraq.
The leaked memorandum makes
clear that the target of the heightened surveillance efforts are the
delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan
at the UN headquarters in New York - the so-called 'Middle Six' delegations
whose votes are being fought over by the pro-war party, led by the US
and Britain, and the party arguing for more time for UN inspections,
led by France, China and Russia.
The memo is 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 US goals or to head off surprises'.
Dated 31 January 2003, the
memo was circulated four days after the UN's chief weapons inspector
Hans Blix produced his interim report on Iraqi compliance with UN resolution
1441.
It was sent by Frank Koza,
chief of staff in the 'Regional Targets' section of the NSA, which spies
on countries that are viewed as strategically important for United States
interests.
Koza specifies that the information
will be used for the US's 'QRC' - Quick Response Capability - 'against'
the key delegations.
Suggesting the levels of
surveillance of both the office and home phones of UN delegation members,
Koza also asks regional managers to make sure that their staff also
'pay attention to existing non-UN Security Council Member UN-related
and domestic comms [office and home telephones] for anything useful
related to Security Council deliberations'.
Koza also addresses himself
to the foreign agency, saying: 'We'd appreciate your support in getting
the word to your analysts who might have similar more indirect access
to valuable information from accesses in your product lines [ie, intelligence
sources].' Koza makes clear it is an informal request at this juncture,
but adds: 'I suspect that you'll be hearing more along these lines in
formal channels.'
Disclosure of the US operation
comes in the week that Blix will make what many expect to be his final
report to the Security Council.
It also comes amid increasingly
threatening noises from the US towards undecided countries on the Security
Council who have been warned of the unpleasant economic consequences
of standing up to the US.
Sources in Washington familiar
with the operation said last week that there had been a division among
Bush administration officials over whether to pursue such a high-intensity
surveillance campaign with some warning of the serious consequences
of discovery.
The existence of the surveillance
operation, understood to have been requested by President Bush's National
Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is deeply embarrassing to the Americans
in the middle of their efforts to win over the undecided delegations.
The language and content
of the memo were judged to be authentic by three former intelligence
operatives shown it by The Observer. We were also able to establish
that Frank Koza does work for the NSA and could confirm his senior post
in the Regional Targets section of the organisation.
The NSA main switchboard
put The Observer through to extension 6727 at the agency which was answered
by an assistant, who confirmed it was Koza's office. However, when The
Observer asked to talk to Koza about the surveillance of diplomatic
missions at the United Nations, it was then told 'You have reached the
wrong number'.
On protesting that the assistant
had just said this was Koza's extension, the assistant repeated that
it was an erroneous extension, and hung up.
While many diplomats at the
UN assume they are being bugged, the memo reveals for the first time
the scope and scale of US communications intercepts targeted against
the New York-based missions.
The disclosure comes at a
time when diplomats from the countries have been complaining about the
outright 'hostility' of US tactics in recent days to persuade then to
fall in line, including threats to economic and aid packages.
The operation appears to
have been spotted by rival organisations in Europe. 'The Americans are
being very purposeful about this,' said a source at a European intelligence
agency when asked about the US surveillance efforts.
Sunday March 2, 2003
The Observer