Greek Wiretapping Scandal Threatens Government

While the US Senate starts hearings on whether President Bush broke the law by ordering the NSA to intercept phone calls without a warrant (he did), the Greek people have been told they, too, have a wiretapping problem. Last week, they learned that about 100 people had their phones tapped by security around the time of the Athens Olympics in 2004. Among the cell phones tapped were those belonging to Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and the foreign, defense and public order ministers. The question is, who was listening and why?

An understanding of the details of the case createsd more confusion than clarity. Vodafone Greece, the local subsidiary of Britain’s Vodafone, is the second largest cell phone company in Greece, and it had illegal software on its network that allowed calls to be recorded. The period in question, from June 2004 to March 2005, included the Athens games, which had a security budget of €1.2 billion, making them the most guarded games in history. As a target, the games were a prime candidate for attack by terrorists, but why snoop around the PM’s phone?

Finding out when the software was used and who used it shouldn’t be that hard. However, when Vodafone Greece discovered the software was in place (meaning no one at Vodafone Greece knew the company was collaborating with someone who was spying on the Greek government?), they turned it off. In doing so, Greek authorities say they wiped out the memory that would point investigators in the right direction. (Does that mean someone at Vodafone was cooperating and covered up?)

The Greek papers and news organizations have further revealed that the phone calls were being relayed to “unknown destinations” via four mobile phone antennae located near . . . the US embassy. This has some in the Greek chattering classes suggesting that the US was spying on the Greek government, although the evidence is tenuous. It could just as well have been the Cubans, the Irish or people at a car wash in Tupelo, Mississippi with a wicked ham radio set and a twisted sense of humor.

What is clear is the conservative government of Mr. Karamanlis is taking a beating. Sunday’s Kathimerini newspaper said, “Citizens are deeply disappointed after finding out that Greece has a permeable national security system, at the mercy of espionage networks.” A government unable to protect its own security can hardly protect that of its citizens. The special prosecutor whom the government has appointed has a very difficult job ahead, and no matter what he may find, the government has lost the faith of its citizenry. In the US that wouldn’t be a problem, but in Greece, democracy is not just for export.


© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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