Greek telephone tapping case 2004-2005

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More than 100 mobile phone numbers belonging mostly to members of the Greek government and top-ranking civil servants were found to have been illegally tapped for a period of at least one year. The details of the case were presented at a press conference given by three government ministers on Thursday February 2, 2006. The phones tapped included those of the Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis and members of his family, the Mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyannis, most phones of the top officers at the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Order, members of the ruling party, the Hellenic Navy General Staff, the previous Minister of Defense (at the time a member of the opposition party), one phone of the American Embassy. Moreover, the mobile phones of former National Defence Minister Giannos Papantoniou and businessmen of Arab descent were also at the foresight of the wiretapping ring, as well as of former governmental officials from the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).

Prime minister Costas Caramanlis has known of this surveillance since March 11, 2005, lifting concerns about his reasons of not previously revealing it. Greek medias suspected the United States of having organized the wiretaps, as an anonymous important official quoted by the AFP declared that "it is evident that the wiretaps were organized by foreign intelligence agencies, for security reasons related to the 2004 Olympic Games." Leader of the PASOK socialist opposition George Papandreou said that the Greek government itself had pointed towards the US as responsible of the wiretaps by giving up the zone of listening range, in which the US embassy was included. ^[1].

1 Vodafone's surveillance program
2 Endnotes
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Vodafone's surveillance program

The wiretapped phone number were eavesdropped through 14-16 mobile phone numbers of the pay-as-you-go type. As these phones are not associated with a contract, retrieving details of their owners is very difficult. About half of the intercepting phones were activated between June and August 2004. The base stations that serviced those phones were in an area near the center of Athens.

The case was opened when Vodafone Greece customers reported technical problems and prompted a review of the exchange software. On March 4, 2005 Ericsson located in the software of two exchanges a so-called "lawful interception" subsystem of unknown origin that was never purchased or activated by Vodafone. Apparently, the subsystem was activated only when the interception was taking place and was somehow hidden at other times. This mode of operation made the subsystem difficult to locate by the routine auditing mechanisms of the software's operation. On March 7, 2005 Ericsson notified Vodafone of the existence of the interception subsystem.

On March 8, 2005 the general manager of the Greek Vodafone branch, George Koronias, asked for the software to be removed and deactivated. On March 10 he asked to meet the Prime Minister to discuss matters of national security. At 20:00 on the same day he presented the facts to the Minister of Public Order and the Prime Minister's chief of staff, and on the next day he presented them to the Prime Minister. A preliminary judicial investigation was carried out, which due to the complexity of the case, lasted until February 1, 2006. The preliminary investigation did not point out any persons connected with the case. The investigation was hindered by the fact that Vodafone disabled the interception system, and therefore locating the intercepting phones was not possible anymore (the phones were apparently switched off). Police rounded up and questioned as suspects persons who called the monitoring phones, but all callers claimed they called these phones because their number was previously used by another person.

According to the February 2, 2006 press conference, the wiretaps had begun before the 2004 Olympic Games and lasted until March 2005. The press also revealed that on March 9, 2005, the day before Vodafone's head, George Koronias, met Prime minister Costas Caramanlis, the vice-director of the securities informatic services of Vodaphone, Kostas Tsalikidis, 38 years, was found dead at his home of an apparent suicide. According to several experts questioned by the Greek press, Konstantinos Tsalikidis was a key witness to investigate the ultimate responsibles of the wiretaps. Moreover, the September 2003 death of another employee, qualified at the time by the police as a crime of passion, might also be related to the scandal, as well as the resignation of another employee working in the security systems of Vodaphone. ^[2]

[edit] Endnotes

^ "Watergrec: à qui profite l'écoute?", Le Figaro, February 3, 2006 (French)
^ "Nouveaux mystères autour du «Watergrec»", Le Figaro, February 6, 2006.