The UN needs bug spray
UN bugging row widens: Blix spied on
By Ewen MacAskill
February 29, 2004
The Sun-Herald
The United Nations spying row widened yesterday when its former weapons inspector, Hans Blix, told The Guardian newspaper he suspected both his UN office and his home in New York were bugged in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
Mr Blix said he expected to be bugged by the Iraqis but to be spied upon by the US was a different matter. He described it as "disgusting".
"It feels like an intrusion into your integrity in a situation when you are actually on the same side," he said.
He said he went to extraordinary lengths to protect his office and home, having a UN counter-surveillance team sweep both for bugs.
"If you had something sensitive to talk about you would go out into the restaurant or out into the streets," he said.
Mr Blix's darkest fears were reinforced when he was shown a set of photographs by a senior member of the Bush Administration, which he insisted could only have been obtained through underhand means.
His accusations came after a former British cabinet minster, Clare Short, said US-British intelligence bugged the office of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
Mr Blix said that what galled him most was the possibility of being bugged by a country, the US, that he had assumed was on the same side. He said that surveillance was only to be expected between enemies or in cases where serious criminal activity was being monitored.
"But here it is between people who co-operate and it is an unpleasant feeling," he said.
Mr Blix, a Swedish diplomat who was head of the UN arms inspectors for Iraq between 2000 and 2003, said he had no conclusive evidence that the US bugged him. But his suspicions were raised when he had repeated trouble with his phone connections at his New York home.
"It might have been something trivial or it might have been something installed somewhere. I don't know," he said.
More worrying was a confrontation with a senior member of the US Administration. Mr Blix said John Wolf, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation, visited him a fortnight before the war broke out at a time when debate was raging over whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and whether Mr Blix should be given more time to find them.
Mr Wolf presented him with two pictures of an Iraqi drone and a cluster bomb, photos Mr Blix believed could only have been secured from within the UN weapons office. Mr Blix said: "He should not have had them. I asked him how he got them and he would not tell me and I said I resented that.
"It could have been some staff belonging to us that handed them to the Americans. I don't think it is very likely but it could have happened - I don't have 100 per cent control of everybody. It could also be that they managed to break into the secure fax and got it that way."
Richard Butler, a predecessor of Mr Blix as chief UN weapons inspector, has also joined in the debate, saying it was "plainly silly" to think his phone calls were not being monitored during his tenure.
Copyright © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald.
By Ewen MacAskill
February 29, 2004
The Sun-Herald
The United Nations spying row widened yesterday when its former weapons inspector, Hans Blix, told The Guardian newspaper he suspected both his UN office and his home in New York were bugged in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
Mr Blix said he expected to be bugged by the Iraqis but to be spied upon by the US was a different matter. He described it as "disgusting".
"It feels like an intrusion into your integrity in a situation when you are actually on the same side," he said.
He said he went to extraordinary lengths to protect his office and home, having a UN counter-surveillance team sweep both for bugs.
"If you had something sensitive to talk about you would go out into the restaurant or out into the streets," he said.
Mr Blix's darkest fears were reinforced when he was shown a set of photographs by a senior member of the Bush Administration, which he insisted could only have been obtained through underhand means.
His accusations came after a former British cabinet minster, Clare Short, said US-British intelligence bugged the office of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
Mr Blix said that what galled him most was the possibility of being bugged by a country, the US, that he had assumed was on the same side. He said that surveillance was only to be expected between enemies or in cases where serious criminal activity was being monitored.
"But here it is between people who co-operate and it is an unpleasant feeling," he said.
Mr Blix, a Swedish diplomat who was head of the UN arms inspectors for Iraq between 2000 and 2003, said he had no conclusive evidence that the US bugged him. But his suspicions were raised when he had repeated trouble with his phone connections at his New York home.
"It might have been something trivial or it might have been something installed somewhere. I don't know," he said.
More worrying was a confrontation with a senior member of the US Administration. Mr Blix said John Wolf, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation, visited him a fortnight before the war broke out at a time when debate was raging over whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and whether Mr Blix should be given more time to find them.
Mr Wolf presented him with two pictures of an Iraqi drone and a cluster bomb, photos Mr Blix believed could only have been secured from within the UN weapons office. Mr Blix said: "He should not have had them. I asked him how he got them and he would not tell me and I said I resented that.
"It could have been some staff belonging to us that handed them to the Americans. I don't think it is very likely but it could have happened - I don't have 100 per cent control of everybody. It could also be that they managed to break into the secure fax and got it that way."
Richard Butler, a predecessor of Mr Blix as chief UN weapons inspector, has also joined in the debate, saying it was "plainly silly" to think his phone calls were not being monitored during his tenure.
Copyright © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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