Suicide adds to phone-tap mystery

Helena Smith in Athens
Sunday February 5, 2006
The Observer

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story...1702505,00.html

The suicide of a Greek telecommunications expert added to the murkiness yesterday surrounding the explosive revelations that eavesdroppers listened in on Greece's entire political and military elite, including the Prime Minister, for almost a year.

The death of Kostas Tsalikides, 39, who took his own life last March, a day after the discovery of sophisticated spy software at the mobile telephone operator Vodafone, has deepened the mystery of how 100 portable phones, belonging to senior officials, were tapped in the run-up to the Athens Olympic Games. By hanging himself from his loft, the British-trained technician may have taken the secrets of Greece's Watergate to his grave.

...

and http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/06/gr...ooping_scandal/

really interesting... now i'm curious to find more info about that!

I've actually blogged on this very topic:

====> Check out my blog by clicking here <=====

This story basically can be simplified to:

Vodafone Greece found the software in March 2005. They think it was there for approx one year but can't prove it ever really worked. They called in technicians from Vodafone Global. They stored the software for evidence purposes and then removed it. They also notified the Greek government.

The pro opposition newspaper Ta Nea got hold of the story this week and are basically using it to say "look how secure you are in Greece".

The Greek media went into a frenzy, practically camped outside Vodafone's offices in Halandri and have dedicated most of their one hour bulitians to this story. Other world stories such as a ship that sank and embassys being burnt were ignored.

The media are trying to link the suicide to this case. Vodafone Greece have released a press statement to say this is not the case and actually urge people to have more respect for the dead.

The media also mentioned a guy who worked at Vodafone who died in a "crime of passion" in 2003. A year before any of this started.

The only investigation that needs to be made really, in my opinion is why the hell has this become a big deal now? They knew about it in March 2005 so really, February 2006 is a little late for the government to start promising investigations.

Vodafone Greece however, reported it immediately, saved the software and have provided all assistance to the authorities.

<span style='font-size:13pt;line-height:100%'>Greek Socialists Demand 2 Mins Quit In Phone-Tapping Case</span>

ATHENS (AP)--The opposition Socialist Party in Greece called Monday for the resignation of two senior ministers over a mobile phone-tapping scandal that hit the country last week.

"The ministers of public order and justice must resign," Socialist spokesman Nikos Athanassakis said. "Nobody believes the government has made public everything it knows about the case."

Thursday, the governing conservatives said they had discovered that senior Greek officials' mobile phones were tapped by unknown individuals from the Athens 2004 Olympics until March 2005.

The list of 100 phones under surveillance included those of Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis, Justice Minister Anastassis Papaligouras and Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis. Also on the list were the ministers of foreign affairs and defense, top military and police officers, foreign ministry officials, a U.S. embassy number and the Prime Minister's wife, Natasha.

"The government did not react responsibly," Athanassakis said. "They should have informed Parliament and the country's political parties...but instead kept them in the dark."

Government officials said the phones were tapped through spying software in the central computer systems of Vodafone Greece, one of the country's four mobile telephony service providers.

They said it had proved impossible to identify the eavesdroppers, who allegedly received the tapped calls through mobile phones served by telephony masts in a central Athens area ringing the U.S. embassy.

But government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos categorically denied that Greece held U.S. officials responsible for the tapping.

Vodafone, which said it discovered and removed the spying software before informing authorities, has denied any wrongdoing.

Monday, Greek authorities reopened an investigation into the suicide of a high-placed Vodafone Greece official in March 2005, one day before the company tipped off government officials on the tapping.

Judicial officials will look into the possibility of adding the suicide to the ongoing tapping investigation. So far, an Athens prosecutor has brought misdemeanor tapping charges against "unknown persons."

Human rights and peace activists whose phones were on the list said Friday they would take legal action seeking damages from Vodafone Greece.

Thursday, human rights groups will stage a demonstration in central Athens against the phone-tapping.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires