With media attention focused intensely on the UN Security Council debate over Iraq, the London-based Observer newspaper revealed on March 2 that the United States is apparently spying on the diplomatic delegations of Security Council nations. Despite the timeliness and relevance of the Observer's scoop, major news outlets in the United States have passed on the story.
The Observer reported that the surveillance "involves interception of the home and office telephones and the emails of UN delegates in New York". The paper's report is based on a National Security Agency (NSA) memo that directs the agency to increase its surveillance to monitor the deliberations over Iraq; a "friendly" intelligence service — evidently Britain's — was asked to participate in this operation. The principal targets of the surveillance are Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan — nations the Observer dubs the "middle six", whose votes are considered crucial to the passage of a Security Council resolution that would authorise the use of military force against Iraq.
In the wake of the Observer article, reports in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times seemed to downplay the importance of the matter. The LA Times headlined its March 4 piece "Purported Spy Memo May Add to US Troubles at UN", while the subhead read: "'Top secret' document discusses bugging of council members. Forgery or no, some say it's nothing to get worked up about". The lead sentence referred to a "long-standing US practice of spying at the United Nations". The Washington Post's March 4 story, headlined "Spying Report No Shock to UN", was similarly unimpressed with the Observer's findings.
As of March 10, the New York Times had yet to even mention the story. The NYT did, however, find a spying story it deemed worth of coverage on March 10: the fact that the White House "has asked more than 60 countries to find and expel several hundred Iraqi diplomats that the CIA and others have identified as suspected intelligence agents". The NYT put the article on its front page, although it noted that "it is unclear what proof, if any, the United States [government] is providing to back up its claims that the diplomats are in fact Iraqi intelligence agents".
The TV network news shows have also not aired any reports about the Observer story, though that's not to say they weren't initially interested. According to Salon.com on March 4, one of the report's authors, Martin Bright, "said that he had agreed to interviews with NBC, CNN, and Fox News Channel — and that all three had called and cancelled". Salon added that the story "has quickly spread throughout the world".
The Observer reported on March 9 that the UN is conducting a "top-level investigation" of the matter, while Chilean president Ricardo Lagos has demanded an explanation from British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Observer also reported that an employee at Britain's Government Communications Headquarters was arrested "on suspicion of contravening the Official Secrets Act" in connection with the leaked document.
Why is a story that is having such wide impact around the world being nearly ignored by the US press? With a pending UN vote on military force perhaps just days away, it would seem newsworthy that the US is, in the words of the NSA memo, "mounting a surge" in order to obtain "the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises".
[Abridged from Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, <http://www.fair.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 19, 2003.
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