A document from the US National Security Service that published Spiegel also names the US Embassy in Athens as a hub for communications and interception.
The document is included in the data leaked by former US secret service partner Edward Schoonen.
Special intelligence gathering units, known as Special Collection Service which are staffed by agents of the NSA, CIA and other secret services, operate in 80 regions around the planet, 19 of which are located
in Europe.
in Europe.
Athens appears first on the European list, where, in addition to unit SCS exists, according to the document, and equipment that operates remotely without requiring the presence of personnel.
From 19 European cities only Athens, Moscow and Vienna meet units combined with remote-controlled equipment, while in Milan only tracking machines are located.
According to Spiegel, in addition to the special information collection unit (SCS) located in Athens, there is also equipment that operates remotely without the need for personnel. The equipment is placed on the upper floors or on the roof of the embassies and is covered with panels or structures to protect against prying eyes.
For his part, US President Barack Obama said that limits should be placed on the intelligence activities of communications services, while the friction with the European countries that have become the target of US intelligence services culminates.
The agents of the SCS units are working under conditions of extreme secrecy and under the regime of diplomatic immunity in rooms of embassies that have a special armor.
The units have state-of-the-art equipment that can intercept cellular, wireless and satellite communications.
It is usually placed on the higher floors or on the roof of embassies and is covered with panels or "Potemkin" type constructions for protection from prying eyes.
Such a construction of white building materials is also visible on the roof of the American Embassy in Athens in the old building facing Petrou Kokkalis Street, which ends at Vasilissis Sophia.
This is not the first time that "strange cages" on the roofs of US embassies around the world employ journalists and researchers.
It was November 2000 when, in the course of investigations into the global satellite and wireless communications surveillance system, Esselon experts identified areas "suspected" of hosting eavesdropping equipment at the US Embassy in Nicosia.
One of them was Mike Frost, a former Canadian intelligence official, trained by the NSA to install surveillance machines at American and Canadian embassies.
Analyzing embassy photographs, he concluded that at least part of the top floor could be used to collect and analyze data that is being intercepted by wireless communications.
The Canadian former agent estimated that there may have been at least three different types of antennas, totaling about 18 elements, used for subtheft of different signals.
From the number and types of antennas, Frost concluded that it was a 24 watch business XNUM, seven days a week.
Among the data that could be intercepted were communications of mobile, digital and analogue wireless telephones, beacons, wireless internet, satellite phones and ATM transaction data.
The same conclusion was reached at the Embassy in Nicosia and the investigator-reporter Duncan Campbell, from those who revealed the existence of a watch system, Heselon.
(with information from "The News")
Tuesday 29 October 2013
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