Furor continues over unprecedented mobile phone-tapping case, charges already been filed

   An unprecedented mobile phone-tapping conspiracy targeting Greece's top political leadership, including Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, monopolised a government press briefing on Friday along with the nation's press coverage, as dozens of questions mostly focused on the actions of the mobile phone provider, Vodafone, and on the course of an 11-month probe into the affair.

    Government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos, one of three ministers that disclosed the hi-tech conspiracy on Thursday following a same-day front-page article in the Athens daily "Ta Nea", said the actions of Vodafone's leadership, including managing director and Vice-president George Koronias, are the object of a judicial investigation.

    Charges have already been filed by a relevant prosecutor, while the judicial probe will also consider espionage charges.

    The government on Thursday said the entire phone-tapping plot was discovered when some type of glitch was detected in Vodafone's systems on March 4, 2005, with the suspect software pinpointed by software experts from multinational Ericsson on March 7, 2005. An order to disable the "ghost program" was given the next day, March 8, 2005, whereas the government was notified by the company two days later.

    One of the primary questions that swirled around the east Mediterranean country since Thursday morning is why Vodafone disabled the "ghost programme", an action that reportedly made tracing the perpetrators difficult.

    Conversely, in a press release issued on Friday, Vodafone Greece said it was obligated to disable the unknown software immediately, but that it first "kept and saved a copy of it (software)."

    The company also noted that its network's status and situation before the software was disabled has been precisely recorded and retained.

    A day earlier, Public Order Minister George Voulgarakis explained that 14 pre-paid mobile phones are believed to have been planted in fixed positions within the radius of targeted individuals' offices and homes in downtown Athens. Additionally, the 14 phones also received calls, with authorities tracing the identities of callers, which however, did not turn up any wrongdoing. All 14 pre-paid cell phones ceased to function after the "ghost software" was disabled, the ministers said.

    Voulgarakis' comments, during the Thursday press conference, initially cited a costly software programme by Ericsson (lowphone interception) that was "not purchased" or activated by Vodafone -- as conflicting press reports over the past 24 hours listed the programme as either belonging to Ericsson or comprising a "phantom software".

    Asked why the government waited 11 months before revealing the plot and did not previously inform political party leaders and other institutional officials, Roussopoulos said the government immediately briefed the judiciary, as it was obligated. He added that the other individuals, whose mobile phones were tapped, including Greek EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas, were not informed earlier because the surveillance had ceased.

    According to an ANA dispatch from Brussels, a spokeswoman for Dimas, a former New Democracy minister, on Friday expressed her confidence in Greek authorities' ability to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. She also said that Dimas' bugged mobile phone was his personal phone and not the one used for Commission business and discussions.

    Finally, the spokeswoman said the EU Commissioner was informed on Thursday of the case, whereas the Commission is awaiting the results of Greek authorities' investigation.

    Back in Athens, when asked about an even more "cloak-and-dagger" aspect of the ongoing investigation, namely, the suicide of Vodafone's network design department manager during the period when the phone-tapping was discovered, Roussopoulos said the incident is "real" and is being investigated by police.

    In response to certain local press reports on Friday implicating the US embassy in Athens vis-?-vis the affair -- given that the embassy building stands more-or-less in the middle of a cellular phone triangle where the government says the phone tapping occurred -- Roussopoulos strenuously rejected any notion that the government "even indirectly" pointed to US intelligence as behind the affair.

    The spokesman noted that Public Order Minister Voulgarakis simply cited the spots where cell phone transmitters were located -- Lycabettus Hill, Mavili Square (adjacent to the US embassy), a nearby skyscraper and hospital (Lefkos Stavros).

    One of the 46 individuals whose mobile phones were tapped was, in fact, identified as an employee of the US embassy in Athens.

    On his part, Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis, one of the individuals who retained a mobile phone that was targeted, dismissed any notion that the revelations damaged or hindered the country's foreign policy.

    "Absolutely not ... The government fully briefed public opinion over this issue, and I believe that complete explanations were provided," Molyviatis said.

    High-ranking main opposition PASOK cadre Evangelos Venizelos, meanwhile, echoed the previous day's criticism by PASOK, charging that the government is "attempting to appear as either a victim or a mere observer of events."

    He also sharply criticised the government for keeping the investigation into the case absolutely top secret for 11 months.

    Furthermore, in Thessaloniki, four of the individuals whose mobile phones were tapped, filed a lawsuit against Vodafone and the Greek state for not ensuring the confidentiality of their phone conversations and for not safeguarding evidence necessary to lead authorities to the perpetrators.

    The 46 individuals listed as having fallen victim to the mobile phone tapping include Karamanlis, the foreign minister, defence minister, the public order minister, the justice minister, the deputy foreign minister, former PASOK minister Yiannos Papantoniou, the mayor of Athens, a few journalists, police officials, diplomats, defence ministry cadres and attorneys, as well as mobile phones belonging to ruling New Democracy party.

    Other targeted individuals include a bevy of known anti-state, anti-war or out-of-Parliament leftist activists, along with 11 individuals with Arab surnames, including a correspondent for "Al Jazeera" and a former correspondent in Athens for a Syrian newspaper.