US’ NSA spied on Indian PM too; but gave up soon
New claims emerged last night over the extent that US intelligence agencies have been monitoring the mobile phone of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
A report in a US magazine said that the Indian PM’s mobile number had been listed by the NSA's Special Collection Service (SCS) since 2005 and may have been monitored extensively. It was still on the list – marked as "Indian mime" – for a brief period of time. However, sources say that the surveillance ended abruptly within months after it was enthusiastically taken up by NSA
The reason for this was the one-sided conversation Manmohan Singh used to have with his team of ministers and bureaucrats. “After monitoring his phone for nearly 90 days, we were unable to hear the Indian PM speak. It was always the person at the other end who used to speak and we could never ever hear the voice of the Indian PM. We initially believed that he (Manmohan Singh) was using another line, possibly a more secure one, for replying while the caller spoke on a relatively unsecure line from the other end. But that was not the case. Apparently the Indian PM never spoke over calls. He simply used to use gestures in his cabinet meetings while calls were simply meant to brief him and no one really expected him to utter a word,” a former NSA agent involved in the surveillance project told the US magazine.
At the highest levels, it was then decided to leave the Indian PM alone. The NSA was however asked to figure out alternative ways to figure out what was happening in the Prime Minister’s Office. It seems the NSA guys tapped a senior congress leader’s phone and heard him singing nursery rhymes to a very senior congress leader. They also intercepted a conversation involving senior BJP L K Advani where some BJP leaders were trying to placate him by offering
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The reason for this was the one-sided conversation Manmohan Singh used to have with his team of ministers and bureaucrats. “After monitoring his phone for nearly 90 days, we were unable to hear the Indian PM speak. It was always the person at the other end who used to speak and we could never ever hear the voice of the Indian PM. We initially believed that he (Manmohan Singh) was using another line, possibly a more secure one, for replying while the caller spoke on a relatively unsecure line from the other end. But that was not the case. Apparently the Indian PM never spoke over calls. He simply used to use gestures in his cabinet meetings while calls were simply meant to brief him and no one really expected him to utter a word,” a former NSA agent involved in the surveillance project told the US magazine.
At the highest levels, it was then decided to leave the Indian PM alone. The NSA was however asked to figure out alternative ways to figure out what was happening in the Prime Minister’s Office. It seems the NSA guys tapped a senior congress leader’s phone and heard him singing nursery rhymes to a very senior congress leader. They also intercepted a conversation involving senior BJP L K Advani where some BJP leaders were trying to placate him by offering
PMs phone tapping transcripts from NSA were leaked today.... All of one page long ;)
ReplyDeletehahaha ok; got to read that one ;)
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