German news weekly Der Spiegel published on Monday an extensive report on U.S. intelligence activities around the world, based on documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The report claims that the U.S. embassy in Athens is a key part in the National Security Agency’s global spying network. [seen end of text]

The Spiegel report comes in the wake of allegations that U.S. intelligence services have been tapping the cell phone of German leader Angela Merkel for years. Mr. Snowden was a former Central Intelligence Agency and NSA contractor before becoming a whistleblower.  

Athens newspaper Ta Nea on Tuesday splashed with a story titled “Bugs made in USA”, focusing on the Greek angle of the Spiegel investigation.  (See our October 29 press review.) 

According to a 2010 NSA “top secret” document, there are so-called Special Collection Services (SCS) active in 80 different parts of the world, 19 of which are in Europe. SCS operations reportedly involve both CIA and NSA staff. SCS units are set up in U.S. diplomatic missions in Berlin, Frankfurt, Budapest, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Rome, Sofia and Athens. According to the documents seen by Der Spiegel, the Athens mission appears to be of strategic importance. What is unique to only Athens, Moscow and Vienna, is that along with the SCS teams, there are remotely operated eavesdropping and information monitoring installations. Agents have the ability to listen in on cell phone conversations, landline conversations and to spy on wireless and satellite networks.

According to intelligence expert Duncan Campbell, who advised Der Spiegel on its investigation, “top secret listening installations, protected from scrutiny by diplomatic immunity, are used to conduct massive electronic listening, usually from the top floors of US embassies.  One is in Berlin. Others are located in European capitals from Stockholm to Athens”.

According to Ta Nea, such a strange construct can be spotted on the rooftop of the U.S. Athens embassy and is visible from a side street. 

These latest developments have caused diplomatic furore between the U.S. and its European allies. The New York Times reported that President Barack Obama is “poised to order the National Security Agency to stop eavesdropping on the leaders of American allies”, citing administration and congressional officials. In a statement on Monday, Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: “I do not believe the United States should be collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers.”

It is the second time within a few months allegations have surfaced that the U.S. is spying on its European allies, again from top secret information provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Mr. Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia. Earlier this month he was shortlisted for the Sakharov human rights prize, after being nominated by the European Parliament’s Green group. No European Union country offered him asylum when he was fleeing arrest from U.S. authorities after making public top secret documents on NSA spying activities.

The issue understandably attracted the attention of Greek politicians. In an attempt to seemingly one-up U.S. intelligence services, Greek former foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos said that when he was in office in the 1990s, not one but two U.S. ambassadors had been under surveillance by Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP).   

Theodore Pangalos told Vima FM radio station Tuesday: “at some point EYP had managed to monitor not only the American ambassador in Athens but also the American ambassador in Ankara.” He hailed the work of EYP as highly important but at the same time noted that no important information surfaced. Mr. Pangalos has a reputation for combining serious comment with highly entertaining anecdotes of questionable veracity.   

Pangalos was foreign minister from 1996-1999. He was forced to resign when Abdullah Öcalan, leader of a Kurdish militant organization, was abducted by Turkish agents after leaving the grounds of the Greek embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Reportedly, Mr. Öcalan’s phone was being monitored. According to a report published on the CIA’s website, the affair came to be known as the “Fiasco in Nairobi”.  

Main opposition Syriza MP Theodoros Dritsas, in a written statement (in Greek) said that Mr. Pangalos’s comments verified Syriza’s “expressed concern for the shortcomings in the protection of confidentiality in telecommunications.”

Late Tuesday, Greek government spokesperson Simos Kedikoglou issued the following statement: “EYP cooperates for years with the corresponding agencies in the U.S. and other countries to combat terrorism. Any further analysis and discussion regarding its mission is considered as undermining its work”.

Mr. Kedikoglou made no comment on news reports in Greek and German media that the American embassy in Athens houses a surveillance center.