Almanar
26/02/2010 The US embassy is eavesdropping on Lebanon…
This "dangerous" information constituted the "headline" in Lebanese daily As-Safir on Friday, an information that the daily put at the disposal of the president, the prime minister and the parliament speaker.
According to the daily, the US embassy in Beirut has delivered a letter to the office of the forensic investigation chief in the Internal Security Force headquarters on April 1, 2009. The embassy reportedly requested in the letter that the ISF supply the embassy with information in the shape of printed application forms on cellular network stations and their geographical locations, in addition to accurate technical details pertaining to communications.
As-Safir said that one of the two stations refused to supply the embassy with the requested information unless it comes under the form of an official request from Telecommunications Minister who was at the time Gebran Bassil. The latter refused the request since the needed information is related to national security and therefore, it's forbidden to provide it to Western embassies.
INTERIOR MINISTRY DID NOT APPROVE US REQUEST
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry issued a statement in which it stressed that it would not process requests that infringe Lebanon's sovereignty or security, responding to As-Safir article.
According to the Interior Ministry statement, the request mentioned in As-Safir did not deal with phone-tapping, but rather was part of an application filed by the US embassy for a special training program.
The Interior Ministry and ISF Directorate General did not approve the US request or give an opinion on it, the statement said. The Interior Ministry added that it transferred the application on April 29, 2009 to the Telecommunications Ministry since it is the ministry relevant to the US request.
According to the statement, the Telecommunications Ministry declined the request, after which the US cancelled the training program that was to use the requested information.
MP FADLALLAH TO AL-MANAR: INFORMATION PUBLISHED IN AS-SAFIR DANGEROUS
For his part, member of the Information and Telecommunication parliamentary committee MP Hasan Fadlallah told Al-Manar that the article published in As-Safir included dangerous information that affects national sovereignty as well as the security of the telecommunication networks, the citizens' freedom and the secrecy of the communication among people guaranteed by the law.
Fadallah revealed that the issue would be discussed in the next meeting of the concerned parliamentary committee with the participation of concerned parties.
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