UN investigates US plans to bug Security Council

While the story of US plans to spy on UN Security Council members to gather information about their votes on Iraq has been severely under-reported in the mainstream American press, The Observer runs two new stories. One tells of an arrest made in Britain: a 28-year old woman, an employee of the Government Communications Headquarters, was taken into custody "on suspicion of contravening the Official Secrets Act"--i.e. she was arrested, it seems, for suspicion of leaking the NSA memo calling for heightened spying. (I wonder if Frank Koza, who wrote the memo, or Condi Rice, who instigated it, will be arrested?) The UN has opened an investigation into the spying incident following anger by some Security Council members. The original news account "caused a political furore in Chile, where President Ricardo Lagos demanded an immediate explanation of the spying operationm," writes The Observer. "The Chilean public is extremely sensitive to reports of US 'dirty tricks' after decades of American secret service involvement in the country's internal affairs. In 1973 the CIA supported a coup that toppled the democratically-elected socialist government of Salvador Allende and installed the dictator General Augusto Pinochet." The article goes on to explain that the spying operation was initiated by Condoleeza Rice but that "a decision of this kind would also have involved Donald Rumsfeld, CIA director George Tenet and NSA chief General Michael Hayden" and would be run by the president himself during his daily intelligence briefings.