Who's tapping who in Greece?

Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis and several ministers had their mobile phones tapped for more than a year, the government has confirmed. About 100 mobiles belonging to politicians from both parties are thought to have been monitored.

Of the 44 or so names listed by ERT News, 11 seem to have names of Turkish, and therefore presumably Islamic, origin.

The mystery deepens, though, as it wasn’t ‘just’ government ministers and politicians whose mobile phones were tapped. Besides Kostas Karamanlis and his wife, most of Greece's top military and police officers were also targeted, as were foreign ministry officials and a U.S. embassy number. Also tapped by spyware – spy software installed in the central system of Vodafone, the mobile telephony provider that served the targets - were some journalists and human rights activists.

The (apparent) suicide of an administrative member of Vodafone’s Software Development team on 9 March 2005, a day before the State’s briefing on the wiretappings case, is also raising concerned questions.

The cost of Greece participating in the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev on May 21 will be 288,000 euros, according to PASOK Deputy Michalis Karchimakis. If that’s correct, is it really worth the money?

In the global news, Muslims around the world are incensed about the publication of images of the prophet Mohammad in several European newspapers. Many editors are claiming this is an issue of the right to freedom of speech versus fundamentalist oppression. There’s a link to the cartoons in the forum, see for yourself.

More for registered users, including a very accurate observation of “Why Men Can’t Win” in the Funny Farm, an odd story about a giant European eagle owl attacking dogs in the UK, and news on the earthquake that shook Kefalonia early this morning.

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