FC: More on U.S. plan to bug U.N. Security Council revealed

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Mar 05 2003 - 05:27:12 PST

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    Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 09:58:44 -0500
    Subject: Re: FC: U.S. plan to bug U.N. Security Council revealed --The Observer
    Cc: politechat_private
    To: declanat_private
    From: matthew bradley <mattat_private>
    
    For those who might take up Drudge's discounting of this email based on
    the English spelling, the reporter to the Observer said today on
    Pacifica's "Democracy Now" <www.democracynow.org> program that the
    spelling was changed to English by some editor for consistency for the
    English readers.  A decision he seemed to think was a mistake.
    
    Perhaps other evidence will show that this is false, but the Institute
    for Public Accuracy <www.accuracy.org> and The Observer and other
    papers around the cite many "government sources" and named former
    analysts who say this is consistent with NSA memos, actions and not
    actually all that surprising.
    
    Matt
    
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    From: "Richard M. Smith" <rmsat_private>
    To: "'Declan McCullagh'" <declanat_private>,
        "'Richard M. Smith'" <rmsat_private>, <mauriceat_private>
    Subject: RE: U.S. plan to bug U.N. Security Council revealed --The Observer
    Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 10:23:32 -0500
    Message-ID: <000301c2e198$d9fa8df0$6601a8c0@rms2>
    
    Declan,
    
    The alleged email message from Frank Koza looks suspect.  Here's what
    the Drudge Report noticed over the weekend:
    
    ALLEGED 'TOP SECRET' TEXT OF NSA EMAIL...
    BUT WOULD AMERICAN NSA EMPLOYEE SPELL FAVORABLE 'FAVOURABLE', RECOGNIZE
    'RECOGNISE' AND EMPHASIZE 'EMPHASISE' IN BRITISH TONGUE?...
    WOULD NSA REALLY TIMESTAMP EMAILS '31/01/2003 0:16' IN EUROPEAN
    FORMAT?...
    NAME IN ALLEGED EMAIL IS 'KOZU'* OBSERVER STORY CLAIMS TO HAVE CONTACTED
    'KOZA'? [*PAPER LATER CHANGED THIS GOOF]...
    GOVERMENET SOURCES TELL DRUDGE CLASSIFICATION LEVEL WRONG ON 'EMAIL' --
    'TOP SECRET/COMINT/XL' IS BOGUS.
    HOW ABOUT IT, GUYS, LET'S SEE A SCAN OF THE ORIGINAL 'EMAIL' NOT YOUR
    RECREATED ONE.
    
    A Frank Koza does live in Columbia, Maryland not far from NSA
    headquarters.
    
    And here's what the Washington Times wrote about the Observer story:
    
    Report of plans by U.S. to spy on U.N. states questioned
    http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030303-14680312.htm
    
    Richard
    
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    Subject: RE: U.S. plan to bug U.N. Security Council revealed --The Observer
    Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 09:28:07 -0600
    Message-ID: <4045E256C76D7B4DA003AD34CA1B3C2F582156at_private>
    From: "Paul Higgins" <pahigginsat_private>
    To: <declanat_private>
    
    Declan,
    
    I feel it should be pointed out that Maurice Wessling erred in stating
    that the "UK newspaper The Observer published an NSA email..."  He
    should have said that The Observer published what it *PURPORTS* to be an
    NSA email.  I read the article in the Observer, and from what I saw it
    neither revealed the source of the alleged leak nor described any
    confirmation, direct or indirect, it had received from NSA or any other
    U.S. government agency.  (It did describe a phone call it placed to the
    NSA, which the recipient quickly terminated when it was revealed that
    the caller was a journalist.  That proves nothing, of course: you or I
    could experience the same thrill any time.)
    
    The question I would pose to The Observer (and Mr. Wessling) is this:
    given the aggressive actions taken by certain European governments in
    opposing the U.S. and its allies on the Iraq affair, isn't it equally
    plausible that the "leak" you touted was produced by French or German
    operatives and released as a "dirty trick" to embarrass the Bush
    administration?
    
    Sincerely,
    
    Paul Higgins
    Madison, Wisconsin
    
    ---
    
    From:[deleted]
    To: declanat_private
    Subject: RE: U.S. plan to bug U.N. Security Council revealed --The Observe
    	r
    Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 08:40:53 -0700
    
    Declan - please keep me anonymous by removing my name & email address.
    
    It is quite a leak, until one reads the memo carefully. There is the
    interesting fact that at least three words have British rather than American
    spellings: "emphasize" (American spelling) appears as the British
    "emphasise," the same also is true for "favorable" ("favourable") and
    "recognize" ("recognise"). The probability of an American spelling three
    words with British styles is near zero -- especially when one considers that
    Microsoft Word's dictionary would pick up all three of those as spelling
    errors in the U.S. version, which we have a feeling is used at the NSA or
    any U.S. government entity.
    
    
    
    
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