Sources in Washington familiar with the operation said last week that there had been a division among Bush administration officials over whether to pursue such a high-intensity surveillance campaign with some warning of the serious consequences of discovery.
The existence of the surveillance operation, understood to have been requested by President Bush's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is deeply embarrassing to the Americans in the middle of their efforts to win over the undecided delegations.
The language and content of the memo were judged to be authentic by three former intelligence operatives shown it by The Observer. We were also able to establish that Koza works for the NSA and could confirm his senior post in the Regional Targets section of the organization.
The NSA main switchboard put The Observer through to extension 6727 at the agency, which was answered by an assistant, who confirmed it was Koza's office. However, when The Observer asked to talk to Koza about the surveillance of diplomatic missions at the UN, it was then told "You have reached the wrong number."
On protesting that the assistant had just said this was Koza's extension, the assistant repeated that it was an erroneous extension and hung up.
The full text of the e-mail is available at www.observer.co.uk/iraq
RSS