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CNN Live At Daybreak
'International News Desk'
Aired February 26, 2004 - 05:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Did British agents spy on Kofi Annan? Yes, says a former cabinet member. Well, if that's true, what a scandal.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is here with more on that.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol...
COSTELLO: Interesting.
CLINCH: Yes, it's a fascinating story. Now, this is not a new story. This is something we've been looking at for a long time ago.
Here's the sequence. You'll remember the prewar tension between the United States and some of its allies and non-allies on the U.N. Security Council. Around that time, a British worker at a monitoring service in Britain, a government monitoring service, leaked a memo to a newspaper in Britain which appeared to be a request from U.S. intelligence for Britain to help spy on U.N. Security Council members, including the U.N.
Yesterday in Britain, that case that had come up before the court accusing her of illegally leaking that memo was dropped by the British government. That was interesting.
Then today, a former cabinet minister, a woman who left the cabinet because she disagreed with the war, Claire Short, said today on British radio that she had seen transcripts of British intelligence monitoring of Kofi Annan, on his telephone, in his private office in the U.N.
Now, this is not a...
COSTELLO: As in bugging his phone?
CLINCH: As in bugging his phone.
Now, there are a few things we need to think about. Again, Claire Short, the woman who's making this claim, today left the government, disagreed with the war.
COSTELLO: Right. She has a political agenda.
CLINCH: Secondly, Prime Minister Blair has a press conference in a couple of hours. He's going to be asked about that, so we'll look at that. But then thirdly, just the interesting aspects -- is it illegal? Not necessarily, we're being told, for anybody to bug anybody in terms of national security under international law.
But then you have the question of what about U.S. law? The U.N. is here in the United States. Lots of interesting questions. Then, also, do people care? Some of the people I've asked about it here say well, you know, from an American point of view, we should be doing what we need to do to find out what we need to find out. Certainly that's something that goes on all the time.
But on the moral question and other questions, is it something that the United States and now Britain can support, spying on the U.N.?
COSTELLO: And what does Kofi Annan think about it?
CLINCH: Well, they haven't had a chance to ask him. But he'll be at the United Nations today and we'll be asking him, too.
COSTELLO: Fascinating.
All right, David Clinch, we look forward to more on that.
CLINCH: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 26, 2004 - 05:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Did British agents spy on Kofi Annan? Yes, says a former cabinet member. Well, if that's true, what a scandal.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is here with more on that.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol...
COSTELLO: Interesting.
CLINCH: Yes, it's a fascinating story. Now, this is not a new story. This is something we've been looking at for a long time ago.
Here's the sequence. You'll remember the prewar tension between the United States and some of its allies and non-allies on the U.N. Security Council. Around that time, a British worker at a monitoring service in Britain, a government monitoring service, leaked a memo to a newspaper in Britain which appeared to be a request from U.S. intelligence for Britain to help spy on U.N. Security Council members, including the U.N.
Yesterday in Britain, that case that had come up before the court accusing her of illegally leaking that memo was dropped by the British government. That was interesting.
Then today, a former cabinet minister, a woman who left the cabinet because she disagreed with the war, Claire Short, said today on British radio that she had seen transcripts of British intelligence monitoring of Kofi Annan, on his telephone, in his private office in the U.N.
Now, this is not a...
COSTELLO: As in bugging his phone?
CLINCH: As in bugging his phone.
Now, there are a few things we need to think about. Again, Claire Short, the woman who's making this claim, today left the government, disagreed with the war.
COSTELLO: Right. She has a political agenda.
CLINCH: Secondly, Prime Minister Blair has a press conference in a couple of hours. He's going to be asked about that, so we'll look at that. But then thirdly, just the interesting aspects -- is it illegal? Not necessarily, we're being told, for anybody to bug anybody in terms of national security under international law.
But then you have the question of what about U.S. law? The U.N. is here in the United States. Lots of interesting questions. Then, also, do people care? Some of the people I've asked about it here say well, you know, from an American point of view, we should be doing what we need to do to find out what we need to find out. Certainly that's something that goes on all the time.
But on the moral question and other questions, is it something that the United States and now Britain can support, spying on the U.N.?
COSTELLO: And what does Kofi Annan think about it?
CLINCH: Well, they haven't had a chance to ask him. But he'll be at the United Nations today and we'll be asking him, too.
COSTELLO: Fascinating.
All right, David Clinch, we look forward to more on that.
CLINCH: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
