27 August 2004. Thanks to O.
Guardian report today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5002956-104090,00.html
Source: http://www.nacional.hr/index3e.php?broj=2004-08-24&kat=english&id=405
Nacional (Croatia), August 24, 2004
Sanader gave his consent to MI6 to wiretap Croatian citizens
Premier Sanader gave in to British pressures and permitted their spies to launch the ‘final phase’ of the search for Ante Gotovina and his accomplices in Croatia
[Photo caption] In BiH, [Richard] Tomlinson had the task of recruiting informants for the British agencies, and he sought these in the press
Though nominally a modern state, Croatia has lost a part of its sovereignty even before joining the European Union, which implies the sacrifice of a part of a country’s sovereignty, and has again fallen under occupation. Unlike ten years ago, when a third of Croatia’s territory was under the control of rebel Serbs, now Britain is controlling some of the key processes in Croatia through its intelligence agencies.
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), better known to the public as MI6, has for months been unhindered in its activities in flying over the country, wiretapping and controlling Croatian citizens it considers interesting in security terms. This is all thanks to permission received by Croatian Premier Ivo Sanader and his head of the Counter-intelligence agency POA, Joško Podbevšek.
Instead of countering foreign agents, which is the primary task of POA and the reason why tax dollars are funneled into that agency, POA is in fact aiding the foreigners to spy on Croatian citizens. This unnatural relationship between the two spy agencies formally began in early May, when Premier Sanader gave in to British pressures and permitted their spies to launch the ‘final phase’ of the search for Ante Gotovina and his accomplices in Croatia. It is not unusual that spy agencies cooperate when they share a strategic interest in the various areas of their activities. However, even then, every agency will carefully follow its partner to ensure that the area of activity is not endangered and that national security is not jeopardized. Unfortunately, exactly this has happened in Croatia.
Thanks to approval by Premier Sanader, British spies in Croatia are using the most modern wiretapping and monitoring devices to monitor, likely illegally and without any control, all those they believe to have any connection with the fugitive General Gotovina. For this project, they have brought three dark blue Bedford vans from Great Britain, each equipped for monitoring telephone conversations. In these exceptionally ugly vehicles, used by their spies and military, is sophisticated equipment worth several million euro. Each van also came equipped with two SIS spies, experts for monitoring tasks. It was POA that provided the complete logistics for this task. Podbevšek even handed over two offices at POA headquarters for their needs. The British were so certain in the hospitality of their Croatian host agencies that they did not even provide their own security to guard the vans overnight. The operatives were put up at the Holiday Hotel, today the Golden Tulip, and when they were not in action, the vans were parked in the protected parking lot at the Customs Terminal next to the hotel.
POA secured the mobile telephone numbers of all those persons suspected of aiding General Gotovina, as well as their addresses, descriptions of their habits, movements… In order to avoid arousing suspicion, the British spies removed the original British license plats and with the help of POA, fake domestic plates, with registration in Koprivnica, Šibenik, Zagreb and Zadar, were put on the vans. Each van was given several sets of phony plates.
The POA agents brought them up to speed and the British went into the field to monitor and wiretap Croatian citizens. It would be interesting to ask whether the authorized people from POA whether the British spies had the approval of the Supreme Court for this action, the only body in Croatia authorized to approve the wiretapping of citizens.
As Nacional has learned from diplomatic sources of several western countries stationed in Zagreb, who are not particularly fond of this approval given by the Croatian authorities, the English spies fell into trouble when they discovered one morning that one of their vans had been put completely out of order. On a June evening, while in the parking lot at the Customs Terminal, all of the wiring in the van burnt out, making this expensive equipment completely useless. Allegedly this was the result of a sudden power surge, and the van users could not be completely sure whether this was a diversion or an error in the electricity supply network which caused the short circuit. Since then, the British spies have been working with one vehicle less, as the destroyed vehicle has since been returned to Great Britain.
If there is any truth to the story circling among the western diplomats in Zagreb, this was in fact a diversion, and on that June evening, several diskettes containing recorded telephone conversations of well known people on the Croatian political and media scene were stolen. Nacional has learned that Sanader permitted these British spies, under the guise of searching for Ante Gotovina, to monitor Croatian citizens only until 19 June 2004. They were given that date as the deadline for discovering who was communicating with him and via which telephone numbers.
The stay by British spies in Croatia was the necessary prerequisite which will later permit them to monitor suspects via spy satellites. That is why it was first necessary to determine which telephone numbers he has been speaking with. Due to the frequent use of pre-paid telephone cards in mobile phones, that can be determined only in the field. with the help of such a van, it is possible to cover an entire section of town where suspects might be.
With the help of the information received from POA, the English spies had the official mobile phone numbers of all their suspects. Once the official mobiles are located, then all unknown telephone numbers coming from the same area can also be monitored. Each one of these signals is isolated and recorded. This method of trial and error in the end establishes all the telephone numbers used by the suspects and this information is given to headquarters in England, and from that point on, all calls on those telephone numbers are monitored via satellite. Once all the possible telephone numbers for contact with the fugitive general are established, then the spies’ field work is complete. Whether or not that task was completed by 19 June, is for Premier Sanader and POA director Joško Podbevšek to tell the public.
Likely because she was aware of these activities, Carla Del Ponte not long after the removal of former POA director Franjo Turek and Mesic'’s Chef du Cabinet Željko Bagic', she announced that fugitive General Gotovina would be arrested by the end of June. Two months after that date, there has still been no arrest, which suggests that the intelligence on the partners of Ante Gotovina and his movements were not correct.
Why did Sanader decide to take such a move and thus dramatically jeopardize the sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia?
The Premier took this risky and ultimately unpredictable move in order to ensure that Croatia would receive official candidate status for the EU, which was uncertain, mostly due to the British criticisms of Croatia’s cooperation with the Hague Tribunal regarding the Gotovina case.
Ten days before Croatia received the positive Avis from the European Commission on 20 April, and the doors were opened to receive full candidacy status, British Minister for Europe Dennis MacShane announced that Great Britain would not support Croatia’s EU candidacy, regardless of the positive Avis, until the Gotovina case was resolved. However, one day prior to the release of the positive Avis, MacShane pleasantly surprised the Croatian public by giving his full support to Croatia on its path to the EU in a meeting with Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Žužul.
This unexpected change in Britain’s position on Croatia’s candidacy was preceded by the replacement of POA director Franjo Turek, who on several occasions denied Britain’s request to use POA infrastructure to monitor persons it considered interesting. On behalf of SIS, 33 year old Gareth Geoffrey Lungley made several such requests to Turek. Nominally, Lungley works as the First Secretary for Political Affairs in the British Embassy. He was uncovered as an agent back in early 2000 by his colleagues at SIS.
Lungley used the Gotovina case as a front for his requests, as he also requested that Turek supply him with all the telephone numbers of family, friends and colleagues of Ante Gotovina, as well as of certain politicians the British believed to be close to Gotovina. Lungley also asked Turek to permit SIS to wiretap fixed telephone lines in Croatia.
Nacional has learned from diplomatic sources that Turek denied his requests and asked him instead to explain how the Gotovina case was a threat to British national security. He told him that POA had already undertaken all the necessary measures to find Gotovina and his possible accomplices. Several weeks before the unexpected turnabout in Britain’s position towards Croatia, Franjo Turek was replaced. By orders of Premier Sanader, he was replaced by Joško Podbevšek, who completely opened POA’s capacities to the British spies.
Nacional has learned from source close to the state administration that since the English spies have been wiretapping freely in Croatia, neither Premier Sanader nor President Mesic' have been using mobile telephones for any serious conversations, for they fear that they too are being monitored. Furthermore, Premier Sanader recently told one person, with whom he frequently communicates, that they speak less by telephone due to the monitoring. If the President and Premier of a sovereign state are not certain that they can communicate normally by telephone, then what kind of security do the regular citizens have?
Sanader continued to clean out all the personnel in the secret service that had in any way been involved in uncovering the informants for the British spy network in Croatia, which former POA director Franjo Turek informed the state administration about this spring in two separate presentations. Turek informed the state administration that this network of informants had placed misinformation in the Croatian press about the alleged presence of Gotovina in Croatia, which for months served Britain’s political pressure on Croatia for not arresting General Gotovina. As we learned, in addition to Lungley and the American agent Oscar Vera, the agent who communicated most with the press was Christopher Looms.
Chris, as his associates in the media call him, is an MI6 agent in Croatia. POA informed the state administration that Looms placed the majority of his set-ups via Gordan Malic', a journalist for the weekly publication Globus. Together with journalists, MI6 also has an entire network of associates and agents in the field, most of these ties dating back to the former Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav National Army.
According to HIS information, today OA (Intelligence Agency) it was Mile Damjanovic', a former colonel in YNA intelligence who set up this associate network for the British spies. The same information suggests that this businessman, close to some well known Zagreb goldsmiths, became an associate of the British spies while he was the military attaché in London. The British spies active in the Balkans continued to use this network.
Damir Jukica, an educated and commended Croatian agent with ten year’s experience in the secret service, gave an interview for Nacional in late July 2004 in which he confirmed the findings from Turek’s presentation. However, he like Turek, was fired on direct orders from Premier Sanader for revealing information on the British informant network in Croatia. Sanader denied this, and unlike President Mesic', he also denied the existence of any presentation by Turek.
Due to a number of illegalities in the work of a part of the Croatian agents, Jukica spoke up and was fired on the same day the interview in Nacional was released – on 27 July 2004. He held the post of assistant director of POA for analysis, and all of the most important state secrets had passed through his hands. He stated for Nacional, “According to the information the agency has, Gotovina has not stepped foot in Croatia for a long time.” He is likely not the only Croatian agent who, instead of being commended for his conscientious abidance of the law, which prescribes that POA is to protect Croatian national interests from foreign spies, found himself the brunt of a surprise attack by his employer.
Should the British be trusted when they say they are doing all this only to help Croatia arrest Gotovina and to ease its entry into the EU? It is more likely that the British SIS simply wants to have a great an influence as possible on the Balkans and to do the job as described on their official Internet site, as described in paragraph 1: “SIS is responsible for the collection of intelligence and the execution of operation towards the foreign policy goals of Great Britain and in combating threats to British interests throughout the world. This includes various activities such as collection of intelligence and work to eliminate threats to British citizens or property.”
Though the spy occupation of Croatia should be an unquestionable success for Britain, nonetheless the MI6 agency is facing complete debacle throughout the world. The most difficult blow was recently delivered by the Belgrade media, who revealed Anthony Monckton. This low rank advisor in the British Embassy in Belgrade was also, according to Nacional’s information, the main coordinator of all the actions of the British secret service in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. He was superior to both Lungley in Zagreb and Alistair Sommerlad in Sarajevo and he was the main ‘player’ in issuing the questionable reports on Gotovina’s partners in Croatia.
Thus Anthony Monckton, Alistair Sommerlad and Julian Braithwaite, three very important British spies, were forced to leave the Balkans in a very humbling way. The official claims are that they left in the normal rotation of diplomatic staff.
The Serbian weekly, Nedeljni Telegraf, otherwise close to the Serbian secret services, published his photograph on the front page on 11 August 2004. The paper also published his business card with his contact telephone number. Four days later, The Times in Britain published that the vengeful Serbs had completely revealed the main British spy in the Balkans, described the possible reasons for his replacement and made a quick cut to the end of his espionage career.
The paper cites diplomats close to Monckton, who claim that he was uncovered because he was exceptionally involved in bringing the details of last year’s assassination of Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic' to light, and perhaps because he may have played a key role in the extradition of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague. It cannot be excluded that behind all this are the interests of individuals who consider themselves to be above the law in Serbia, and whom he also endangered with his work.
Monckton, whom one friend described as the classic gentleman spy, admitted to friends that he was shocked by the multiple appearance of his photograph in the newspaper. Serbs and Montenegrins who knew him claim that Monckton had several professional mistakes in his career. They claim that he poorly assessed the intelligence warnings about this year’s short-lived Albanian rebellion on Kosovo, as well as his wrong assessment of the rising number of Al Qaeda followers there. Some Montenegrins have criticized him for giving negative information regarding Mile Djukanovic' to his superiors, at the very time that Djukanovic' was working towards Montenegro’s independence, while others claim that he fell completely under the negative influence of Djukanovic'’s agents, who helped him to buy a villa on the island of St. Stephan. On 7 December 1999, Glas published an investigation by British counter-intelligence found that Monckton was to be on the list of potential associates of the notorious Stasia, the secret service of the former East Germany.
Anthony Leopold Colyer Monckton (44) is not the first generation of spies in his family. His father allegedly, as an agent with the secret service, kept watch over the former English King Edward VIII. Monckton arrived in the Balkans immediately following the breakdown of Yugoslavia. His first mandate was in Bosnia Herzegovina, and in 1996 he was transferred to Zagreb, formally to the post of first political secretary in the British Embassy. Monckton frequently traveled to Republika Srpska, where war criminal Radovan Karadzic is likely hiding. Monckton’s associates claim that the failure to arrest Karadžic' is Monckton’s greatest professional failure.
Just before the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in the fall of 2000, Monckton was transferred to the British Embassy in Belgrade. His associates claim that his opened the phase of his career in which he became the main intelligence informant for Paddy Ashdown, former leader of the British Liberal Democrats, and who today is International High Representative for BiH.
Information on the espionage activities of Anthony Monckton was first made public by Richard Tomlinson, who began his career in MI6 as agent D/813317 in 1991. Not long after the breakdown of Yugoslavia, Tomlinson also appeared in BiH. Several years later, dissatisfied with the agency’s work, he left the agency and began leaking information about the work of MI6. He revealed a list of 116 MI6 agents, among whom were Monckton and Lungley, for which he went to jail. He now lives in exile in Switzerland.
In BiH, Tomlinson had the task of recruiting informants for the British agencies, and he sought these in the press. His testimony on the role of MI6 at the time as the predecessor of official British policy in the region gave rise to very awkward discussions, which included the leading British media.
The British were particularly critical of the existence of SIS to recruit journalists as their associates, and they also listed several examples of their media manipulations on influential British media with the goal of equalizing the responsibility of all the conflicted sides in the war in the former Yugoslavia.
Through press associates, that network under British coordination spent months misinforming the Croatian public in the Gotovina case, and in the end completely infiltrated the Croatian intelligence system. Completely contrary to their expectations, Gotovina is still free. It appears as though all these events in this case can only be considered one episode in the British battle for domination of their own political interests in the region.
[Photo caption] Vukšic' as an SDP candidate was promoted from the position of head of the Division for Battling Organized Crime to director of the National Security Agency (SNS)