Mysterious 'white boxes' on US embassies may be NSA spy devices: report

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-11-04

The mysterious boxes highlighted on top of the US embassies in Stockholm,
Moscow, Berlin and Beijing. (Internet photo)

The surveillance of foreign governments and leaders conducted by the American CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) may be conducted through a mysterious "white box" that has been photographed affixed to US embassies and consulates around the world, according to an Israeli intelligence analyst.

Citing a classified NSA document, German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that the CIA and NSA operate a black budget program known as the Special Collection Service (SCS), which is responsible for inserting surveillance equipment in foreign embassies, communications centers and other foreign government installations. The SCS teams are said to work predominantly undercover in shielded areas of the American embassy and consulate where they are granted certain immunities as foreign diplomats.

The document revealed the existence of more than 80 SCS branches around the world, including in major cities such as Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Geneva, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei.

One of the magazine's explosive revelations was that the US government has been monitoring the mobile phone of German chancellor Angela Merkel since 2002 through an SCS branch at the US embassy in Berlin, forcing US president Barack Obama to apologize and deny knowledge of its existence.

American political website The Blaze reported on Oct. 30 that the SCS spying activities could very well be conducted through a mysterious box-shaped structure which has been photographed on rooftops of US embassies in Madrid, Moscow, Beijing, Berlin and Stockholm.

While the structures appear to have a solid exterior, they are actually permeable by communication signals, The Blaze article said, which would make them consistent with the attic-like rooms capable of monitoring "a large part of cellphone communication" as described in the Der Spiegel report.

Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon told Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv that the boxes could conceal "very advanced wiretapping devices."

"In all of the cases, it seems as though the 'cubes,' while appearing as part of the structure, are actually construction supplements. If the findings of Der Spiegel are correct, then the US intelligence agency's listening devices are dispersed around the world," the Ma'ariv report said.

This undated photo provided by the National Security Agency (NSA) shows its
 headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland. (Photo by NSA via Getty Images)

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