Dial 007 for MTN in spy drama
MTN, Africa’s largest cellphone operator, is keeping tight-lipped about how its Afghan arm was drawn into a spy drama that has exposed how the US government used cellular networks covertly to eavesdrop on an entire country where militants and civilians were killed in drone strikes.
Two weeks ago, sensational documents leaked by CIA whistle-blower Edward Snowden were published by journalist Glenn Greenwald in The Intercept, an online investigative site. The documents revealed extraordinary levels of network surveillance in two countries, the Bahamas and another country not named due to fear of violence.
But WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange immediately identified that country as Afghanistan, where MTN Afghanistan has 6 million subscribers, a fifth of the country’s population of 30 million people.
Snowden’s documents paint a frightening picture of how MTN Afghanistan and its rivals were infiltrated by the US National Security Agency, which then intercepted, recorded and stored audio files of every phone call in the war-torn country invaded by the US in 2001 in its hunt for Osama bin Laden.
The documents reveal how a cutting-edge tool, code named SOMALGET, was used in Afghanistan and the Bahamas to spy on calls and vacuum up “geolocation” information to pinpoint a person’s whereabouts.
The NSA targeted three of Afghanistan’s five cellular network providers, including MTN, according to earlier documents leaked by Snowden.
The new documents revealed the surveillance of cellular networks in Afghanistan and the Bahamas processed more than 100 million “call events” a day.
While the interceptions date back many years, this disclosure is likely to spark more controversy over the extent to which MTN protects the privacy of its 210 million customers in 22 countries, especially as it operates in a number of emerging markets prone to coups and wars. These include Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
Two years ago, in the course of a lawsuit brought against MTN by rival Turkcell, details emerged of how MTN installed eavesdropping equipment so that Iran’s government could spy on its citizens during a crackdown on bloody protests there in 2009.
The Mail & Guardian reported that MTN Irancell’s subscriber data was shared “on a collegial basis” with Iran’s military.
Though MTN convened a commission of inquiry to probe allegations that MTN bribed Iranian officials to score the cellular licence, it specifically did not probe the spying claims because, it said, this “relates to the period after the licence was issued”.
However, Snowden’s new documents do not reveal the extent to which MTN Afghanistan participated in the spying.
Asked on Friday, MTN corporate affairs chief Paul Norman would not answer questions on whether MTN Afghanistan cooperated with the US agency.
“As is the case with telecoms operators anywhere in the world, MTN acts within the terms of its licence in respect of lawful intercept and access to data in each country where we operate,” he said.
Norman said that in South Africa MTN intercepted calls only once it had a judge’s order under the 2002 Rica Act.
The US government has been embarrassed by Snowden’s leaks illustrating a massive National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programme across the world.
Two weeks ago, this newspaper reported how the NSA spied on South Africa’s diplomatic mission to the UN and this country’s New York consulate in Manhattan.
Jack Hillmeyer, spokesman for the US embassy in South Africa, refused to discuss this MTN case, saying: “We are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity.”
While they may reflect badly on cellphone companies, Snowden’s documents indicate that secret interceptions may have been done in some countries under the auspices of “lawful intercepts” requests by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
The new details of MTN’s surveillance operation in Afghanistan, leaked out only thanks to an extraordinary public row between Assange and Greenwald.
In an article two weeks ago, Greenwald said that “as of 2013 the NSA was actively [gathering] cellphone metadata in five countries, and was intercepting voice data in two of them”. Greenwald identified the Bahamas, Mexico, Kenya and the Philippines, but said he would not name the fifth because of “specific, credible concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence”.
But Assange immediately identified the mystery country as Afghanistan, saying it was important to do so as “the US dronetargeting programme has killed thousands of people and hundreds of women and children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia in violation of international law”.
Greenwald has previously published interviews revealing how US forces used “cellphone-tracking technology to confirm the locations of targets”.
US president Barack Obama pledged in January, in response to fallout over the Snowden leaks, to strengthen executive oversight of signals-intelligence activities.