Regaining confidence
The implications of the tapping of top government telephones for nine months by unidentified persons are more far reaching than the conservative government would have it, judging by the press briefing last week. The Greek public is concerned with what appears to be an embarrassed government that is still not up to the challenge of launching a swift investigation without being led by political and diplomatic objectives. Greek citizens are deeply disappointed with the fact that the country has an extremely vulnerable national security system which is at the mercy of spy networks. The announcement last week that the mobile phones of senior government officials, including that of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, were tapped for months under the nose of Greece’s intelligence services has stoked a heightened sense of humiliation among the people. The government must take quick steps to remedy this poor climate. It owes it to the patient citizens of an overindebted country, who must shoulder the burden of a mammoth debt created by irresponsible political administrations. Safeguarding national security using the latest technology, dealing with the state intelligence officials who failed to do their job, leveling charges against the mobile telephony operator which is responsible for the scandal, cracking down on the networks that have infiltrated the country’s secret service – all these should already have started.
