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National Security Bureau denies wiretapping president

ROC Central News Agency

2008-05-28 20:44:57

    Taipei, May 28 (CNA) A senior official of the National Security Bureau (NSB) denied Wednesday that its agents were wiretapping the telephone calls of government officials, including President Ma Ying-jeou.

    Questioned by reporters at the Legislative Yuan about a news report that claimed even after Ma assumed the presidency on May 20, the NSB continued to monitor his phone calls, NSB Deputy Director Tsai Teh-sheng said the bureau was not tapping the phones of any politicians in Taiwan.

    Next Magazine, a Chinese-language weekly, reported in the latest issue of its Taiwan version that the NSB -- the nation's principal intelligence agency -- was still out of control even after the presidential inauguration, and that even the new president himself had been wiretapped.

    Tsai said that at present, the NSB only monitors phone calls that originate from abroad.

    He said the NSB frequently sends its workers to different government agencies to help detect illegal bugging and tapping, but so far had not found any such cases.

    Asked to comment on the issue, Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said he hopes that the president could find out whether the NSB was engaged in illegal wiretapping within the government.

    Wang said that wiretapping by the NSB for the sake of national security must be conducted within the confines of law.

    Lin Yu-fang, a legislator of the ruling Kuomintang, urged the Presidential Office to "get to the bottom of this matter," saying that if the president was being wiretapped, it would not be difficult to imagine what would happen to ordinary people.

    Illegal wiretapping by intelligence agencies has been a widespread problem in Taiwan for many years.

    In 1999, the legislature passed the Communication Protection and Surveillance Act to impose stricter guidelines on when and how wiretaps can be used, although they can still be approved for broad reasons such as "national security" and "social order."

    The new law also regulates wiretapping by the intelligence services, which previously operated without any supervision.

    However, many legislators have claimed that their phone calls were being monitored routinely by the NSB -- an allegation consistently denied by the NSB.

(By Han Nai-kuo)

ENDITEM /pc