‘Royal concierge’: British spies tracking diplomats, says report

For over 3 years, the GCHQ has had a system to watch reservations at no less than 350 upscale hotels around the globe.

BERLIN: Britain’s electronic eavesdropping service keeps tabs on foreign diplomats by monitoring their hotel bookings, a German magazine reported Sunday citing leaks provided by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. News weekly Der Spiegel said that for more than three years, the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has had a system to watch reservations at no less than 350 upscale hotels around the globe. “The aim of the programme is to inform GCHQ, at the time of the booking, of the city and hotel a foreign diplomat intends to visit,” Der Spiegel said, allowing the ‘technical operations community’ to swing into action before the envoy’s arrival. This can include monitoring a hotel room and its guest by wire-tapping the telephone and fax machine, gaining access to computers hooked up to the hotel network, or eavesdropping on the diplomat in the hotel bar, the report said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2013.