Silvio's Wiretap Crusade Marches On

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi does not rule out a vote of confidence on the wiretap bill. Speaking to SkyTg24 he stated that "It would be better not to have a vote of confidence, but if we run into the slightest opposition we will immediately call a vote of confidence". Berlusconi pointed out that wiretaps cost the State 400 million euro every year, and that "the right to privacy is fundamental". (more) (background)

Photographers – Next on The List
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has reacted angrily to the publication in Spain of photographs showing topless women and a naked man at his villa. He has threatened to sue Spain's El Pais newspaper, calling the photos an invasion of privacy. The photos - banned in Italy on privacy grounds - were taken from outside Mr Berlusconi's villa in Sardinia during a party for a Czech delegation. (more)

Wiretap Tag with Silvio Berlusconi

Italy - A tabloid tidal wave washed over Italy on Tuesday as newspapers published eye-popping wiretapped conversations from a nightclub dancer who said she had dallied with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as a minor, but whether it would sweep the wily prime minister out to sea was still anyone’s guess. (more)

Wiretaps emerged days after a probe was launched against Berlusconi on charges he paid Moroccan-born Karima el-Mahroug, called “Ruby Rubacuori” for sex at his villa when she was a minor.

Berlusconi, 74, is also accused of helping to get her released from custody when she was held for theft. Now 18, she said she had asked Berlusconi for $6.7 million to keep quiet, according to wiretaps. (more)

Cast your mind back to last summer...

June 29, 2010 - Berlusconi to push through wiretap law
Critics say the law would muzzle the press and help organized crime.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, however, is a man on a mission. He has threatened lawmakers that they will have to work well into August to make sure that a new law curbing wiretaps is passed before the fall.

When passed, it will place severe limits on phone intercepts during investigations, as well as imposing heavy fines on newspapers that publish the transcripts of wiretapped phone calls. Wiretapping happens routinely in Italy, even where no charges have been brought.

A law against wiretaps will amount to imposing a "gag" on the Italian media, according to major news outlets. (more)

Is this all starting to make sense now?

Silvio Strikes Back

Italy - Investigators have become increasingly reliant on wiretaps in recent years... Use of wiretaps by prosecutors in Italy has grown exponentially in recent years.

Investigators say intercepts of telephone calls have become an essential tool of the police, who spend millions of dollars each year tracking down crime through wiretaps of landlines and mobile phones.

But the law may be about to change.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing government has drawn up a bill which would restrict police wiretaps to only the most serious crimes.

Much crime reporting in the Italian media is based on leaks of wiretaps and leading politicians, including Mr Berlusconi himself, have found to their embarrassment that details of their private telephone conversations have sometimes been leaked to newspapers.

Under the new law reporting of details of criminal investigations obtained through wiretaps would become illegal until a final verdict has been delivered.

Given the extreme slowness of Italian justice, this would mean that details of cases now before the courts might be reported by the press only in 15 years time. (more) (background)

Silvio Berlusconi Wrapped up in Wiretaps Again

Italy - Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is facing a fresh trial on charges of revealing a secret wiretap in 2005. This will bring to four the number of current trials in which Mr Berlusconi is the main defendant. (more)

Wiretapping - Silvio Berlusconi Sentenced to One Year in Prison... or not!

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was convicted in a wiretapping case in Milan Thursday and sentenced to a year in jail.

The wiretapping charge — related to the 2006 battle for control of a major Italian bank — is one of three corruption rulings the hard-partying Berlusconi faces this month.

A Milan court is also set to rule on charges he engaged a minor in prostitution, and an appeals tribunal will decide whether to uphold a four-year sentence for tax fraud. (more)

Or nots...
• Berlusconi is unlikely to serve jail time - Italian law doesn’t require prison sentences to be carried out until the appeals process exhausted, which can take several years.
• Berlusconi could become Prime Minister again.

Bug Found in Office of Berlusconi's Judge

An electronic bug was found in the offices of the Italian judges due to hear a final appeal this month by former premier Silvio Berlusconi against a tax fraud conviction, news reports said Friday.

An employee of the Court of Cassation discovered a device used to record or intercept conversations and alerted police Thursday afternoon, the Rome-based Il Tempo newspaper said.

The bug, which was removed by police, did not have any batteries, the daily said. (more)

Nineteen Minutes into the Future

Italy - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi advanced a draft law through the senate that restricts the use of wiretaps by prosecutors and introduces fines and prison sentences for journalists who issue reports on tapped conversations.

The draft law's passage on Thursday by the senate prompted a torrent of criticism from Italian prosecutors, newspapers and opposition lawmakers. Mr. Berlusconi, a media magnate, says the bill aims to protect the privacy of Italians. Critics say the draft legislation, which still faces a vote in the lower house of Parliament, is an attempt by Mr. Berlusconi to weaken the judiciary branch's investigative powers and muzzle criticism of the prime minister in Italian media.

"The massacre of freedom has begun," said Anna Finocchiaro, a senator in the center-left Democratic Party. (more)

No pun intended?

Headline: "Italy's daily runs blank page"
Italy's left-leaning La Repubblica daily on Friday ran an all-white front page to protest a bill curbing police wiretaps and setting hefty fines on media for publishing transcripts of them. 'The muzzling law denies citizens the right to be informed,' reads a message, styled as a yellow Post-It note, on the otherwise blank space under the La Repubblica banner. (more)

An Old Score Settled

Italy - Italian magistrates and media are up in arms over a government attempt to restrict wiretaps and slap fines and jail sentences on newspapers that publish transcripts, saying it will help criminals and muzzle the press.

While the centre-right coalition of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says it wants to protect privacy, the opposition says the government is just scrambling to cover up widespread corruption in its ranks with yet another tailor-made law...

The bill languished in parliament for months. But the government quickly dusted it off after newspapers published leaked transcripts from a high-profile graft probe into public work contracts that has tainted Berlusconi's cabinet. (more) (background)

"Arrivederci Roma"

"I continue to use the mobile phone with greater freedom, but if there is any news which comes out about my telephone calls being recorded I will leave this country". ~ Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician, entrepreneur, and media proprietor.

Berlusconi said this when he explained that he had a plan to deal with the indiscriminate use of bugs. "We should only allow the bugging for crimes such as terrorism and organized crime". (more)

Wiretap coincidence or vendetta? You decide.

Italy - Gucci is the latest fashion label to be drawn into Italy's on-going "Spy Story" scandal - of which its former head of womenswear, Alessandra Facchinetti (and recently fired from Valentino), has previously been revealed as a target.

A Gucci spokesman yesterday confirmed in a statement that the Prosecutor's Office in Florence had ordered a search of the house's various Italy-based offices in relation to its investigation into the long-running scam, which saw the phones of various politicians, bankers, entrepreneurs, journalists and celebrities being wiretapped over a matter of years.

"The search is a result of the investigation on suspicion of the crime of revelation and use of official secrets," Gucci's spokesperson said, adding that the company was cooperating fully with the authorities. (more)

Just sayin'...
Silvio Berlusconi, an Italian politician, entrepreneur, real estate and insurance tycoon, bank and media proprietor, and sports team owner, and now the third longest-serving Prime Minister of the Italian Republic (President of the Council of Ministers of Italy), a position he has held on three separate occasions: from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006, currently since 2008. (background 1 2 3 )

"I'm infested. You know what I mean. I can't nibble on my secretary's ear without everyone knowing. Send them exterminator guys over."

Italy - Rome prosecutors on Monday opened an investigation into the alleged bugging of the home and offices of Northern League leader Umberto Bossi. 

Bossi, who is minister for reforms in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government, revealed Monday that bugs had been found in his house and his office at the ministry "a couple of months ago".

The bugs were discovered, he said, by a private firm "we called in when my secretary got suspicious because too many people knew what I'd said to her alone".

The minister, Berlusconi's longtime key ally, said he then called his party colleague, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, "to send a few guys over" to remove the devices. (more)

Vendetta 1 - Berlusconi wiretap posted on internet

vendetta - noun
1. A feud between two families or clans that arises out of a slaying and is perpetuated by retaliatory acts of revenge; a blood feud.
2. A bitter, destructive feud.

An Italian newspaper has posted a seven-minute secretly taped phone call on the internet in which Silvio Berlusconi (former Italian president) apparently tries to persuade state broadcaster, RAI's head of drama to hire two actresses. The alleged reason is to encourage two centre-left politicians linked to the women to join his opposition bloc in parliament...

The phone call was recorded by police as part of an ongoing investigation into corruption allegations concerning Berlusconi and RAI. Italy's richest man denies any wrongdoing, dismissing the country's prosecutors as a "Red Army". (more)

"There's nothing more ironic or contradictory than life itself." ~ De Niro

From the "Why are we not surprised?" file...
The Italian government has proposed a bill that would limit the use of phone intercepts and their publication in the media. (more)
Maybe this and this and this is why.

FutureWatch...
"I'll Getta You Sucka: The Silvio Story"
starring Robert De Niro

Hounded by Eavesdropping, Berlusconi Snaps (Can you blame him?)

Italy - Embattled Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, under withering scrutiny for his high-profile sex life, was caught on a police wire saying he wanted to flee his "s---y" country.

Berlusconi's shocking remarks were recorded in July as part of an investigation into claims he is being blackmailed about his sex life, according to The Guardian. 

"They can say about me that I s--w. It's the only thing they can say about me. Is that clear?" the frustrated Prime Minister said to one of the men allegedly extorting him. "They can put listening devices where they like. I don't give a f--k."

"In a few months, I'm getting out to mind my own f---ing business, from somewhere else," he continued, "and so I'm leaving this s---y country of which I'm sickened." (more)

Not knowing if you have privacy is universally stressful and personally debilitating. It is especially bad in business and government where there is the added stress of not being able to conduct business in confidence. These are some of the reasons why periodic inspections to detect electronic surveillance are a basic element of most organization's security program.

In a strange twist of fate, a man is brought to court on wiretapping charges because of a law passed at his brother's urging, a brother often burned by electronic surveillance revelations in the media and currently engulfed in his own legal quagmire because of them.

Italy - A judge in the northern city of Milan on Friday sent Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's brother to trial for the illegal publication of a wiretapped phone conversation in conservative Italian daily Il Giornale. (more)

This week in Spy News

UK - An MP's assistant accused of spying for Russia is on course to follow in the footsteps of Anna Chapman after being offered a job at the Kremlin's English-language TV news propaganda channel.(more)

A Taiwanese general detained in what could be the island's worst espionage case in 50 years was lured by sex and money offered by a female Chinese agent, media reported Thursday. (more)

Alleged spying at French car maker Renault may have targeted the costs involved in making electric cars, its chief executive said in an interview published Friday. (more)

A court in Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region has sentenced a Moldovan man to 14 years in jail after convicting him of espionage. (more)

India - A senior home ministry official accused of leaking sensitive information in return for sexual favours moved his bail application in a court here Friday. (more)

Italy's sex scandal mired prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has likened Italy's prosecutors, its left-leaning newspapers and TV talkshows to spies from the former communist East Germany. (more)

Pakistan - Militants killed three, including two Khasadar tribal force members, accusing them of spying, sources said. (more)

Iran - Two Americans accused of spying appeared in a closed-door Iranian court session Sunday to begin trial after an 18-month detention that has brought impassioned family appeals, a stunning bail deal to free their companion and backdoor diplomatic outreach by Washington through an Arab ally in the Gulf. (more)

German federal prosecutors have charged a 43-year-old Moroccan with spying on exiled opposition activists for his country's intelligence service. (more)

Pakistani authorities have decided to indict US diplomat Raymond Davis on espionage charge, saying he had been conducting surveillance of the Pakistan Army’s bunkers on the Eastern border with India. (more)

Two retired marines have been held captive for more than eight weeks in the Horn of Africa after a gun battle while they were escorting a merchant ship through waters threatened by pirates... they are accused of spying after being arrested by a naval vessel from Eritrea as they guarded the ship in the Indian Ocean. A dispute about their paperwork escalated and threats were followed by shots being exchanged. Two guards tried to escape in a skiff but were seized after a chase. They were, it is claimed, kept on an offshore island without food or water for more than a day before being taken back to a port city on the mainland for incarceration. (more)

OR - A student at St. Paul High School has been caught spying on the girls' basketball team by hiding his cell phone in their locker room. (more) 

Mark J. Hulkower, prosecutor in Aldrich Ames spy case, dies at 53. (more)