Did Deutsche Telekom Spy on Journalists and Board Members?

German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom stands accused of having monitored telephone calls of business journalists, board members and shareholders. An anonymous fax may result in a criminal investigation.

Had it not been for the money, there is a good chance that the entire "unsavory story" -- as a senior executive at German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom AG called it last week -- would never have come to light. Most of all, though, it was a fax that revealed the story -- and exposed an absurd concoction of economic spying, power-hungry megalomania, paranoia, and a complete disregard for the freedom of the press.

The company itself, led by then CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke and monitored by a supervisory board headed up by then Deutsche Post CEO Klaus Zumwinkel, (more...) is accused of being behind the alleged spying. And the Berlin consulting firm, whose chief executive sent the April 28 fax, was hired to carry it out. The goal of the "Clipper" and "Rheingold" surveillance programs, as well as other "secondary projects," the fax makes clear, was to "analyze several hundred thousand landline and mobile connection data sets of key German journalists reporting on Telekom and their private contacts."

But that wasn't all. The same procedure, according to the memo, was repeated with "several supervisory board members on the employee side" -- "for a total period of one-and-a-half years."