WASHINGTON -February 27 - Yesterday Clare Short, a former British cabinet minister, said that Britain spied on U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan during the build-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Short's revelations came the day after the British government dropped charges against Katharine Gun, a former British intelligence employee who in early 2003 leaked a U.S. National Security Agency memo describing a "surge" in U.N. spying aimed at winning authorization for war on Iraq -- targeted "against" delegations from swing countries on the Security Council. Short's charges were not denied by Tony Blair when he addressed the issue Thursday.

JAMES PAUL, james.paul@globalpolicy.org, www.globalpolicy.org

Executive director of Global Policy Forum, which monitors the U.N., Paul said today: "The bugging revelations show how the U.S. tried to manipulate the Security Council to do its bidding, just as it is now trying to engineer U.N. support for the ouster of Aristide, or backing for U.S. government plans in Iraq."

PHYLLIS BENNIS, pbennis@compuserve.com

Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of the book Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's U.N. She said today: "For an extraordinary eight months, the U.N. stood defiant of the U.S. demand that the world body authorize Washington's war. That defiance eventually collapsed when, under extraordinary U.S. pressure, the Security Council passed resolution 1583, more or less authorizing the post-war U.S. occupation. Like an acupuncture needle, any information gleaned from wiretapping U.N. missions or the secretary general or the U.N. building itself would have dramatically increased Washington's and London's ability to concentrate their pressure points with pinpoint accuracy."

BILL FLETCHER, www.transafricaforum.org

Executive director of TransAfrica, Fletcher said today: "The revelations regarding the alleged spying ... deepen our dismay and anger over how the Bush administration has chosen to treat any nation or institution over which it does not have total control. Such alleged spying necessitates a full investigation on the part of the U.S. Congress.... We are witnessing a threat to the sovereignty of Haiti, where a democratically elected government is being undermined by an external military force. Thus, the world sits and waits in anticipation of whether the United Nations will take a stand in favor of Haitian democracy and sovereignty, or will cave before the U.S. and France -- and turn a blind eye to the horror unfolding."

Background information is posted at: www.accuracy.org/gun

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