Probe uncovers taps on officials’ phones

? Mobile phones belonging to top Greek military and government officials – including the prime minister – and the U.S. embassy were tapped for nearly a year beginning in the weeks before the 2004 Olympic games, the government said Thursday.

It was not known who was responsible for the taps, which numbered about 100 and included Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis and his wife, and the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, public order and justice. Most of Greece’s top military and police officers also were targeted, as were foreign ministry officials and a U.S. embassy number.

The phone tapping “started before the 2004 Olympic Games and probably continued until March 2005, when it was discovered,” government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said at a news conference.

Roussopoulos said the surveillance was carried out through spy software installed in the central system of Vodafone, the mobile telephony provider that served the targets. He said it had not been possible to identify who was behind the tapping.