First Look Inside Security Unit Shows How Citizens Were Tracked
By PAUL SONNE And MARGARET COKER
TRIPOLI—On the ground floor of a six-story building here, agents working for Moammar Gadhafi sat in an open room, spying on emails and chat messages with the help of technology Libya acquired from the West.
The recently abandoned room is lined with posters and English-language training manuals stamped with the name Amesys, a unit of French technology firm Bull SA, which installed the monitoring center. A warning by the door bears the Amesys logo. The sign reads: „Help keep our classified business secret. Don’t discuss classified information out of the HQ.“
The room, explored Monday by The Wall Street Journal, provides clear new evidence of foreign companies‘ cooperation in the repression of Libyans under Col. Gadhafi’s almost 42-year rule. The surveillance files found here include emails written as recently as February, after the Libyan uprising had begun. (more on online.wsj.com)
