A brief historical review

"In this historical review on phone-tapping, we do not intend to be exhaustive. Our purpose is to contribute to complete the obvious lack of information which has long prevailed on the topic." (CNCIS)

The very first phone-tapping operation in Switzerland dates from 1912. Although the first telephonic central of the Western Electric dates from 1885, it was made from "Bell T‚l‚phone" equipment. In the canton of Geneva, there used to be 300 phone lines. The first real phone-tapping operation was made in a relaying central.

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In 1954, the Head of the British Secret Service branch in Bern asked his agents to survey the Soviet delegations' phone lines. A SIS representative cannot lead this kind of operation on such a scale, without the connivance or the assistance of the Swiss Security Services. In this particular case, there were no problems, as the SIS and the Swiss Security had good contacts.

"Georges Blake", who currently lives in Russia, still writes :

"Our small group was made up of a stout American woman (1), an attractive young woman from Romania (2), and myself. We had settled in a flat in the centre of Geneva, near the lake. It was equipped with two recording machines to listen to the tapes, and a few desks. That was all we needed. Both women worked and slept in the flat. Of course, we had no contact with the British official delegation, and we never went to the evening receptions before or after the conference. The communist delegations' representatives were very careful as they spoke on the phone. They neither talked about their position or their tactics in the negociations, nor did they mention the concessions they could have been ready to make. They only talked about routine topics. There were many calls between Geneva and Moscow, most of them were related to administrative matters, but there were also many private phone calls with the families. The conference was over and we came back to London."

(1) Her mother was a saleswoman at the bookshop "Payot"
(2) She worked at the British Consulate.

During the Second World War, the biggest firms; AEG and UHER (Germany) which supplied France and Switzerland; had their phones tapped. The wire-tapping sets had been set up by the gestapo in the Parisian sewarage system during the Occupation. Switzerland is supposed to have supplied arms in exchange for the wire-tapping sets.

In 1965, the Hubert report on phone-tapping declared that the Federal Council had witnessed some abuse in phone control. In 1968, the government hoped that this tool would only be used to prevent crimes and offences.

In March 1968, the federal police controlled the total number of phone surveillance organizations, in order to bring to the fore a minimum proportion of them, and the less controversial ones.

1965-1968 : the possiblity for the people who have been controlled to be informed of it did not go beyond the commissions deliberations. Many dispensations were made. Many people thought that too many judges had the power to order phone-tapping. They said the control delayed the procedure and that it was useless.

11.1.68 : law on protocol forms

1971-1974 : no statistics were found on phone-tapping in the canton. The secret of the Post Office and its derogations were not dealt with thoroughly. The information sources were generally not indicated in the cantonal reports, which is still the case today. The Post Office had distribution lists.

Amstein, the Chief of the Federal Police said :"Phone-tapping is not a purpose in itself, but it is an investigative tool." The observer was not able to read any information if it was not related to searches and arrests.

The secrecy of the files was usually respected. But if pieces of evidence, clues or real facts existed, the authorities could render the script of the phone control public, by way of social control. This is going on today.

1974 : the federal laws of administrative penal law (art. 66 & 73 PPF) were disowned by Mr Furgler's declaration to the prosecutor of the Commission; Mr Gerber; when he had his hour of glory : "parliamentary controls should be avoided as it is necessary that secrecy should be respected".

On the 4th of November 1974, Switzerland ratified the European Convention on Human Rights (RSO, 10) art. 8, al.1, according to which all individuals have the right of the respect of their correspondence, of their privacy and their home.

1978 : the number of the persons able to order a phone control was limited.

A judicial control was on its way.

1979 : on the 1st of October, the law on the control of phone-tapping in penal inquiries was voted following the initiative of a single member of Parliament in

March 1979. Since this day, the prosecutor has had to warn the court of criminal appeal in the next 24 hours, and the authorization is no longer valid 6 months later. Additionally, it could only be renewed if it is requested.

Purpose : for a minimum of K (controls) on TK (Telephone Kontrols).
Before 1979, massive phone-tapping, no legal purpose
After 1979, phone-tapping was conducted on individuals but it was truly illegal in practice - 19 TK against 24272 inquiries.

1981 : according to the government, 70 people had their phones tapped.

1983 : the decree pronounced by the federal court on the 9th of November 1983 informed the citizens that the respects of private sphere, the inviolability of secrecy in the TELECOM, and fundamental rights could be limited according to this legal basis and in the interest of the public. Experience showed that in order to find a culprit, it is necessary to monitor many people, which is still the case today.

1986 : the massive purchase of wire-tapping sets was not recognized.

294 TK were conducted.

1987 : Similar renewal of the order of 20 000 units in Paris by the Post Office. Debate at the Parliament.

1987-1988 : fax-tapping was set up in the important telephonic centrals.

1988 : The Confederation ordered 44 TK invigilations and the cantons ordered 397 phone-tapping operations. Most recently, the AMESA company has supplied the first digital wire-tapping set to the police, particularly to the "117" on Ram chip, called REPEATER VOX, with a unique duration of 4 minutes. Then, the AMESA produced digital diffusers.

1989 : the federal prosecutor noticed that in October, everything had been done to reduce the controls on the court of criminal appeal.

1993 : the existence of 10 000 wire-tapping sets used for simultaneous TK was acknowledged. In the canton of Vaud, the police stopped buying ASCOM encoding systems for faxes.

1994 : a massive purchase of digital wire-tapping sets and filing systems on optical disk was conducted by the TELECOM, the cantonal police forces, and many other authorities, but it was not recognized. We shall come back to this point later.

Big Brother State as a victim : in November 1994, roles were reversed :

Switzerland was the first country in the world where the media sympathized with the paranoïa state, as they complained about the possible phone hackers (the telephonic centrals were dilapidated...).

The federal Law Courts and the federal Police were warned that confidentiality on the phone was a myth. Nobody wondered why the police waited so long in admitting so.

In December 1994, a penal complaint was lodged against the TELECOM and the federal Police for passive complicity in a homicide, and they requested that records and spotting lists identifying the problem should be seized. Several complaints were lodged against Switzerland at the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

In June 1995, the prosecutor in Neuchƒtel declared that the police should be given the right to tap phones. The states Council agreed and passed laws in relation to TK, microphones, etc.

Officially, year 0 of preventive phone-tapping. In fact, they launder a scandal.

Sept. 1995 : several police and Telecom employees were arrested for having confused private and professional interests. No names were given.

End of 1995 : The Nouveau Quotidien Newspaper and the states Council announced on a sad tone : "Since 1992, the Federal Police has been deprived of essential means : phone-tapping systems, microphones, mail surveillance; no foreign embassy, no extremist movement such as the PKK were surveyed. Even worse : they still want to give it up."

1996 : the State Council and the Federal Council kept the National Council for free information in the background. In March, a police employee was arrested in Zurich because she had sold information.

1996 : purchase of a software (vocal data base) for the vocal recognition in many languages, and information processing.

Comments : The State Council is manipulated as it is not informed. Indeed, no investigation is lead against the management commission.

The newspaper "Le Nouveau Quotidien" lies and stimulates this farce.

The Chief Editor and the policemen they know have also given up tapping the PKK's phones.
The only trut which has been acknowledged is that the Federal policeme themselves;instead of the TELECOM; used to decide whether they would tap phones before 1992 (official version)
A. Koller, the Head of the Police, pretends he is debating a so called case in order to hide the scandal of police phone-tapping before 1992.
No control until 1992, even until 1994.
Since 1995, the federal police is controlled.
No external control, either superficially or through manipulations.
N.B. : all Embassies and Missions are automatically tapped...

1997:

Comity against illegal surveillance:   http://www.goeast.ch/ficherman

August 98:

Abusive taping of the newspaper " Sontagszeitung " (Martin Stoll) by the procuror Carla del Ponte. He gave the name of a agent of Mossad.