‘No operational loss due to wiretaps,’ Turkish intel says

Turkish state security suffered “no operational losses” due to electronic spying by U.S., German or British efforts as reported by Der Spiegel, a Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) source told the Hürriyet Daily News on Sept. 2, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The MİT official said no critical conversation was made or decision regarding state security had been taken electronically “for a long time,” adding that such conversations only took place “face to face.”
The official did not give an exact date but said that “at least” since 2009 all critical talks, including message exchanges, have been made through physical contact without electronic devices, under the instructions of then-prime minister, now-President Tayyip Erdoğan.

“It is a common practice that people in critical positions visit each other at home in the middle of the night,” the source said. “That also applies to our missions abroad. If necessary, our ambassadors or other officials take the first plane and come to Ankara. Nothing is conducted on any electronic medium.”
 
A recent Der Spiegel report turned heads after claiming that the telephones of the Turkish Embassy in Washington DC and the computers of the Turkish U.N. mission in New York were breached by the U.S. electronic intelligence agency NSA.

The intelligence source claimed that the Turkish security system’s only possible vulnerability, apart from unknown technology or a human intelligence source from within, was satellite intelligence. “Satellites can pick up telephone signals, like UAVs and drones. That is why we stopped talking on the phone,” the source explained.

“There is another way,” they source added. “Foreign services can set up...