Two Strange Deaths in European Wiretapping Scandal

I'm off to ride my bike down to the lake and watch Chicago's air and water show. The Blue Angels and other inasane pilots pull stunts and make big noises. I love it. All week they've been buzzing the neighborhoods while they practice. The noise is intense. Windows rattle, car alarms go off. I run to the window like a little kid each time in hopes of seeing a heavily banking F-14 or whatever it is they're flying.

While I sipped my coffee this morning, I came across the following story. Positively hair-raising in a Philip K. Dick kinda paranoiac way. There's little doubt there's some evil fucks working clandestinely in this world. Which is exactly why I reserve the right to question the official line behind things like foiled terror plots and even 9/11.

From AlterNet:

European investigators are tracking the mysterious deaths of two security experts who had uncovered extensive spyware in their telecommunications firms.

[...]The first Italian press reports after Bove's death said the 42-year-old had committed suicide. Bove, according to unnamed sources, was depressed about his imminent indictment by Milan prosecutors. But prosecutors immediately, and uncharacteristically, set the record straight: Bove was not a target; in fact, he was prosecutors' chief source. Bove, prosecutors said, was helping them investigate his own bosses, who were orchestrating an illegal wiretapping bureau and the destruction of incriminating digital evidence.

[...]About 16 months earlier, in March of 2005, Costas Tsalikidis, a 38-year-old software engineer for Vodaphone in Greece had just discovered a highly sophisticated bug embedded in the company's mobile network. The spyware eavesdropped on the prime minister's and other top officials' cell phone calls; it even monitored the car phone of Greece's secret service chief. Others bugged included civil rights activists, the head of Greece's "Stop the War" coalition, journalists and Arab businessmen based in Athens.

Read the article: Two Strange Deaths in European Wiretapping Scandal.

(Via Crooks and Liars.)