The Nassau Guardian
Williams suggests Bahamas can not stop U.S. from spying
Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) CEO Leon Williams has suggested that there is nothing the company can do if the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States is spying on Bahamians through the backdoor of its networks.
Williams did not confirm the NSA was using BTC to spy on Bahamians, but outlined how it is possible for an organization with that kind of reach to do so.
“Take a look back at our traffic,” Williams said.
“...If I send an email from my phone to your phone right now sitting here [it] goes all around the world before it gets back to you.
“Understand that all that traffic in the Caribbean, just like the airlines, [where] we don’t have direct flights
between here and Trinidad, we don’t have direct flights between here and Barbados, all our traffic goes into Miami.
“It is the same way the telephone traffic works. It all goes into Miami and goes south.
“It all goes into Miami and comes back. Every email we send in The Bahamas goes out to the cloud and comes back.
“Who is intercepting on the way while it is out to the cloud and coming back?
“Do I want to call names? No. But let us just sit down and look at it from 33,000 feet and let your imagination run.”
Williams said simple smartphone applications can indicate servers in the various jurisdictions an email has crossed before coming to The Bahamas.
He said there is a need for the Bahamian public to lift the level of conversation surrounding the NSA and the alleged spying in has perpetrated on Bahamians.
Asked whether there is anything BTC or the government can do about a foreign entity tapping into telecommunications in The Bahamas, Williams said, “If it is reported that the NSA was listening in on the conversations of the German Chancellor (Angela Merkel), a country with 350,000 people...that is dependent on everything going to the cloud, I keep saying this stuff is not rocket science. All we need to do is think.”
The allegations that the United States is spying on The Bahamas are contained in documents leaked by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.
According to the documents, Merkel was among a list of world leaders subject to surveillance by the NSA.
The NSA is using a surveillance system called SOMALGET to collect and store “full-take audio” of every mobile call made in The Bahamas and storing it for up to 30 days, those documents allege.
In May, Marlon Johnson, outgoing BTC vice president of sales and marketing, said BTC was conducting an internal investigation into the spying allegations.
However, Johnson said BTC nor Cable and Wireless Communications is “complicit” in any breach of customer information.
When asked to provide an update on that investigation, Williams said he was not yet CEO when BTC officials made that statement.
Williams was announced as CEO of the company on June 10.
When pressed, Williams said, “I don’t know. I have no comment on that.”
Up to last week, the government had not received a report from the United States on the spy claims, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.
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