Journalist Erich Möchel leaks photos of alleged NSA monitoring stations in Vienna to spy on United Nations.
In what could be confirmation of the allegations made by the serial NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, Journalist Erich Möchel has published a series of photographs of NSA monitoring facilities on the United Nations regional office in Vienna.
Erich Möchel himself feels so and has stated such in his German language blog, “Wie eine Fotoserie zeigt, befindet sich der in den Snowden-Dokumenten erwähnte “Vienna Annex” in den Dachgeschoßen des IZD-Towers neben der UNO-City.” which loosely translated means that what Snowden documents showed was proved by the photographs which give out details of installation of NSA monitoring facilities on the UN in Vienna
The photos published by him pertain to the National Security Agency’s deployment of monitoring stations on “Vienna Annex”, in the attics of IZD Towers. Erich says that though the Snowden leaks didnt mention Austria and/or Vienna explicitly in his leaks, Snowden had maintained that NSA was monitoring United Nations facilities across the world.
The photos published by Erich prove that NSA has deployed a monitoring station in Vienna used for listening in on what’s happening at the UN complex where nations of the world deliberate on issues surrounding humanity at current juncture. It also shows that the NSA monitoring station isnt far from the UN headquarters.
The photos show a hut on the roof, which cannot be seen from the street, that is enclosed by solid steel bars and protected by a significant video surveillance system equipped with a ten cameras. Erich explains that that the hut which looks like any other maintenance buildings around the world is in fact hiding high tech spying/snooping equipment used by the US intelligence to monitor mobile networks.
United Nations facility or whole of Vienna?
Though both the monitoring facilities are near to the UN regional headquarters. He has also found proof that the NSA is spying on whole of Vienna city. He has deducted the fact that NSA monitoring facility above along with the US Embassy in Vienna’s 9th district and the ‘NSA villa’ in Pötzleinsdorf which he assumes to be a listening post, the NSA could be spying on the whole city.
Erich who specialises in photo journalism speculated that by placing the monitoring facility at the roof of the tower which is about 100 meters in a straight line with the United Nations headquarter, NSA has a privileged position to intercept most of communications emanating from the United Nations.
NSA will be subjected to another round of public outburst with the release of this photographs. Vienna citizens, in particular may take offence at a foreign government listening to their personal communications. This leaks comes nearly a year after the journalists Glenn Greenwald and Stefania Maurizi discovered similar structures also in Italy, and provided further information on the surveillance network that is extended to many other European cities, including Berlin and Milan.
All images in this post are taken courtesy of Erich Möchel
