Western Firms Aided Libyan Spies
On the ground floor of a six-story building, agents working for Moammar Gadhafi sat in an open room, spying on e-mails and chat messages with the help of technology Libya acquired from the West.
The recently abandoned room is lined with posters and English-language training manuals stamped with the name Amesys, a unit of French technology firm Bull SA, which installed the monitoring center. A warning by the door bears the Amesys logo. The sign reads: "Help keep our classified business secret. Don't discuss classified information out of the HQ." The room provides clear new evidence of foreign companies' cooperation in the repression of Libyans under Col. Gadhafi's almost 42-year rule. The surveillance files found here include e-mails written as recently as February, after the Libyan uprising had begun.