Security services restricted from accessing information
Democratic Gathering MP and former Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said it was clear that current Telecom Minister Gebran Bassil had failed to establish a wiretapping office in the ministry. The Lebanese Intelligence and security services lacked access to information that would allow them access to data across all Lebanese territory, he said.
In an interview with the Voice of Lebanon radio station on Friday, Hamadeh said the wiretapping issue was about informing the Internal Security Forces of data from the country’s two mobile networks and the Ogero telephone company.
Hamadeh noted that the wiretapping issue was not new and that parliamentary commissions had been formed to discuss it. “Lebanon’s security cannot be uncovered,” he said.
He called for making exceptions in the implementation of Law No 140, which did not allow the Telecommunications Ministry to give data to the Interior and Defense ministries.
Hamadeh said an agreement over the appointments of the general director of the Interior Ministry and local governors was likely to be reached soon, while there were still “very divergent” views on the appointment of the five remaining members of the Constitutional Council.