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April 15, 2005

Bugging the Papal Conclave

You can understand why the Vatican is on the alert over fears high-tech eavesdroppers might be trying to bug the Conclave which will have its first session to elect a new Pope on Monday. For centuries, people have wanted to know what goes on in there, so it's reasonable to expect that satellite cameras could be zooming in on key buildings and grounds where the cardinals gather, and lasers could be pointed at windows to pick up their conversations.

Clearly the prospect has got some people a little over-excited:

"Surely many intelligence agencies in the world are trying to penetrate inside the Holy See [the Vatican]. They will do with special aircraft, for example, spy planes with ... lasers," says Andrea Margelletti of the Center for International Studies in Rome.

We're pretty sure even the Swiss Guard, with those pikes and funny uniforms would be able to detect a spy plane zooming around the Sistine Chapel.

What we'd be checking for is a rogue cardinal with a camera phone, however, it seems they've thought of that already. The Turin daily La Stampa says an American-made scrambling system will protect the Santa Martha residence where the cardinals will stay between voting sessions, and to prevent all mobile telephone calls, including outbound calls.

Posted by cw at April 15, 2005 08:50 AM

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