'US spies on China, Russia from Kyrgyz base'
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
MOSCOW, April 6 (Reuters): Russian state television accused the United States Sunday of spying on China and Russia after secretly turning its only remaining air base in Central Asia into a state-of-the-art surveillance centre.
A US defence official dismissed the allegations as ridiculous Friday, when Rossiya television, widely seen as an official mouthpiece in Russia, released a clip of the documentary it aired Sunday about the Manas base.
Kyrgyz and US officials could not be reached for comment late Sunday.
Kyrgyzstan told Washington in February to close the base near the capital Bishkek, used to send supplies to US troops in Afghanistan, after it secured a two-billion-dollar economic aid package from Russia. The Americans are due to leave in August.
Airing the documentary, called "Base," Rossiya showed a compound of two-storey windowless buildings, and said: "In one of the buildings ... there is a multi-channel, multi-functional system of radio-electronic surveillance.
"This station can eavesdrop the whole world-every fax, every e-mailed letter. Every call from a mobile or landline phone is being recorded and processed. Billions of messages are being intercepted."
A US defence official dismissed the allegations as ridiculous Friday, when Rossiya television, widely seen as an official mouthpiece in Russia, released a clip of the documentary it aired Sunday about the Manas base.
Kyrgyz and US officials could not be reached for comment late Sunday.
Kyrgyzstan told Washington in February to close the base near the capital Bishkek, used to send supplies to US troops in Afghanistan, after it secured a two-billion-dollar economic aid package from Russia. The Americans are due to leave in August.
Airing the documentary, called "Base," Rossiya showed a compound of two-storey windowless buildings, and said: "In one of the buildings ... there is a multi-channel, multi-functional system of radio-electronic surveillance.
"This station can eavesdrop the whole world-every fax, every e-mailed letter. Every call from a mobile or landline phone is being recorded and processed. Billions of messages are being intercepted."