Belgium: big big 2003 spy "scandal" revealed - when in doubt blame Israel and Mossad

Big big spy "scandal" ... Follow Peter de Smet's logic: ""It could be Israel, it could be Russia, it could be England or it could be the U.S.", but while "there is no hard evidence" [his hunch is that] the Israeli spy agency Mossad carried out the eavesdropping operation".  Why on earth does he rule out Belgium ? The report states on page 15 that, according numerous sources, the Israeli Interior Ministry is reported to hold a 40% stake in COMVERSE INFOSYS Ltd. and that the Mossad reports to the Interior Ministry [1].  That's big news.  Even Wikipedia knows that Mossad reports to the Israeli Prime Minister. Our own reliable sources have indicated that no Israeli government agency holds stakes in private companies.

Background : EU Observer (Fresh report into 2003 EU spy scandal points to Israel)
Source: UPI.com (Israel possible culprit in EU spy scandal)

A Belgian intelligence committee's best guess is that Israel was behind an old European Union bugging scandal, a member of the panel said Tuesday.

Peter de Smet of Belgium's Standing Intelligence Agencies Review Committee told EUobserver.com that while "there is no hard evidence" the Israeli spy agency Mossad carried out the eavesdropping operation, two people suspected of planting listening devices in the EU member states' headquarters in the mid-1990s had been trained by Comverse. The Israeli telecommunications company allegedly has ties to Mossad.

De Smet said there were only a handful of countries that possessed the "really state-of-the-art listening equipment placed in the Justus Lipsius building in 1993 or 1994.

"It could be Israel, it could be Russia, it could be England or it could be the U.S. -- there you have really the four countries possible, but it will never blow up who did these things," de Smet said. "It will remain a game inside the intelligence services."

The listening devices were discovered by technicians at the Justus Lipsius building in February and March 2003 in sections used by British, French, German and Spanish diplomats, the European Web site said.

At the time the European Union's internal security branch asked Belgian secret services to set up a sting on the spies involved, but the plans were revealed by the French daily Le Figaro, EUobserver.com said.

Officials completed the 2003 report last year and it was published on the committee's Web site in Dutch and French on Tuesday afternoon.

[1] "Selon de nombreuses sources ouvertes connues de la VSSE et que le Comité permanent R a pu consulter, la firme COMVERSE INFOSYS Ltd appartiendrait à concurrence de 40% au ministère israélien de l’Intérieur (dont relève le MOSSAD)."