Same thing in Italy....

It hasn't really hit too much headlines outside Italy, but there's also a big investigation into illegal wiretaps there. But in that case there wasn't any particular technical wizardry involved in the wiretaps - just plain old human involvement.

When Telecom Italia was taken over by Pirelli's major shareholder Tronchetti Provera through a series of intermediary companies, Pirelli's security team was completely transformed into Telecom Italia's new security team, whose job, among others, was to provide Italian police with wiretaps when the police presented a warrant. Not only were members of the security team doing a little wiretapping of their own (on various government ministers and public offices), but they also had a system through which they could identify if anyone was tapping them.

Its still under investigation so I'm sure there's lots to come out yet.