Who ordered the secret surveillance of the secret service?

„When I get home, I leave my work phone on a dresser in the bathroom. That’s the only way I can be sure I’m not being listened to or watched…“

It sounds like a line from a spy movie. But it is not fiction, it is reality: this is a statement given to Television E by a long-time operative of the National Security Agency, who wished to remain anonymous, and who, like all his colleagues, was ordered to carry official phones 24 hours a day.

So they can be under constant surveillance!

SURVEILLANCE APPLICATION

The Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro published an article on June 13 stating that at the end of April, part of the employees of the National Security Agency filed a criminal complaint with the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, claiming that the NSA staff was being illegally subjected to constant surveillance by the Agency. According to the complaint, this was being carried out outside the law, through the „Hexnode for Work“ application.

- In the NSA during 2025, no later than June, a systemic, mass and indiscriminate GPS, i.e. location tracking of employees via the „Hexnode for Work application installed on work mobile devices was established, which, according to available information, was still active at the time of filing the complaint, contrary to constitutional and legal guarantees of privacy and personal data protection - the report of the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro states, citing details from the criminal complaint.

In addition to the criminal complaint submitted to the SSPO, a group of NSA officers also sent a letter with information to the Parliamentary Committee for Security and Defense, as well as to the Personal Data Protection Agency.

TRUST THE AGENCY’S WORD!

Sources from Television E in the security sector confirmed information that the application was installed on NSA work mobile devices as early as June 2025.

According to these claims, those within the Agency allegedly responsible for establishing permanent surveillance of employees include the former head of the Counterintelligence Protection Sector Dragutin Šipčić, as well as the head of the Technical Sector Igor Burić.

Šipčić was appointed head of the Counterintelligence Protection Sector back in 2012, and media outlets reported that he was a strong advocate of introducing the „Hexnode for Work application in order to better monitor NSA employees.

After the article, the National Security Agency issued a response claiming there was no system of eavesdropping or secret surveillance of employees, but rather a standard software solution for protecting work devices.

- This is a standard tool for managing and protecting official devices, applications, and data. Such solutions are used by state institutions, large companies, the healthcare, education, financial, hotel, and aviation sectors, as well as organizations that must centrally protect work devices, applications, and data - the Agency stated in its press release.

However, Television E sources point out that the Agency’s „explanation“ omits certain information.

First of all, that some officers from the Counterintelligence Protection Sector allegedly strongly pressured operatives - under threat of disciplinary sanctions - to always carry their mobile devices with them. Such surveillance practice is not common in other intelligence services of NATO member states. The use of official phones is usually limited to so-called operational activities, after which the phones are left in official premises.

SPECIAL TASK AND SPECIAL SILENCE

And that is precisely to protect the integrity of operatives. Because surveillance capabilities -through a special application - are alarming.

- Besides the basic version of the application, it also includes the ability for someone from outside, an officer from the Counterintelligence Protection Sector, without the knowledge of the operative assigned the phone, to activate audio and video recording, which is not surveillance in accordance with the law. In addition, GPS is constantly on, so the location of NSA agents can be known at any moment - explained a technology expert in an interview for ETV.

The motive for such engagement of the Counterintelligence Protection Sector is clear: it enables insight into all communications, tracking of movement, and identification of locations where authorized NSA officers are present.

Therefore, sources from the Agency say, every officer had to sign consent before receiving a phone, waiving constitutionally guaranteed rights to the inviolability of communications, supposedly in the interest of national security.

In an attempt to find out whether the Special State Prosecutor’s Office had taken any actions after opening a case based on an anonymous criminal complaint by the NSA agents, we sent an inquiry to SSPO spokesperson Vukas Radonjić.

By the time this report was aired, there was no response from the Special State Prosecutor’s Office. However, news arrived from Strasbourg.

There is also no reaction from the NSA leadership. It is unknown why Agency director Ivica Janović is observing everything calmly…

The European Parliament expressed concern over the adoption of amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs and the Law on the National Security Agency, despite strong criticism from the opposition and civil sector, according to a report on Montenegro currently being debated in Strasbourg.

Thus say European parliamentarians, who are apparently not yet informed about the criminal complaints filed by members of the secret service - who complain that they themselves, from within the secret service, are being secretly monitored by the NSA leadership?!