The US Navy has been accused of listening in to the telephone calls of Bermuda Government officials during negotiations over the baselands 15 years ago.

Author Don Grearson makes the claim in his new book 'USS Bermuda' in which he says fears about "wiretaps" were running so high in late 1994 that the office of government consultants RT Environmental Services was moved from the US Naval Air Station in St. George's to Hamilton.

Mr. Grearson, 55, was part of the official base closure team and has since interviewed numerous politicians, military officials and civil servants for his 450-page book.

The Americans had a military presence in Bermuda for more than 50 years, causing serious environmental damage and pollution at their properties in Southampton and the East End.

They pulled out for good in 1995 and gave an $11 million settlement in 2002. The cost of cleaning up the mess as estimated by the Island is tens of millions of dollars more than that.

The phone-tapping suspicions, Mr. Grearson discovered, emerged in November 1994 after Tom Sleeter, Government's senior environmental officer at the time, and Peter Uhlman, from Pennsylvania-based RT, inspected an underground bunker that seemed to be saturated with potentially dangerous "hydrocarbons".

Mr. Uhlman told Dr. Sleeter during a telephone call that the bunker would be tested the next day. But when the RT crew arrived to start drilling, the bunker's steel door was welded shut and tons of dirt bulldozed against it.

Mr. Grearson writes: "To Sleeter and Uhlman, this could mean only one thing the Navy was listening in on Uhlman's telephone conversations. Some telephones at the base, including Uhlman's, had an orange sticker on them saying calls were subject to monitoring.

"But neither Uhlman nor Sleeter had given it much thought. They later agreed they had been naive, but the idea the Navy was monitoring their conversations was surreal."

'USS Bermuda' reveals that Dr. Sleeter's fears were confirmed for him a day or two later after Mr. Uhlman called to say he had received test results for Bassett's Cave at the Naval Annex in Southampton.

The cave had been used as a waste oil and household sewage dump and there was concern that pollution could be seeping through the fractured limestone and posing a danger to residents.

The day after the telephone conversation, writes Mr. Grearson, the Navy's environmental officer called Dr. Sleeter to ask for the test results. But Dr. Sleeter knew that he and Mr. Uhlman were the only ones aware of the results.

He accused the officer of bugging Mr. Uhlman's line but got no answer, according to the book. Mr. Grearson writes: "Word the Navy was 'wiretapping' RT lines was nothing short of sensational. It passed through the transition organisation like a shockwave and contributed to a growing wartime mentality."

Mr. Grearson told The Royal Gazette that the claims were based on anecdotal evidence and could not necessarily be proven.

Grant Gibbons, the former Cabinet Minister responsible for the baselands transition, said yesterday he could not remember the allegations emerging at the time or an official complaint being made.

But he said the ancient, analogue telephone system used by the Americans at the base would have made it easy to listen in to calls and practically impossible to prove that it had happened.

"I think the individuals who were concerned about it were probably told 'don't make sensitive calls on the base'," said Dr. Gibbons. He added that it would have been "very disappointing" if tapping was taking place when the two countries were engaged in ongoing "cordial and straightforward" negotiations.

Other claims in Mr. Grearson's book include:

• that former Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson scuppered the multi-million dollar redevelopment of Morgan's Point by US developers West Group after lecturing them on his take on the socio-economic history of the US; and

• that the real reason Bermuda got an $11 million settlement from the Americans was because the UK used the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia as leverage.

The author, now a communications consultant for the UBP, also details how the Island was used as a super-secret listening post to track Soviet submarines in the Atlantic. The US Navy did not respond to a request for comment yesterday (Friday) and nor did Bermuda Government.

'USS Bermuda: The Rise and Fall of an American Base' is available to buy at local bookshops, priced $49.95.