Spain govt fires intelligence chief amid phone hacking scandals

Barcelona: Spain's government fired the director of the country's top intelligence agency Tuesday following the hacking of politicians' cellphones, including the devices of the prime minister and several supporters of the Catalonia region's secession.

The National Intelligence Center, or CNI, has been under fire for its role in spying on Catalan separatists and for taking a full year to discover that the handsets of the prime minister and leading defense and security officials were infiltrated, possibly by a foreign power.

Defense Minister Margarita Robles, who was among the hacking targets, announced after Cabinet meeting that Paz Esteban would be relieved as CNI director. "That (the hacks of government phones) took a year to discover, well, it is clear there are things that we need to improve," Robles said.

"We are going to try to ensure that these attacks don't happen again, even though there is no way to be completely safe." Esteban's replacement will be Esperanza Casteleiro, "a woman who has worked for almost 40 years" at the intelligence agency, Robles said.