Report: Britain Has a Secret Middle East Web Surveillance Base 237
wiredmikey writes "Britain is running a secret Internet surveillance station in the Middle East, according to a recent report citing the latest leaked documents obtained by fugitive US security contractor Edward Snowden. The Independent newspaper said it was not disclosing the country where the base is located, but said the facility can intercept emails, telephone calls and web traffic for the United States and other intelligence agencies and taps into underwater fibre-optic cables in the region, the newspaper said. The Independent did not disclose how it obtained the details from the Snowden files."
Yes, and? (Score:4, Insightful)
that is what they are supposed to be doing right? Gathering intel? The problem is when they do it against their own citizens.
Remember all those times the cables were cut? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now we know why.
Re:news worthy? (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess it is if you live in the middle east... but as an American this unlike the purly domestic shit is exactly what the NSA and allied signal intelligence agencies should be doing.
GCHQ decided to fuck with The Guardian and with Greenwald's partner.
Greenwald said "If the UK and U.S. governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded. If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further."
A little story about a probably-sensitive GCHQ listening post seems like a warning shot in exactly that direction.
Re:Yes, and? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah, but you're missing the key point on how the "game" is played.
The GCHQ in the UK isn't allowed to spy on UK citizens, so they spy on the rest of the EU's citizens, and apparently on the Middle East.
The NSA isn't allowed to spy on US citizens, so they spy on Canadians and others.
The Canadian spy agency isn't allowed to spy on Canadians, so it spies on Americans and others.
Australia and New Zealand spy on anyone close to their networks as well.
Even the Germans are into spying.
Then after everyone has spied on the "foreigners" who aren't protected by each nation's laws, they get together, exchange their data, and end up with the intel on their own citizens, all while claiming "but we don't spy on our own citizens."
Re:Well.. (Score:5, Insightful)
As a British citizen, I'm so used to assuming that the government is intercepting every piece of electronic communication,
As one that lived more than half of his life in one of those European countries in the communist block, I am afraid that you are properly fucked already.
If this persist for longer (say 15-20 years... it only takes one generation of used to, everybody will be teaching it to their children!), the society you'll be living would show the same weird behaviour of its people as during the secret police in communist countries: use of paraphrases when speaking, carefully planning/doing your everyday actions so that they don't appear to have any element of verboten, every neighbour... heck even members of you family... may be turning you to the authorities.
Walk only a little in the past and you'll find Gestapo as another example.
My point is: stop being just so used to... and do something if you don't want there
Re:Yes, and? (Score:5, Insightful)
Snowden gave the trove of files to The Guardian at least. The specific leaks, after the initial ones, are decided by Glenn Greenwald and not Snowden.
Whether Greenwald gave some stuff to the Independent or Snowden did that earlier is unknown.
But my guess would be the whole episode of the UK Gov't detaining Mr. Miranda and forcing The Guarding to shred some systems seriously pissed off the British Press. Releasing UK-specific material is most likely payback. Spreading it around to other papers is most likely a signal that "threaten the Guardian with prior restraint, you better be ready to shut down every paper in the UK".
GCHQ and Whitehall fucked up royally with that and they are now going to pay for threatening a major newspaper.
Just a guess, mind you.
Re:Yes, and? (Score:1, Insightful)
Flag on the play -
Why ?
Does the UK need to spy on the middle east ?
The British Empire of the past is OVER. The UK
is just a formerly great power which is sinking
into oblivion by its own greed, incompetence,
arrogance, sense of entitlement, and stupidity.
The glory days of the UK are in the 19th and 20th
centuries. Now, all the UK government does is act
like an eager lap dog for the bully US government.
It's truly pathetic if you observe with any amount of
objectivity.
FYI : I am not affiliated with any religious group. I am not
interested in some asshole telling me what I should believe.
What I believe is based solely on hard evidence, and the evidence
points to the UK flailing about in a grotesque pretense of
still being a great power. It's embarrassing yet hilarious at the same
time.
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
If there is any group of people constantly on the edge of going on killing sprees on civilians, it's the muslims.
You have conveniently overlooked the Israelis and the US, with respect to
killings of civilians. The facts indicate that the two aforementioned parties
certainly deserve to be counted as contenders in these matters.
Re:Yes, and? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm thinking this may well be a middle finger aimed at the political types in the UK who had Greenwald's partner detained. It's his way of saying, this may have been about civil liberties and constitutional protections for your own citizens, but if you're going to mess with people on our side we can mess with people on your side too. A shot across their bow to give them some idea of the other information he has that he can chose to publish about, or keep secret.
Re:Actually that's completely and fantastically wr (Score:5, Insightful)
Uhunh. Yeah. Right. So all the "bi-lateral security agreements" that the government has bragged about are for what purpose, then?
Your NSA has been caught ignoring the rulings of the FISC that said their actions were illegal. They've been caught spying on Americans. What in all that's holy makes you think they wouldn't take data from a foreign government's spy agency when the Americans have repeatedly sent people to foreign nations to be tortured and to use that intelligence data despite the fact that it's illegal to do so?
Re:Yes, and? (Score:5, Insightful)
Right, they all spy on each other's citizens then exchange data, which amounts to exactly the same thing. Honoring the letter and shitting on the spirit seems to a trend these days.
And by the NSA's own logic, exchanging data is "two or three degrees of separation," which apparently should make them equally liable. Not that government hypocrisy surprises me in the least.
Re:Yes, and? (Score:5, Insightful)
And I should add: huge kudos to the Independent for having the balls to stand up and keep reporting in the face of what appears to be a War on Journalism.
Peace,
Andy.
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, it takes some talent to get them there. First you need to starve them a bit. Then you need to eradicate all of the moderate / peaceful imams. Then you need to repress the youth, and make them feel trapped. Then you need to make them feel that violence is the only answer to solving their lifestyle problems.
Sure, it takes a large investment in that kind of control / behavioral modification, but it has worked wonders on various indigenous populations, no matter which religion they choose to identify with.
I mean, let's be honest, a fat and happy populace is not a populace which is going to attack anyone. You need to lie to them, cheat them, steal from them, every single day, from every angle, so they feel that even their emotions are on loan from you; that's when you know you have them, when they will altruistically damage themselves to be just like the false image of you. You need to remove that innermost sense of peace that humans are born with, and make them uneasy to be alone with themselves.
I hope you get the dripping sarcasm in the above statements.
Re:Yes, and? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why ?
Does the UK need to spy on the middle east ?
The British Empire of the past is OVER. The UK is just a formerly great power which is sinking into oblivion by its own greed, incompetence, arrogance, sense of entitlement, and stupidity.
Er, the UK is home to one of the most important financial centres on the planet. It's got a huge (commercial and strategic) incentive to know what other countries are doing. And it's not just spying on the Middle East - it's spying in the Middle East on all the Europe-Asia traffic that passes through the Suez Canal. Which is pretty much all of the Europe-Asia traffic there is (Russia excepted).
And you can rest assured that at least some of the US$100 million that the NSA gives GCHQ is being used to maintain these facilities. Draw what conclusions you like.