Watchful Friends: Latest Revelation Shows GCHQ Has Listening Post in Berlin

Among the frustrations in the Million-Mask March are the goings on by the NSA, exposed by Edward Snowden. The latest revelation is that the UK has had its very own listening post in the heart of Berlin to keep a watch on Germany's leadership. Let's get the details now from Peter Oliver.

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Germany Calls In British Ambassador Over Berlin Spying Claim

Simon McDonald, UK Ambassador to Germany

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Germany's foreign ministry calls in the British ambassador to explain reports that the UK was operating a covert spying station from its Berlin embassy

Germany called in the British ambassador to hear a formal protest on Tuesday after reports suggested that British intelligence runs an eavesdropping centre in Berlin.

The facility, allegedly sited on the roof of the British Embassy in Berlin, is supposedly operated by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK’s largest intelligence agency.

Germany took the unusual step of requesting Simon McDonald, the British ambassador, to attend a meeting at the foreign ministry. The German diplomat responsible for relations with European countries “asked for an explanation of current reports in British media and indicated that tapping communications from a diplomatic mission would be a violation of international law”. Read on and comment » | David Blair | Tuesday, November 05, 2013

My comment:

We Brits never did quite grasp the concept of being communautaire, did we? It's as if we never really joined the EU, and it's as if WWII never ended. Shame on us! – © Mark

This comment appears here too.

Anger Grows Over British Spying in Berlin »

Et Tu, UK? Anger Grows over British Spying in Berlin

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: First it was the US -- and now it turns out the UK might have been spying from its embassy in Berlin, too. German politicians say they feel doubly betrayed.

Germany has been rocked by the revelation that yet another close ally might be spying on its leaders from an embassy in Berlin. The London-based newspaper The Independent revealed Monday that British intelligence had established a "secret listening post" in the British Embassy like the one recently revealed by SPIEGEL to be in the US Embassy on the same large block. The British post, like the American one, is located near the German parliament, the Reichstag, and was disclosed in the trove of data leaked by American intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden. » | tmr | Tuesday, November 05, 2013

New Dark Age Alert!: In UK, Spies Will Tap in to ALL Emails and Telephone Calls
DAILY EXPRESS: ALL telephone calls, emails and text messages in Britain will be monitored under new Government snooping plans.

A £12billion identity database at the GCHQ spy centre could even log every website visited by computer users nationwide.

Hundreds of bugging probes will be installed in the telephone system and computer networks to monitor communications traffic.

GCHQ has already been handed £1billion of taxpayers’ cash to begin developing the database.

After the top-secret plans were leaked yesterday critics accused the Government of stalking the public. Michael Parker of anti-identity card group No2ID said: “It is a shocking intrusion into privacy. This is stalking. If an individual carried out this sort of snooping, it would be a crime.”

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said the proposal marked “a substantial shift in the powers of the state to obtain information on individuals”. And after a series of embarrassing security blunders including the loss of child benefit records for every family in the country, he questioned Whitehall’s competence to keep such data. He said: “Given the Government’s poor record on protecting data and seeing how significant an increase in power this would be, we need to have a national debate and the Government would have to justify its need.”

The plan for the biggest surveillance system in British history is being spearheaded by GCHQ director Sir David Pepper. Spies Will Tap in to ALL Emails and Calls >>> By Macer Hall, Political Editor | October 6, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>