'Extreme Surveillance' Becomes UK Law with Barely a Whimper

THE GUARDIAN: Investigatory Powers Act legalises range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services

A bill giving the UK intelligence agencies and police the most sweeping surveillance powers in the western world has passed into law with barely a whimper, meeting only token resistance over the past 12 months from inside parliament and barely any from outside.

The Investigatory Powers Act, passed on Thursday, legalises a whole range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services unmatched by any other country in western Europe or even the US. » | Ewen MacAskill | Saturday, November 19, 2016

Former MI5 Officer: Easy to Persuade Fearful People to Give Up Hard-won Liberties

How Do World Leaders Cope with Being Bugged?

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

BBC: The most common reaction to news that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone was bugged by the US National Security Agency appears to be world-weary resignation.

Followed by a sly suggestion that someone of her experience and stature should have known better.

Kurt Volker, former US ambassador to Nato 2008-2009, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme "every country spies" and he could not believe that the revelations were a surprise to anyone.

Lord West, a security minister under Gordon Brown, said he had "always worked on the assumption" that people were listening to his phone calls.

"I know they jolly well were," he told Today.

"I don't think it's surprising that people try and listen. If you are a head of state there are lots of people, not just other states, who are listening.

"There are companies, all sorts of people, who want to hear what you are saying and I think you have to be extremely careful." » | Friday, October 25, 2013

'Cameron Declares War On Investigative Journalism'

The British Prime Minister has called for an investigation into whether the Guardian newspaper broke the law - by publishing the Edward Snowden leaks that sent shockwaves about American surveillance worldwide. A parliamentary committee is now looking into it. Tony Gosling joins RT to discuss David Cameron's gunning for The Guardian.

Janet Daley: It's Left-wing Prats Who Are Defending Our Freedoms

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The visit by national security agents to smash up computers at the Guardian newspaper is shocking, like something out of East Germany in the 1970s

A few weeks ago, a British national newspaper was visited by a detachment of national security agents who demanded that its computers and hard drives be destroyed. The security men then stood over its staff while they smashed their equipment to pieces. In the peace-time history of a free country, this incident is about as shocking as it gets. And yet, a remarkable consensus has grown up, including – I’m sorry to say – many on my side of the political fence, to the effect that this is no big deal.

The reasons that this scene – which looks, on the face of it, like something out of East Germany in the 1970s – is apparently perfectly acceptable seem to be: a) the data in the computers was a threat to the national security of this country and to that of our American allies; b) this information was stolen from the US government and published illegally by people who are narcissistic/eccentric/of dubious political judgment, and c) the newspaper in question was the Guardian, which is full of annoying Left-wing prats. Let’s consider these points in order of importance.

Taking a hammer to the hardware in the Guardian’s basement will make scarcely any difference to the dissemination of this data since duplicates reside in other locations around the globe. So presiding over the physical destruction of the newspaper’s property could only constitute a form of rather theatrical intimidation.

The official excuse for getting rid of the equipment – even though the data was known to exist elsewhere – was that the paper’s system might be insecure, so obliterating it meant that at least one source of potential leaks was eliminated. This would be far more credible if the National Security Agency (whose mass surveillance programme had been exposed) was as diligent in carrying out its prescribed function as it is in vindictively pursuing anyone who reports its unconstitutional activities to the world. Read on and comment » | Janet Daley | Saturday, August 24, 2013

My comment:

Guardianistas are defending our freedoms. Perhaps they don't call it The Guardian for nothing then.

PS: Excellent article by Janet Daley. – © Mark

This comment appears here too.

Windows Watching? Germany Fears OS Provides NSA with Remote Access

Leaked German security documents have shown the country doesn't trust the new Windows 8 system - fearing it provides the NSA with remote access. That's according to one of the country's newspapers - although the German government denies it. Earlier reports indicated the country was a major target for US intelligence - let's remind you how much data the NSA collected there.

'Sending a Message': What the US and UK Are Attempting to Do

THE GUARDIAN: State-loyal journalists seem to believe in a duty to politely submit to bullying tactics from political officials

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger on Monday night disclosed the remarkable news that UK authorities, several weeks ago, threatened the Guardian UK with prior restraint if they did not destroy all of their materials provided by Edward Snowden, and then sent agents to the basement of the paper's offices to oversee the physical destruction of hard drives. The Guardian has more details on that episode today, and MSNBC's Chris Hayes interviewed the Guardian's editor-in-chief about it last night. As Rusbridger explains, this behavior was as inane as it was thuggish: since this is 2013, not 1958, destroying one set of a newspaper's documents doesn't destroy them all, and since the Guardian has multiple people around the world with copies, they achieved nothing but making themselves look incompetently oppressive.

But conveying a thuggish message of intimidation is exactly what the UK and their superiors in the US national security state are attempting to accomplish with virtually everything they are now doing in this matter. On Monday night, Reuters' Mark Hosenball reported the following about the 9-hour detention of my partner under a terrorism law, all with the advanced knowledge of the White House:

One US security official told Reuters that one of the main purposes of the British government's detention and questioning of Miranda was to send a message to recipients of Snowden's materials, including the Guardian, that the British government was serious about trying to shut down the leaks."

I want to make one primary point about that. On Monday, Reuters did the same thing to me as they did last month: namely, they again wildly distorted comments I made in an interview - speaking in Portuguese, at 5:00 am at the Rio airport, waiting for my partner to come home after finally being released - to manufacture the sensationalizing headline that I was "threatening" the UK government with "revenge" journalism. That wasn't remotely what I said or did, as I explained last night in a CNN interview (see Part 2). » | Glenn Greenwald | Wednesday, August 21, 2013

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UK Crackdown on Snowden Files

The British government's attempts to stem the tide of articles on mass surveillance have gone beyond intimidating the journalist behind the publications. Just a day after Glenn Greenwald's partner was detained at Heathrow airport, The Guardian's editor came forward describing how the authorities pressured the newspaper to destroy documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The UK government has reportedly confirmed the move was sanctioned by the Prime Minister himself.

Exclusive: Ecuador’s Foreign Minister on Snowden, Assange & Latin American Resistance to U.S. Spying

Exposed: UK Cops Unit SOCMINT Sucks Up Data from Your Online Networks
It appears the UK's sweeping surveillance is going beyond the GCHQ phone and online eavesdropping. A special police unit has reportedly been scanning what British citizens are posting online in social networks.

World from Berlin: 'Do Costs of Hunting Terrorists Exceed Benefits?'
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Revelations that Britain has been expansively spying on German and European data has deepened a public debate over mass privacy violations. German editorialists argue that London and Washington have some explaining to do.

In Germany, a country with a long, troubled history of state surveillance, the revelation that British and American intelligence agencies have been spying en masse on European data communications has not gone over easily.

Last Friday, London's Guardian newspaper published the contents of leaked documents confirming that Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the American National Security Agency (NSA) have been tapping directly into fiber-optic cables to collect vast stores of information that they can then access as needed. Among these cables was the TAT-14, which carries a large share of data communication in and out of Germany, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and public radio station NDR reported on Tuesday after viewing documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

According to media reports, neither the German government nor the country's foreign intelligence service, the BND, was apparently aware of the British surveillance operation, dubbed "Tempora," which was reportedly made possible with the cooperation of two telecommunications companies: Vodafone and British telecoms giant BT. Vodafone released a statement saying it abides by the laws of the countries in which it operates, but it declined to give further information, citing "national security." BT has refused to comment.

The ongoing surveillance controversy, which began last month following the disclosure of the NSA's Prism program, has been a heated topic in Germany, where the massive state surveillance of Communist East Germany is still present in the memories of many citizens. » | SPIEGEL ONLINE Staff | Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Germany Seeks UK Surveillance Assurances
BBC: Germany's justice minister has written to British ministers seeking information about allegations of mass surveillance by British intelligence.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger asked if the surveillance by GCHQ was legal and if Germans were targeted.

Previously she had said the gathering of vast amounts of global data sounded like a "Hollywood nightmare".

Meanwhile, civil rights group Liberty demanded an inquiry into whether its communications were accessed illegally.

The Foreign Office said it does not comment on intelligence matters. Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament two weeks ago, though, that British security agencies uphold the law at all times.

Evidence leaked by Edward Snowden to the Guardian suggests that GCHQ is able to tap into and store internet data from fibre optic cables for 30 days in an operation called Tempora.

And GCHQ is also said to have accessed information about UK citizens from the US National Security Agency's monitoring programme, Prism.

'Germans fear spying'

GCHQ has insisted it is "scrupulous" in complying with the law.

Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger's request for more information from the British government came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced unease at the allegations in the Guardian.

The letters Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger sent to Home Secretary Theresa May and Justice Secretary Chris Grayling urged them not to lose the principles of civil rights.

She wrote: "In our modern world, the new media provide the framework for a free exchange of opinions and information. Transparent governance is one of the most important prerequisites that a democratic state and the rule of law requires."

The BBC's Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans said the letters asked four main questions: On what legal basis the spying program was executed; whether general information is collected and does it need a specific reason or is a more general trawl; whether judges had approved the measures; what data was kept and was it on German citizens.

Our correspondent said it is a real and potent issue in Germany because under the Nazi and Communist regimes spying on citizens was widespread and feared. » | Tuesday, June 25, 2013