Category Archives: United States

Britain, Government, Intelligence, United States

Whistleblower and ex-CIA operative breaks cover…

America’s most wanted man has broken cover to reveal why he decided to leak documents from one of the world’s most notorious spy organisations.

Edward Snowden, the former CIA worker, admitted he would be ‘made to suffer’ after triggering shockwaves across the globe by handing over top-secret files from the US National Security Agency (NSA).

The 29-year-old whistleblower, who reputedly earned £130,000 a year, exposed chilling details of how the covert agency, based in Maryland, gathers private information from people around the world –  including in Britain – using a programme called Prism.

The system gives officials easy access to data held by nine of the world’s top internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Skype.

Mr Snowden acted after becoming convinced the US government’s bid to harvest personal information from millions of individuals was a ‘threat to democracy’. He fears he will be kidnapped and returned to America to face espionage charges and possible life in jail.

Mr Snowden had been working at the NSA for the last four years as an employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton after working for the CIA as a technical assistant, specialising in computer security. His role allowed him access to classified material. He fled the United States after handing reporters from the Guardian Newspaper and Washington Post numerous documents from the agency’s computers.

Mr Snowden said:

… I don’t want public attention because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing.

… My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.

In shining a light on the NSA’s widening surveillance net the whistleblower has sacrificed a comfortable lifestyle because, as he says, he can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building. Mr Snowden insists the spy chiefs at the NSA are intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them. It is this, he says, which poses a ‘threat to democracy’. He believes this will stifle intellectual exploration and creativity, with the US government granting itself power it is not entitled to.

Mr Snowden fled to Hong Kong on May 20 because of its spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent. The former UK colony, now part of China, could well resist the demands of the White House in apprehending him. However, it is possible that the Chinese government might seize him for questioning about US methods and secrets.

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Britain, Government, Intelligence, National Security, United States

US spying programmes are being used by British spies to snoop on UK email accounts…

COVERT INTELLIGENCE GATHERING ON UK CITIZENS

British spies and intelligence agents have had access to a US government programme that monitors the web activity of millions of Britons.

Secret documents published suggest the US National Security Agency (NSA) has direct access to data held by internet giants including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, Skype and Apple.

The documents – which appear to be slides from a training presentation for intelligence agents – suggest the agency can access email, photographs, social network information, chat records and other ‘stored data’ held by the companies, as part of its ‘Prism’ project.

They also suggest that the British government’s listening centre, GCHQ, has had access to the system since at least June 2010. During this period the project generated nearly 200 intelligence reports. It is unclear whether other agencies, such as MI5 and MI6, were also involved, meaning the true extent of the snooping could be higher.

A spokesperson for GCHQ said:

… We do not comment on intelligence matters… (but) our work is carried out in accordance with strict legal and policy framework.

Privacy campaigners warned that the revelations suggested the creation of a ‘Snooper’s Charter by the back door’. They come after a proposed plan to pay internet companies to collate user data from UK computers was dropped only last month in face of opposition from Conservative backbenchers and Liberal Democrats.

Labour has called on David Cameron to come clean to MPs on the extent of Britain’s role. Yvette Cooper MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said:

… In light of these reports, the Prime Minster should brief the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) on what ministers know and should ask the ISC to report on the UK’s relationship with the Prism programme, the nature of intelligence being gathered, the extent of UK oversight by ministers and others, and the level of safeguards and compliance with the law.

The Guardian, a London based newspaper, said it has obtained slides from a whistleblowing intelligence officer worried about invasions of privacy.

Reports by the newspaper and The Washington Post suggested the FBI and the NSA can tap directly into the central servers of nine leading internet companies.

But a number of them, including Google, Apple, Yahoo and Facebook denied that the government had “direct access” to their servers.

Microsoft said it does not voluntarily participate in any government data collection and only complies ‘with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers’.

Yet one slide appears to be a timeline of when the companies began to participate in Prism, starting with Microsoft in September 2007 and ending with Apple in October 2012.

According to the reports, Prism was established under President George W Bush in 2007 and has grown ‘exponentially’ under President Obama.

The Director of US National Intelligence said that the law ensures that only ‘non-US persons outside the US are targeted’, raising the likelihood that Britons are among those captured in its net.

Revelations about the snooping programme follow separate reports about the NSA being allowed to collect all telephone user data from Verizon, one of the largest telephone firms in the US, for three months.

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Britain, China, National Security, Technology, United States

Is China spying on you through your broadband?

Members of Parliament on the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), Parliament’s intelligence watchdog, have said that China could be spying on British citizens and firms through its supply of broadband equipment to UK telecoms companies. MPs say they have serious concerns about the internet deals signed by BT and O2 with the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei.

A report delivered by the committee says that China could ‘intercept covertly or disrupt traffic passing through Huawei-supplied networks’ and adds that oversight of the firm in the UK is ‘feeble’ and suffers from the ‘absence of any strategy’.

Huawei is known to supply mobile handsets, routers and equipment in telephone exchanges and street cabinets to a string of British telecoms companies.

The scathing nature of the report led the Chancellor, George Osborne, to take the unusual step of issuing a statement in response to the ISCs findings, and has stressed the importance of Chinese investment in Britain.

Mr Osborne, clearly anticipating a diplomatic row, said:

… Inward investment is critical to generating UK jobs and growth. It is a personal priority of mine to increase trade links between the UK and China and I cannot emphasise enough that the UK is open to Chinese investment.

The MPs report even called for staff from the GCHQ listening agency to take over the running of Huawei’s cyber security evaluation centre which it built in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Eight years ago, Huawei secured a contract with BT as part of the £2.5 billion super-fast broadband deal to supply two-thirds of British homes and companies by 2015. The Chinese firm has also signed deals with O2, TalkTalk and EverythingEverywhere.

National security concerns were sidelined in favour of money as the Chinese had managed to undercut local firms for the contracts.

Members of the ISC were ‘shocked’ that ministers were not even informed about the BT deal until a year after it was signed. Chairman of the committee, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, said:

… Such a sensitive decision with potentially damaging implications should have been handed to ministers. A lack of clarity around procedures, responsibility and power means that national security issues have risked, and continue to risk, being overlooked.

Ahead of the report’s publication, members of the committee had warned that it would be heavily censored because of the Treasury and Number 10’s fears of scaring away Chinese investors – claims which have been denied by Downing Street.

Relations with China have been strained since the Prime Minister, David Cameron, agreed to meet the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, last year. Granting him an audience was seen by Beijing as a snub to China’s sovereignty over Tibet.

In its last annual report, the ISC said that a fifth of detected cyber-attacks against the UK were so sophisticated that they had to be state sponsored or part of an organised crime ring. China is often cited as one of the main perpetrators of state-sponsored cyber-attacks.

Huawei says it is ‘willing to work with all governments in a completely open and transparent manner to jointly reduce the risk of cyber security’.

In a statement issued by BT, the company says that security is at the heart of what it does and will continue to be so in the future. BT says that its testing regime enables the company to enjoy constructive relationships with many of its suppliers across the globe. BT has had dealings with Huawei since 2005.

WELCOMED BY BRITAIN, DAMNED BY U.S.

The mysterious Huawei company has repeatedly insisted that it has no connection to the Chinese state.

But claims persist that it has close links with the military and government, and could be helping to glean and gain information on foreign states and companies – accusations the firm strongly denies.

Despite security fears, the firm’s operations have largely been welcomed by the UK government.

It has had UK headquarters since 2001, and Huawei UK Enterprise Solutions – which currently has 650 employees in Britain – plans to double its workforce in the next few years. Last year, David Cameron welcomed its founder, Ren Zhengfei, a former officer of the People’s Liberation Army, to Downing Street.

At the time, the firm announced it planned to invest £1.3 billion in Britain, although it did not spell out any details.

While it has been welcomed in the UK, Huawei has had a frostier reception in America and Australia.

The Australian government prevented it from working on the country’s broadband network.

And a United States congressional intelligence committee report concluded that it posed a national security threat.

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