Slashdot Mirror
Report: Britain Has a Secret Middle East Web Surveillance Base
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."
As a British citizen, I'm so used to assuming that the government is intercepting every piece of electronic communication, I get really confused that other countries are annoyed they get spied on. Do these other people actually trust their governments? Because that's weird.
His leaks are directly damaging to the intelligence agencies of the US and its allies.
I wish that were true. In fact, I wish his leaks do so much damage to them that it utterly destroys these parasites, but sadly, I doubt that's going to be the case.
that is what they are supposed to be doing right? Gathering intel? The problem is when they do it against their own citizens.
Fuck that. Let's not spy on anyone's residential phone or internet traffic.
Listening posts where always an issue for the budget conscious UK before and after the 1990's but US (NSA/mil) cash often helped keep very expensive sites running.
The region knew all about US/UK bases. The leaders and their "freedom fighters" would have be aware of:
Masirah Island, Oman (with NSA)
HMS Vacoas, Mauritius, closed 1976
Meshed, Iran lost in 1979
Mount Olympus, Cyprus, (Project Sandra/US Cobra Shoe) 1959 till?
Muharraq, Bahrain
Mutlah Ridge, Kuwait, 1961- till?
Pergamos, Cyprus 1957 -till?
Perkhar, Ceylon, 1957-65
Silvermine, South Africa (1970's)
Steamer Point and Khormaksar ~ Aden
Yarallakos, Cyprus (NSA?)
Habbaniya, Iraq till 1957
Diego Garcia 1964 - with a some slight issues for a very short time over a cash for land deal.
Optical, satellite and the govs/telcos buying/upgrading into standardised tech makes the need for many locations less of an issue.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
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.
Rather telling is that a) the story appears in the Independent and b) article makes no reference as to the source of the allegations, other than stating that the information was found in the documents leaked by Edward Snowden:
Information about the project was contained in 50,000 GCHQ documents that Mr Snowden downloaded during 2012. Many of them came from an internal Wikipedia-style information site called GC-Wiki. Unlike the public Wikipedia, GCHQ’s wiki was generally classified Top Secret or above.
The disclosure comes as the Metropolitan Police announced it was launching a terrorism investigation into material found on the computer of David Miranda, the Brazilian partner of The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald – who is at the centre of the Snowden controversy.
Prior to this story most UK articles appeared in the Guardian and clearly stated that Glenn Greewald provided the information. The game has changed, and I think it is going to get a whole lot uglier from here.
Peace,
Andy.
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.
Yeah, and it wouldn't bee too hard to figure out where this secret location is either.
You could just pick likely places from here: http://www.telegeography.com/telecom-resources/submarine-cable-landing-directory/
Gibraltar would be a good guess.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Here he comes, cold fjord, the man himself!
Snowden and Greenwald are obstructing anti-terrorist agencies throughout the civilized world. Honestly, we should just lynch them. They're a disgrace.
-- cold fjord
Terrorism is a threat to the way we live our lives. We must give up our privacy if we want security (which we do, at any cost)
-- cold fjord
Fuckin' snowden piece of shit! How dare he do this! Snowden is fuckin' guilty as fuck! Kill him! Kill! Kill! Kill!
-- cold fjord
I'm gonna fuckin' kill Snowden, that fucking piece of shit fucker ass fuck shit ass fuck supreme fuck ass! GOD! He makes me so fuckin' angry! How dare he disobey me! Get him, boys!
-- cold fjord
Snowden is the worst thing to happen to this nation since the Constitution was formed and signed.
-- cold fjord
That fuckin' Snowden piece of shit! The government can do no wrong! The terrorists! Think of the terrorists, you fuckin' insolent insects! Give me all your privacy so we can stop the terrorists, you fucks!
-- cold fjord
For the more visually inclined, a graphical map.
And based on that, I'll give dollars to doughnuts that it's Egypt. Virtually all traffic between Europe and Asia transits through the Suez canal.
I'd agree with this analysis because there were some massive interuptions with middle eastern internet comms when the SEA-ME-WE_4 cable was apparently snagged by ships at anchor of Alexandria. Interestingly, Egypt actually arrested 3 men for cutting though cable off Alexandria in March this year. makes you wonder what they were actually doing.