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Controversial GCHQ Unit Engaged In Domestic Law Enforcement, Online Propaganda
Advocatus Diaboli writes: Documents published by The Intercept on Monday reveal that a British spy unit purported by officials to be focused on foreign intelligence and counterterrorism, and notorious for using "controversial tactics, online propaganda and deceit,” focuses extensively on traditional law enforcement and domestic activities. The documents detail how the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) is involved in efforts against political groups it considers "extremist," Islamist activity in schools, the drug trade, online fraud, and financial scams. The story reads: "Though its existence was secret until last year, JTRIG quickly developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in 'dirty tricks' like deploying sexual 'honey traps' designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks, and generally warping discourse online."
doing it for the children
How long will it take before people finally see this system as being the corrupt piece of shit it really is? UK and the USA are both fascist police states.
As a chap in England - you what? The IRA were scary maybe, the ISIS in England issue is mostly noise.
Personally I don't mind them doing these sorts of things agains muslims. Islam is one of the most toxic cultures on the planet. However, according to the summary the program does not end there. It is the inevitable power creep that seems to permeate these types of organizations that I fear.
Its the methods that are the concern, not the choice of targets.
I think it's more that a group which claims to be focused on external threats, and uses tactics that few would be comfortable using on citizens of their country, is focusing mostly on standard internal issues which are normally the purview of the regular police.
To put it another way, when I use my handgun to deal with an armed intruder to my home nobody would think ill of me. If I use that handgun to deal with my disobedient teenager then it's an entirely different issue. Even if the teenager is (for example) stealing from me just like the burgler was trying to, it's not an acceptable response. We have acceptable means to deal with our children, and a handgun is not on the menu.
Similarly, using DDOS, propaganda, and blackmail on your own citizens is not the appropriate response even if we may condone it against foreign nations in limited circumstances, just as we condone (at least in the United States) the use of handguns in limited circumstances.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
Learn to read, then maybe you'll be able to spot the mission creep.
That is an interesting point of view and some pointed questions. Do you find asking questions is a good way to create doubt? Is that tactic perhaps informed by knowledge of psychology?
Yeah spying supercomputers use no electricity and turning them off by making spying illegal wouldn't do a bit to help the carbon footprint.
10 years ago this story would have had over 1k comments. Now people just say meh. Collective apathy or mental resignation to the topic coupled with a demoralizing feeling of helplessness....it's been 1984 for a long time now.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Title says it all.
Certain IRC channels are being interfered by US professional trolls. They work in teams and create fake discussions to influence and to bait out radicals.
Here is one log of two of them trying to bait with supposedly secret information on drone technology. Notice that the main one mirrors radical ideas as bait, too.
http://pastebin.com/sfnkmDFD
I imagine that this is done to prevent another Snowden.
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
This is a popular online forum. You can bet that all sorts of state actors, megacorporations, politicians, and anyone else with clout or ambition will be shaping the discourse here as needed. Turn up your critical thinking skills a notch.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.
They are doing so many things at once, with activities ranging from countering Islamic extremism to online scam and everything in between
No wonder they can't do anything right!!
For example, the Birmingham school district was taken over Islamic extremists and that GCHQ unit did *NOTHING* to stop them
What is the use of having that unit if it can't even do anything right?
Continue provision of intelligence relating to risks to UK investment overseas
Both US and UK "surprisingly" boycotted an auction for the right to explore huge oil reserves in Brazil a few months after Dilma complained about the spying on Brazilians, herself and on Petrobras (the top deep sea oil exploration company in the world), driving the prices down.
Right now Petrobras is under investigation for corruption of some of its leaders, mostly related to the federal government party, it's stocks went down by a lot and most of the infrastructure investments / constructions are blocked. This is the only news here and we'll get American help on the investigations, even though we just refused German help on the Siemens case (the corrupts on that case are on the opposition party). Some people on the opposition party are involved in this Petrobras case as well, but the prosecutors decided there was no reason to investigate them. Seems like they jumped out at the right time and then, after decades of corruption (according to the case witnesses), it started falling down.
I hope people stop talking like economic espionage is a Chinese only thing.
And what issues are worthy vs. unworthy of doubt? Who decides which questions get asked?
As a chap in England - you what?
JTRIG imposter derailing the discussion! Everyone knows a real Brit would've pronounced it "u wot m8"...
pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks
Does that mean lots and lots of pictures of the Queen in a revealing burqa? Or do they mostly post pictures of Putin in a burqa? Two peas in a pod, those spies and the spies.
Of course the fundamentalist capitalists are the real concern. The zealot high priests of capitalism have of course actively corrupted UK intelligence organisation to turn them into anti-activism and anti-union organisation with a distinct Tory flavour, this after the active corruption of the Labour Party leadership by the same corrupt organisations.
All sorts of strange crap going on. First anti-EU and the pro-Eu, next joining in the push to move NATO forces eastward or is that just trying to kick as many US soldiers out of western Europe and force them on the Eastern Europeans, they can no put up with that drunken rapey bunch. Eastern Europe of course under pressure to take them because of their economies being hit by trade problems with Russia caused by the US and EU sanctions (sanctions to be dropped once the shift of US occupation forces from western Europe to Eastern Europe - suckers). All on internet censorship, anti hacking except when they do it, even against there on citizens upon a massive scale (that of course is anti-political activism and nothing to do with terrorism).
Right now Europe is far more scared of the US going out of control than they are of Russia and the UK seems to be hopping from one foot to the other, language seeming to be insufficient to keep five eyes 'er' ole one eye and four blind mice together (ole one eye just tells way too many lies, way to often, especially to it's so called allies).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
So in short, you're okay with paid government shills on the web because muslims? Even then, I don't buy that you're enough of a dupe to think muslims are the reaaon, when other leaks show the main goal of these activities is to target people in the first world, not the third.
Right now Europe is far more scared of the US going out of control than they are of Russia
You're absolutely right. That's why Europeans are asking that Russia predeploy heavy weapons in their territory in case of military actions.
Uhh, something is backwards about this...
Why is Snark Required?
This was all started for President Bush as part of the international war on terror. The rise of ISIS has excused spying on children. Which is strange since most converts are self-radicalized. Everyone calls such converts, disaffected youth, which is probably true, but I notice no politician is demanding better education and support services for at-risk teenagers: That's not part of the 'war-plan' in any country.
Yep, the US via NATO doesn't want to end it's occupation of Europe but the pressure is on to remove US troops from more influential likely to become ex-NATO countries. NATO of course pumps war because the military industrial complex demands it and it drives fear because the dominant country does not ever want its military to leave Europe. Which country has murdered more people than the rest of the world combined in the last 25 years, in fact the only way other countries come close to catching up is joining the Imperialist US wars. Plenty of marketing and propaganda but the reality is, most of the world's countries are totally sick of the US military as controlled by the US military industrial complex and want to end it's scattered occupation of the entire planet.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Absolutely. Only idiots (dave420 springs to mind) would think that islamist extremist activity in schools is a good thing.
Russians didn't invent troll factories. They were here in different forms for a long time. Mass media is probably the biggest one. Biggest state controlled troll groups are probably Chinese, Russians, and Israelis (including pro-Israel US citizens). So what, someone found a small group in GB?
PS: Even some companies have trolls in HR department who make anonymous posts (from happy employees) on glassdoor to improve company's image.
The OP states that GCHQ is, "purported by officials to be focused on foreign intelligence and counterterrorism". Since when?
My understanding has always been that there are 3 main "legs" to British Intelligence:
In this context, GCHQ should have always been providing internal communications intelligence for MI5, I'm not sure why this should be news to anyone?
-- Pete.
Monochrome - Probably the UK's largest internet BBS
Fascinating, how politicians never learn anything from history.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Have a look into the KGB, the GeStaPo, the numerous other secret police forces in the various historical and present totalitarian regimes. Hint: These people never serve the people, only ever those in power. The secrecy eliminates all possibility of meaningful oversight, and these people cannot keep themselves under control.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I think I need "discrediting." Where do I sign up?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Islam is a religion, not a culture. If you can't even get that right, why should anyone think you're right about anything else? Why do you think you're right if you are spouting demonstrable nonsense, and willing to judge 1.6 billion people on something you made up?
So you don't understand the difference between Islam and Islamism. That's not really a surprise - you keep interchanging distinct terms as if they mean the same thing. You're not really doing yourself favours by showing the world you are clueless of something you purport to hate.
Same fucking thing. Social memes passed on through vocal and written communication.
"I just reply to you when I see you spamming Slashdot with your nonsense"- by dave420 (699308) on Friday June 19, 2015 @10:31AM (#49945047)
Why'd you agree w/ my points on hosts then? Quoting you on it next:
"I'm not denying all those things" - by dave420 (699308) on Wednesday September 17, 2014 @11:39AM (#47927435) FROM -> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
Of course you're not: It's impossible to dispute FACT on HOSTS FILES superiority to other methods!
(Since they're fact in favor of hosts doing more than so-called competitors & doing more with less for more security, speed, reliability, + anonymity online - which is, of course, more than a mere trolling stalking harassing "ne'er-do-well" like yourself could *EVER* manage).
---
"I'm simply pointing out that it takes an AdBlocker to block your spamming"- by dave420 (699308) on Friday June 19, 2015 @10:31AM (#49945047)
Then WHY DON'T YOU DO THAT, shithead? Answer that!
(You stalk/harass me instead!)
If you're "so-called 'better solutions'" are BETTER, & I bother you? Use them... OBVIOUSLY, asshole, you don't & you're just a "ne'er-do-well" troll, OR you have "other motivations" (see next):
* DO YOU WORK FOR AN ADVERTISING FIRM, or ARE YOU A WEBMASTER/WEBCODER, or ARE YOU A MALWARE MAKER, or ARE YOU AFFILIATED WITH 1 OF MY COMPETITORS?
Answer that too!
I'll be waiting (but you'll avoid every question, or lie - which only makes you look stupider than ever vs. myself)
(You must be involved with 1 of those above, especially since you're TOO STUPID to EVER "get the best of me" & you know it, witness the above - & their "so-called 'solutions' are INFERIOR TO MINE on TONS of levels, evidencing their stupidity in & of itself via inferior designwork!)
APK
P.S.=> SEE Dave420 SQUIRM everybody, lol - evasions galore from him to ensue are almost guaranteed... apk
"I just reply to you when I see you spamming Slashdot with your nonsense"- by dave420 (699308) on Friday June 19, 2015 @10:31AM (#49945047)
Why'd you agree w/ my points on hosts then? Quoting you on it next:
"I'm not denying all those things" - by dave420 (699308) on Wednesday September 17, 2014 @11:39AM (#47927435) FROM -> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
Of course you're not: It's impossible to dispute FACT on HOSTS FILES superiority to other methods!
(Since they're fact in favor of hosts doing more than so-called competitors & doing more with less for more security, speed, reliability, + anonymity online - which is, of course, more than a mere trolling stalking harassing "ne'er-do-well" like yourself could *EVER* manage).
---
"I'm simply pointing out that it takes an AdBlocker to block your spamming"- by dave420 (699308) on Friday June 19, 2015 @10:31AM (#49945047)
Then WHY DON'T YOU DO THAT, shithead? Answer that!
(You stalk/harass me instead!)
If you're "so-called 'better solutions'" are BETTER, & I bother you? Use them... OBVIOUSLY, asshole, you don't & you're just a "ne'er-do-well" troll, OR you have "other motivations" (see next):
* DO YOU WORK FOR AN ADVERTISING FIRM, or ARE YOU A WEBMASTER/WEBCODER, or ARE YOU A MALWARE MAKER, or ARE YOU AFFILIATED WITH 1 OF MY COMPETITORS?
Answer that too!
I'll be waiting (but you'll avoid every question, or lie - which only makes you look stupider than ever vs. myself)
(You must be involved with 1 of those above, especially since you're TOO STUPID to EVER "get the best of me" & you know it, witness the above - & their "so-called 'solutions' are INFERIOR TO MINE on TONS of levels, evidencing their stupidity in & of itself via inferior designwork!)
APK
P.S.=> SEE Dave420 SQUIRM everybody, lol - evasions galore from him to ensue are almost guaranteed... apk
Agreed: It helps listening to that pot puffing clown's themesong https://www.youtube.com/watch?... to laugh at his pot brain delusions all the more!
Why'd arabs end up in deserts then? Good people drove them there. Al Tiquyya lies do not honesty make. A religion of peace that says to convert by fire and sword is no religion of peace. More like lying bullshit constantly.
Why'd arabs end up in deserts then? Good people drove them there. Al Tiquyya lies do not honesty make. A religion of peace that says to convert by fire and sword is no religion of peace. More like lying bullshit constantly. Why's the middleeast where they are constantly in violent turmoil for such a religion of peace? It's because deceitful klingon looking monsters run it that have extremely high amounts of primitive neanderthalic DNA present in their breed "humans mixed with Neanderthals not just in the Middle East" from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2... . That's why. Primitoids that if they try their crap again will be on the receiving end of a nuclear teardrop.
Murder has a definition and why restrict it to 25 years?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Islam could be a culture. The word has multiple definitions. This is from TheSage which is a nice application but is not the OED or Webster's:
Lemma: culture
Noun
1. The raising of plants or animals.
2. (Biology) The growing of microorganisms in a nutrient medium (such as gelatin or agar).
3. The tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group.
4. All the knowledge and values shared by a society.
5. The attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization.
6. A particular society at a particular time and place.
7. A highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality.
Verb
1. Grow in a special preparation.
The three bold definitions, more so the fifth, could apply but I am not sure there is such a thing as a ubiquitous Islamic culture. All the Muslims that I know are quite peaceful and rather Westernized.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Have you not being paying attention? Why twenty five years, because some countries have been getting worse, USA, much worse and some countries have been getting better Russia and China. Yet main stream media claims the exact opposite of reality because of course they are part of that corporate empire, that psychopathic empire and all so vulnerable because it is only a few troubled pathetic individuals in their crazed delusions orchestrating things. No grand conspiracy of course, no course to the future, just self serving egoistic chaos. A few individuals who inherited more power than they should have and who have exposed themselves and now placed themselves under great risk. For a bunch of countries, they are a great threat, one that can pretty readily and safely be eliminated and as a result pretty much stall the western military industrial complex.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
I have been paying attention indeed. I still wonder why one looks at only 25 years of data and attempts to make a conclusion. You could probably draw the conclusions you want with the entirety of the data if you cared to use it. Additionally, lawful killings are not murder. Now we can debate whose laws apply if we want but that is not pertinent either. The US is responsible for all sorts of atrocities, some of which are killings, and this is not new.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Late night visits by the local PD or shifty government employees "suggesting" you stand down?
Yes indeed. During the 2012 "election" season I wrote an email to some GOP fuckwit telling him what a moron he was. Some short, fat cunt from the FBI showed up at my door flashing her badge and asking me why I was "threatening" people online. I told her I hadn't threatened anyone, and that I had nothing further to say to her, and closed the door.
A week later, the nearby university police (note: NOT the police from the city I was living in, who knew me) showed up at my door with a search warrant, to look for a "stolen iPhone" which had supposedly been taken from the university gym, a place I hadn't been anywhere near in over a year. Indeed, I hadn't really been anywhere at all, since I was living as a hermit and spending long hours writing computer software in my home, minding my own business.
Which is the conclusion the cops inevitably came to as well, after finding nothing more than old computers and boxes of uniforms and military gear from my years of "service." (To Satan, who rules over this evil nation.) Not even a damn TV, let alone stolen electronics.
I'm not interested in hearing any of the alternative interpretations and inevitable excuses your brainwashed and mind fucked ilk always offer to "explain" how everything I've just told you is actually wrong, and that I'm really a bad guy who brought this on myself. No I didn't, you fucking asshole. This happened because we are living in a wicked, corrupt system, that is in fact much, much worse than the God damned Nazis ever thought about being. And you're a bastard for making excuses for them.
It's a lucky thing I didn't own any iPhone, and it's a damn lucky thing these particular cops were decent people, cause I might have been fucked over completely and put through the "legal" system meat grinder, instead of simply having my dignity and privacy violated, with complete strangers rifling through every inch of my shit before leaving in embarrassment themselves. Oh yeah, and if they'd gone out into the shop and found my weed garden then I really would have been fucked. But they didn't. Because they were decent people, thank God.
There's your enlightenment. Now go fuck yourself with a sword, asshole.
So same as all religions then.
"That's why Europeans"
Europeans, as individual people, and as a whole? Or "Europeans" meaning the corrupt and wicked leadership of certain countries?
"Uhh, something is backwards about this..."
Yes, it's definitely backwards to allow the Nazi regime to turn one's country into a battleground.
You're not being censored and it's not that people necessarily disagree with you, but this type of alarmism is simply unconstructive.
Alarmism? Since when is telling the truth considered "alarmism"?
Oh yeah....since your ilk took over this formerly great nation and dragged it into the ground with your never-ending desire to never ever hear the truth about anything.
Identify the specific problems you find in society and work toward a positive change
Let me guess--by voting, right?
Voting does not work.Wake up. This system is too corrupt to be saved. This was recognized in the 1880s by the Jehovah's Witnesses. If you're so God damned smart, why are you still not 'getting it' in 2015?
or just sit back and ride it out, but don't stall out in the middle just getting all pissed off, it achieves nothing.
You have no clue what you're talking about. Read a history book some time.
I'm sure you have never read the Qur'an and therefore don't know what Islam is.
It's not over til it's over, fuckwit.
It's over. The war has been waged. They had what they wanted. You did not. Admit defeat, sore loser.
Why do you keep speaking in the past tense, like history is completely over with and written?
The Nazis succeeded in placing themselves into power, too. They succeeded in a lot of things. And then what happened?
The Nazis tangled with more powerful people - the USSR and the US. Now what? The people who are now in power ARE the MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE. NOBODY is on your side. *NOBODY*.
Nobody is telling you anything. You have been written off as the piece of shit you are, by every decent person. Anything the GP posted was the benefit of intelligent and decent people, who are unlike you in every way .
LOL. I laugh in your face. Your impotent rants amuse me.
Translation: you're an immoral piece of shit.
Correction: I'm a *pragmatic* piece of shit. While you're a naive and childish piece of shit.
The system that you so idiotically believe is going to be around forever and ever and ever (kinda like the Nazis 1000 year reich, right?) has few enough years left in it that one can count them on approximately one hand.
Your children will in fact grow up being taught to believe that everything you believed was a lie, and completely fucking idiocy to boot. They will despise you and everything you "stood" for...which was nothing, except petty self-interest. You are a despicable piece of shit, according to God, and according to future historians.
This is even assuming your children survive the coming world war, of course...which is doubtful.
Yawn. Wake me up when the revolution comes. Any moment now. Any moment noooow... Oh, it didn't happen. Exactly. The status quo will last enough to see the end of my lifetime and probably one more generation, to be replaced by an evolution of itself. There won't be any revolution. Ah, and God does not exist, and those future historians aren't even born yet so why should I care about what they will write when I'm gone? You're making a fool of yourself. :)
I'm a redneck from the hills of Alabama who has been oppressed by this God damned system all his life, and will stand for it no longer. You stupid fuck. Furthermore, we live in a world that is sick to death of the typical American's insane bullshit. You and your fellow fuckwits are about to be bombed into radioactive ash. When your fucking house burns down around your ears, how does that change your calculus, asswipe?
Me and my fellow fuckwits will die of massive heart attack way before we're turned into radioactive dust. And should it ever happen, you and your own fellow fuckwits will end up the same way. I worry about dangers and threats I can manage, I don't prepare for the nuclear zombie apocalypse of the forever satanic doom, bubba.
Bottom line is you are a cowardly, worthless slave, who has no business at all living in a free country. You are a piece of shit and an affront to everything this country once stood for.
Die slowly in a fire.
I live in the country I'm OK with living in and I don't have to ask your permission, or the permission of long dead guys who yakked about "freedom" even while owning slaves. This country is but one among many, and there's no place to run to. I may die slowly in a fire but you will die heartbroken and stark raving mad, wringing your hands about the "injustice of the world". But more probably I will die in a nice retirement home while you'll have been long dead in a gutter. :)