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Britain Tapped Communications

Posted by justin++ on from the actually-or-allegedly? dept.

The BBC news is reporting (thanks to aspodf for the link) that Channel 4 News alleges that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been intercepting all phone calls between Britain and Ireland for the last 10 years. A similar article in The Independent presents similar information as fact. Apparently, the tower was used to scan every single message between Britain and Ireland for certain key words (sort of like Echelon), and the tower is now up for sale by the MoD.

1 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Please read carefully by sjames · · Score: 3

    Although the BBC article was unclear on the point, the Independant article spelled it out:

    The communications that were intercepted were those of the Republic of Ireland, not Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the UK, and thus domestic, the Republic of Ireland is a sovern nation.

    I sincerely doubt that the citizens of the Republic of Ireland felt that the UK's interception of their communications (supposedly to help with a domestic issue) was a 'necessary evil' to 'protect them from harm'. Especially since the UK has no authority or desire to protect the citizens of the Republic of Ireland from anything.

    For those in the US, consider how you would feel if the Royal Canadian Mounted Police intercepted your phone calls (business, government, and private) 'to solve a Canadian problem with terrorism'. In particular, imagine this terrorism is by a group of people who want their territory to secede from Canada and become a state of the United States despite the lack of an offer from the United States.