British GCHQ Tapped Fibre-Optic Cables for Data

Hot on the heals of the American Government spying on its people scandal comes news from documents leaked by Edward Snowden that show GCHQ is spying on us the British people .
Acording to the documents internet and phone data is being "sifted and analysed" and stored for upto 30 days .

GCHQ declined to comment on the claims but said its compliance with the law was "scrupulous".
The documents were reportedly released by Edward Snowden, the former IT contractor at GCHQ's US counterpart, the National Security Agency, who is believed to be in hiding Hong Kong. Mr Snowden is behind a string of other disclosures about US intelligence operations. According to the Guardian, the operation codenamed Tempora has been running for 18 months.

Nick Pickles from privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch's said: "This appears to be dangerously close to, if not exactly, the centralised database of all our internet communications, including some content, that successive governments have ruled out and Parliament has never legislated for."If GCHQ have been intercepting huge numbers of innocent people's communications as part of a massive sweeping exercise, then I struggle to see how that squares with a process that requires a warrant for each individual intercept."

In response the Guardian report, a GCHQ spokeswoman said: "We do not comment on intelligence matters. It is worth pointing out that GCHQ takes its obligations under the law very seriously. "Our work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State,
www.bbc.co.uk...

"and that there is rigorous oversight"...Yeah of the people .
Freedom and Democracy
Big Brother is watching us all

Thank you Mr Snowden

And then there's the Echelon framework that allows NSA/GCHQ and others to share with each other the data they've intercepted.

I'm starting to think the Global State has already been established, but We the People of our respective Nations just didn't know about it yet.

Im a supporter of government. I think it's neccessary for a peacful civilization. But I think stories like these point to abuse of power and governments run amok.

Realistically its hardly surprising that they are tapping into every form of communications possible as they're spooks and spooks are afraid of what they don't know so they always try and get more and more information and realistically they've probably worked out that like the americans that until the data reaches a certain point its not actually entered our jurisdiction and so its open for abuse

and no politician is really going to say much against the spooks as they'll have a file with every last thing you said/did wrong since the day you was born will be recorded should it be needed

reply to post by Heliophant

Im a supporter of government. I think it's neccessary for a peacful civilization. But I think stories like these point to abuse of power and governments run amok.

I totally agree with that , it seems to me they no longer govern but choose to rule instead , no matter which party they claim or Country they represent the song remains the same .

reply to post by Maxatoria

no politician is really going to say much against the spooks

I have a feeling this idea came from the Government .

reply to post by gortex


and those in power want to protect themselves from those who would try and remove them from power and realistically its probably no different from the spy masters working for queen Elizabeth the 1st trying to stop Mary from getting the crown than it is today in that they have full authority to do what is required to safeguard the realm...its just they've changed the meaning of the word 'safeguard'

I remember reading about the SBS taking part in operations to insert intercept equipment on fiber optic equipment during the first gulf war and other stuff about them using submarines to tap into deep sea fiber optics.

Again like everything about PRSIM (other than the name PRISM), for people who have been following the activities of our intelligence services this is not news.

reply to post by OtherSideOfTheCoin


I doubt the SBS would be needed to slap a vampire tap on a undersea cable other than provide security for the people doing it, sounds like a waste unless its due to the fact that they have a higher security rating so making the effort quicker and easier

reply to post by Maxatoria


It was in a book by a former member of the SBS talking about operations during the first gulf war where the author claims that his team was inserted via helicopter along with members of the American DIA to provide security for them as they inserted some kind of bugging devise on some fiber optic cable.

other reading around SIGINT that i have done has described the use of submarines to tap into these deep sea fiber optic cables. I am talking about two different things sorry i didnt make that clear.

the bigger point here however again is that people are surprised by this, i cant get my head round it


www.specialboatservice.co.uk...

It would be very telling whose private data is NOT in the GCHQ/NSA database. Maybe they are the real masters of the World

Originally posted by Heliophant
Im a supporter of government. I think it's neccessary for a peacful civilization. But I think stories like these point to abuse of power and governments run amok.

I fear that this story shows that our democratically elected governments are nothing more than a front for something more dangerous and more powerful. This damages not only the British public, this calls into question the validity and integrity of the democracy we are told that we have.

When politicians, judges, police and journalists can be monitored by a combination of military/corporate/intelligence there is no real security in the democratic process and the whole charade is brought crashing down.

reply to post by gortex


Interesting and I think I've seen the possibility being suggested here before this particular release. It really makes me wonder if the UK and the US have found a little legal loophole in broad surveillance over there respective citizens in that the NSA states that they are looking largely at foreign intelligence and GCHQ makes a similar claim. My fiance, a Canadian, was really upset about PRISM because a. it was possibly collecting his information and b. as a Canadian citizen, he had no direct voice against or legal recourse on whether or not PRISM was looking at him. Basically, the US Constitution does not apply to him. Likewise, there is little that I can do, as a US citizen, should Tempora be looking at me for similar reasons as the UK laws that are intended to protect its citizens against surveillance by the government don't apply to me. I wonder if they exchange it. Would also explain why GCHQ's data surveillance is so much larger than the NSA's. US population is a little over 300 million. UK's population is a little over 60 million.