Snoop-Gate

[Philip]

The amount of flak flying all over the globe requires a separate td. for this ongoing scandal that ahs destroyed trust between the US and its allies.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-spyi ... z2jGyS0l31

White House OKd spying on allies, U.S. intelligence officials say
NSA and other U.S. intelligence agency staff members are said to be angry at President Obama for denying knowledge of the spying.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... data-links
Google and Yahoo furious over reports that NSA secretly intercepts data links

Leaked files suggest NSA can collect information 'at will' by intercepting cables that connect Google and Yahoo's data hubs

Dominic Rushe, Spencer Ackerman and James Ball
The Guardian, Wednesday 30 October 2013

Google said in a statement: 'We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping.' Photograph: Walter Bieri/AP

Google and Yahoo, two of the world's biggest tech companies, reacted angrily to a report on Wednesday that the National Security Agency has secretly intercepted the main communication links that carry their users' data around the world.

Citing documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with officials, the Washington Post claimed the agency could collect information "at will" from among hundreds of millions of user accounts.

The documents suggest that the NSA, in partnership with its British counterpart GCHQ, is copying large amounts of data as it flows across fiber-optic cables that carry information between the worldwide data centers of the Silicon Valley giants. The intelligence activies of the NSA outside the US are subject to fewer legal constraints than its domestic actions.

The story is likely to put further strain on the already difficult relations between the tech firms and Washington. The internet giants are furious about the damage done to their reputation in the wake of Snowden's revelations.

In a statement, Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said the company was "outraged" by the latest revelations.

"We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links, especially the links in the slide," he said.

"We do not provide any government, including the US government, with access to our systems. We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform."

Yahoo said: "We have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers, and we have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency."

According to a top-secret document cited by the Post dated 9 January 2013, millions of records a day are sent from Yahoo and Google internal networks to NSA data warehouses at the agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland. The types of information sent ranged from "metadata", indicating who sent or received emails, the subject line and where and when, to content such as text, audio and video.

The Post's documents state that in the preceding 30 days, field collectors had processed and sent on 181,280,466 new records.

Internet firms go to great lengths to protect their data. But the NSA documents published by the Post appear to boast about their ability to circumvent those protections. In one presentation slide on "Google Cloud Exploitation," published by the Post, an artist has added a smiley face, in apparent celebration of the NSA's victory over Google security systems.

The Post said that the interception took place on the cables that connect the internet giants' data centers. The New York Times reported on Wednesday evening that one of the companies that provides such cables for Google was Level 3. It said in a statement provided to the Times: "We comply with the laws in each country where we operate. In general, governments that seek assistance in law enforcement or security investigations prohibit disclosure of the assistance provided."

In its report, the Post suggested the intercept project was codenamed Muscular, but the Guardian understands from other documents provided by Snowden that the term instead refers to the system that enables the initial processing of information gathered from NSA or GCHQ cable taps.

The data outputted from Muscular is then forwarded to NSA or GCHQ databases, or systems such as the XKeyscore search tool, previously reported by the Guardian.

The Post said that by collecting the data overseas, the NSA was able to circumvent the legal restrictions that prevent it from accessing the communications of people who live in the United States, and that it fell instead under an executive order, signed by the president, that authorised foreign intelligence operations.

In response, the NSA specifically denied that it used the presidential order to circumvent the restrictions on domestic spying, though the agency said nothing about the rest of the story.

The NSA statement said, in full: "NSA has multiple authorities that it uses to accomplish its mission, which is centered on defending the nation. The Washington Post's assertion that we use Executive Order 12333 collection to get around the limitations imposed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and FAA 702 is not true.

"The assertion that we collect vast quantities of US persons' data from this type of collection is also not true. NSA applies attorney general-approved processes to protect the privacy of US persons – minimizing the likelihood of their information in our targeting, collection, processing, exploitation, retention and dissemination.

"NSA is a foreign intelligence agency. And we're focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets only."

A GCHQ spokesman said: "We are aware of the story but we don't have any comment."

The NSA statement was much more narrowly drawn than the initial response by the agency's director, General Keith Alexander. At a Washington conference on Wednesday as the Post story broke, Alexander issued an immediate denial, but was not specifically asked to address allegations that the NSA intercepted data transiting between the companies' data centers.

The latest disclosures may shed new light on a reference in a GCHQ document, first reported in September by the Guardian, the New York Times and ProPublica. As part of its efforts with the NSA to defeat internet encryption, GCHQ, the 2012 document said, was working on developing ways into the major webmail providers, including Google and Yahoo. It added that "work has predominantly been focused this quarter on Google due to new access opportunities being developed".

Other documents provided to the Guardian by Snowden suggest that GCHQ's work on Muscular, and a related tool called Incensor, is regarded as particularly valuable by the NSA, providing intelligence unavailable from other sources.

"Muscular/Incensor has significantly enhanced the amount of benefit that the NSA derives from our special source access," one 2010 GCHQ document notes. It adds that this highlights "the unique contribution we are now making to NSA, providing insights into some of their highest priority targets".

Relations between the tech companies and the government are already strained over the Snowden revelations. Speaking at a tech conference in September, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said the government had done a "bad job" of balancing people's privacy. "Frankly, I think the government blew it," he said.

Google will have its first turn before a legislative panel to confront surveillance questions next month. Senators Al Franken and Dean Heller, who are backing a bill to compel the government to provide more transparency about bulk surveillance, announced Wednesday that the Internet giant will send a representative to a Senate hearing they will hold on 13 November.

[Austin]

NSA, ‘Five Eyes’ use Australian embassies to gather intel on Asia

US intelligence agencies are using Australian embassies throughout Asia to intercept data and gather information across the continent, according to the latest report based on documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Data collection facilities operate out of the embassies in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Bejing, and Dili, according to Der Spiegel. There are also units in the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, the most populated city in Malaysia, and Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.

The document, codenamed ‘STATEROOM,’ indicates the outfits “are small in size and in number of personnel staffing them...They are covert, and their true mission is not known by the majority of the diplomatic staff at the facility where they are assigned.”

The NSA document viewed by Der Spiegel also proves that the intelligence missions are hidden: “For example antennas are sometimes hidden in false architectural features or roof maintenance sheds.”

It really isn’t enough to be outraged," German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schanarrenberger told rbb-Inforadio this week. “This would be a signal that something can happen and make clear to the Americans that the [EU’s] policy is changing.”

Yet intelligence officers speaking to Fairfax Media now say that it is good to stop terrorism and international crime, “but the main focus is political, diplomatic and economic intelligence.”

[Austin]

UN says US gives guarantee not to spy

The US government has told the United Nations it will not monitor the global body's secret communications, the UN spokesman said Wednesday without confirming reports of past spying.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the United Nations contacted the United States about the reports. "I understand that the US authorities have given assurances that United Nations communications are not and will not be monitored," Nesirky told reporters.

"The inviolability of diplomatic missions, including the United Nations, has been well established in international law and therefore all members states are expected to act accordingly," Nesirky added.

The spokesman would not respond however to questions about whether the United States had listened in to UN leader Ban Ki-moon's confidential video conferences and telephone calls.

When asked about the UN statement, a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed: "The United States is not conducting electronic surveillance targeting the United Nations headquarters in New York."

The United States is engulfed in a major international controversy over spying on allies and bodies such as the United Nations and European Union. Many of the revelations are based on NSA documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The US government has not confirmed the activities. But on Tuesday, US National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said "we are undertaking a review of our activities around the world."

Hayden said there would be a special emphasis on "examining whether we have the appropriate posture when it comes to heads of state; how we coordinate with our closest allies and partners; and what further guiding principles or constraints might be appropriate for our efforts."

German news weekly Der Spiegel reported in August that the US spy agency broke the UN encryption code in mid-2012.

Within about three weeks, it had decoded hundreds of confidential UN communications, the report added.

The NSA, on one occasion, also allegedly caught Chinese secret services eavesdropping on the UN in 2011, it added, quoting an internal report that came from Snowden.

Der Spiegel also claimed that the US agency kept tabs on the EU mission after it moved into new offices in New York in September 2012. Among documents provided by Snowden were plans of the EU's premises, which the NSA codenamed "Apalachee."

Other media reports have said the French and German missions to the United Nations were also spy targets.

US officials have hit back at the claims however saying foreign intelligence agencies were also spying on US leaders.

[Suraj]

Data collection facilities operate out of the embassies in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Bejing, and Dili, according to Der Spiegel. There are also units in the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, the most populated city in Malaysia, and Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.

Am I misinterpreting the underlining ? Dili is the capital of East Timor. What is remarkable about that ?

[Kati]

Nothing surprising. Ozzies work as Unkil's cat's paw in east/south-east asian region.
In that area direct unkil's involvement can be complicated, and hence the "dirty digger" are used as the "house nigger". Apart from snooping, ozzies also channel a fair amount of "development money" to ASEAN countries to build 'friendship".
...
Yes, Dili is the capital of East Timor, and Ozzies have had a very long long involvement
in East Timor. Through Timor treaty they once assured Indonesia for not getting involved into the East Timor issue, but then backstabbed Indonesia later on this issue.

[Singha]

what is apparent is the US-UK-Canada-Aus-NZ have a separate "anglo" agreement between themselves outside and beyond all NATO obligations. they operate as a pack and share intel , though even there the US-UK probably form a higher inner kernel and finally some intel the NSA will not share with anyone including the POTUS(!) as the supervisor kernel level.

the rest of NATO are the poor cousins who get massaged intel selectively when it suits this cabal. tapping the cellphone of the german chancellor, attempting to break into elysee palace network, spying on the vatican conclave .... faithfool all-lies only

I am not even sure the POTUS has full knowledge or control of what is going on.

I used to laugh at movies like enemies of the state or bourne identity where rogue CIA/NSA cells could pick any person and pull up every last detail on him. after seeing the chart someone posted of just how much data could be scrapped by a study in germany using a persons cellphone location, I am not skeptical anymore. they have their ungli in every orifice.

[Philip]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/o ... ne-too-far

John Kerry admits: some US surveillance has gone too far
Kerry says certain practices occurred 'on autopilot' and vows to meet allies to repair damage caused by NSA spying revelations

[Austin]

Obama orders NSA to stop spying on IMF, WorldBank headquarters

President Barack Obama has ordered the National Security Agency to stop eavesdropping on the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as part of a review of intelligence gathering activities, according to a US official familiar with the matter.

The order is the latest move by the White House to demonstrate that it is willing to curb at least some surveillance in the wake of leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of programs that collect huge quantities of data on US allies and adversaries, and American citizens.

The NSA's surveillance of the Washington-based IMF and World Bank has not previously been disclosed. Details of such spy programs are usually highly classified.

In response to Reuters inquiries, a senior Obama administration official said, "The United States is not conducting electronic surveillance targeting the headquarters of the World Bank or IMF in Washington."

The Obama administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not address whether the NSA had eavesdropped on the two entities in the past.

The first official said Obama had ordered a halt to such practices within the last few weeks, about the same time he instructed the NSA to curtail eavesdropping on the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The IMF and the World Bank both declined to comment.

[Austin]

The blame game: NSA chief points finger at US diplomats in spy scandal

In an unexpected twist in the NSA scandal, spy chief Keith Alexander has blamed US diplomats for ordering surveillance on EU politicians. Meanwhile, State Secretary John Kerry has admitted espionage “reached too far,” alleging it was on “automatic pilot.”

Indicating a rift between the White House and the NSA, Director of the spy organization, Keith Alexander, has accused “policy makers” and “diplomats” for dictating the targets for surveillance. In a heated exchange, former ambassador to Romania, James Carew Rosapepe, challenged Alexander to justify spying on US allies, reported the Guardian.

"We all joke that everyone is spying on everyone," he said. "But that is not a national security justification," said Rosapepe.

Alexander replied sharply to the question, alleging ambassadors had a hand in ordering spy activities.

“That is a great question, in fact as an ambassador you have part of the answer. Because we the intelligence agencies don't come up with the requirements, the policymakers come up with the requirements,” Alexander said.

He added sarcastically: "One of those groups would have been, let me think, hold on, oh! - ambassadors."

Passing the buck

As the NSA points the finger at the Obama Administration for ordering the mass surveillance of European citizens, the White House is seeking to distance itself from the scandal, intimating the NSA was acting of its own volition.

Secretary of State John Kerry addressed the accusations, that the NSA recorded millions of European citizens’ telephone calls, in a video conference to London on Thursday. Kerry conceded that US surveillance had “reached too far” and stated that the NSA had been conducting its espionage on “automatic pilot.”

“In some cases, I acknowledge to you, as has the president, that some of these actions have reached too far, and we are going to make sure that does not happen in the future,” Kerry said, stressing an inquiry is currently underway to reassess American intelligence gathering programs.

Washington came under fire this week when a delegation from the EU came to get answers over the NSA’s activities in Europe. According to the revelations released by former CIA worker, Edward Snowden, to the press, the US not only targeted regular citizens, but also businessmen and high-profile politicians.

The White House did not give many answers to the delegation, they instead sought to justify espionage in Europe as a measure to protect against terrorism.

“It is much more important for this country that we defend this nation and take the beatings than it is to give up a program that would result in us being attacked,” Alexander told the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. He went on to say that the US only collected data related to warzones in the Middle East.

[Lalmohan]

why is this a surprise? this has been going on for centuries. even in more recent times - there have been many cases of friendlies spying on each other
this is all par for the course

[Philip]

The difference is that the US has been snoopin' on allies like Frau Merkel's cell for...10 years! Not quite cricket old sport,what?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/n ... e-coverage

NSA files – Edward Snowden’s letter to Angela Merkel – live coverage

Live coverage as German politician reveals content of letter from NSA whistleblower to German chancellor whose phone he revealed had been monitored by the US for a decade

[Austin]

Its more of a question of trusting your allies for their word then bugging them for "Leadership Intent" , had it been US foes it would be understandable that you want to know if leadership does walk the talk but to bug allies and friends shows more on America ( leadership/diplomat ) are insecure people and nation.

Such bugging reflects Americas own Insecurity as a whole and that they dont really trust their allies hence need to bug.

[Austin]

China’s Xinhua: ‘Peeping Tom’ US risks own security by spying on allies

The Chinese government’s official mouthpiece, Xinhua, has made fun of the US efforts to wiretap every communication they could get, including their closest allies, which has eroded America’s own security “more than any terrorist would be capable of”.

Xinhua writer. Deng Yushan. points out that the major achievement of the US intelligence community’s unprecedented eavesdropping effort is a “trust fiasco” concerning the American state.

“One has to trust in order to be trusted. It is particularly true in friendships and alliances. America obviously failed to follow the simple rule,” the Chinese author says, concluding that trust is “the first and foremost casualty.”

The latest “cascade of eye-popping disclosures” about Washington “nonsensical” spying on its closest allies, particularly the news about America’s National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping on 35 heads of states, has insulted America’s closest allies in Europe and undermined their trust, claims Xinhua.

“As America pins its security on alliances, the tapping tale would sour its relationship with allies – and thus erode its security bedrock – more than any terrorist would be capable of,” the Chinese author argues.

The latest revelations of the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, currently enjoying temporary asylum in Russia, has put the US at loggerheads with its primary NATO partners, France and Germany, which are now standing up together against these brazen surveillance methods.

As a result of Snowden’s leaks, Washington could find itself “deeply entrenched in suspicion and isolation” and regaining friends’ trust is going to be painful.

The Chinese media outlet has labeled the NSA approach to wiretap America’s closest allies in Europe “counterintuitive” and “nonsensical”, comparing pervasive surveillance to a “relentless and indiscriminate vacuum cleaner.”

“It just bugs everybody,” the Chinese author says, recalling German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who learnt that her mobile phone had been bugged for about ten years, and got so offended that she called President Obama in person to seek an explanation for the US policies towards allies.

While Chancellor Merkel and her European colleagues in general do have “every reason to feel insulted and betrayed”, they still “deserve the kind of respect and trust that underpins the practice that air travelers do not have to fly naked,” Xinhua writer believes.

The author fails to name motives behind the only superpower’s extensive eavesdropping effort, but particularly stresses that White House’s explanations are “far from explanatory.”

The Chinese author also cannot help but mention the situation with China and the US extensively exchanging accusations of cyber-espionage against each other.

Given the situation of scandalous revelations about the US being perhaps the world’s primary spy, Deng Yushan accuses “hyperactive Uncle Sam” of hypocrisy.

“The apparent application of a double standard only reinforces the image of a Janus-faced America. In the sunlight, it preaches; in the dark, it pries. On the offensive, it orates; on the defensive, it equivocates,” he writes, warning the US administration of “potentially more destructive consequences.”

Still, the Xinhua author expresses the hope that the US “should be wise enough to know that to trust nobody is no less dangerous than to trust anybody.”

“Uncle Sam needs to remember what happened to the tailor in the Lady Godiva story - Peeping Tom was struck blind,” the Xinhua writer recalled.

[Lalmohan]

Its more of a question of trusting your allies for their word then bugging them for "Leadership Intent" , had it been US foes it would be understandable that you want to know if leadership does walk the talk but to bug allies and friends shows more on America ( leadership/diplomat ) are insecure people and nation.

Such bugging reflects Americas own Insecurity as a whole and that they dont really trust their allies hence need to bug.

the spied on MI5 during ww2 whilst sitting in their headquarters too
tensun kai ko lene ka?

[TSJones]

It's amazing that people do not understand the difference between the cloud and the internet. Also, people should know that microwave broadcasting can be listened to by orbital satellites. I am shocked, shocked I tell you. round up the usual suspects.

[Nandu]

Interesting that nobody questions the truth of Snowden's allegations any more, and nobody believes NSA's denials any more.

[vishvak]

More like political inconvenient news and it can be evergreen and as biased as political handlers. Case in point Richard Headley for multiple terror strikes in Mumbai or other pakis like Hafiz Sayyad etc etc.

[Lalmohan]

i dunno about you guys - but have any of these folks - wikileaks, snowden, etc. said anything that was not pretty much out in the public domain already? even as rumours or hypotheses by journalists and think tanks?

i dont think that any regular reader of BRF should be surprised by any of the revelations...?

[brihaspati]

Even now they are all pretending. How could the German establishment pretend that it was unaware of broad-spectrum spying on both the high and sundry! Madam Chancellor did not know that her state organs were part and parcel of the US intel gathering system? The US rewired and reset all the European - non-Soviet intel gathering, after WWII, and coopted much of the expertise of the Nazi period of Europe into the post war framework.

UK's entire empire time network interfaced with the US post wwii, and now UK bigmouths are shouting about Cameron!

And I am not sure the "gatherers" were that careful either about their generic population wide surveillance. In my early days abroad, once - a payslip submitted with my visa application to the German embassy in a certain nation outside of USA was returned to me from Florida by post - which could later on be traced to a certain usual suspects offices in the zone ! Another time, my skype call got interrupted and a north-germanic accented voice shouted a Germanic abuse apparently addressed to a colleague for accidentally pressing the wrong key for a "live channel" "being recorded"- then he probably realized that I was listening in and cut the line. I never used German on the communications - so the super intelligent network did not think I would understand. If you take a foreign language course formally - even that info would be recorded and mined in the future. They rely on such formal data bits to get the preliminary filters, and which in a sense therefore gets pretty dumb over the long run. They don;t know what to do with all that data.

[TSJones]

Data mining can be the hardest part. As an IT auditor I do a lot of data mining myself. Coming up with the right attributes can be tough. NSA has to identify known hotspots, such as Minneapolis (plenty of Somalis there) and then monitor international calls to and fro. They get a hit, it rises to the top like scum on boiling water. Right now.

Gee, they monitor US residents phone calls? Who would have thunk it?

[brihaspati]

^^^Yes people don;t realize that the sheer size of the data and the very unstructured nature of it - makes it beyond traditional methods of extracting meaningful patterns. In that situation, creating meaningful questions becomes the hardest part [choice of attributes, their interrelations, and their impact on questions of interest - add to that the secrecy and reluctance on the part of handlers to even directly frame what is of interest].

So then the next fall back is to rely on whatever the lower level apparatchiks in the establishment think - "are important" based on often vague and broad-sweep objectives - left free to be interpreted ind etails by the actual filter-ers. These often lead to abuse and misuse - with personal obsessions, vendettas, power-trips messing things up by trawling up info or driving queries based on personal biases and not necessarily the most meaningful ones.

They could excuse the twintowers by claiming that they were not so massively collecting data before [which is not true] but then the libyan self-goal with a key personnel came long after - well after massive data collection would be officially excused as a reaction to twin-towers.

If more effort is of course spent on sabotaging other economies and militaries - of course there will be slip ups on "security" and laxity on keeping the human filters in proper line and check.

[Nandu]

Lalmohan, the specific details that Snowden gave are not in the public domain. While many people suspected that the NSA was spying on all and sundry, it is Snowden's revelations that made it an undeniable fact.

[Philip]

The key factor in this cyber-trawl is that private ,personal information of individuals becomes knowledge of the state,to be used...sorry,abused,whenever required to make an individual fall in line and behave.Similarly,monitoring key individuals abroad,allow for intel apart from blackmailing foreign leaders ,or manipulating the media to expose those with dirty secrets.It is a massive civilian equivalent of NCW that creates events by simply pushing a button.The fact that many media "Op-Eds" written by scholarly "experts" from think tanks,etc,are actually plants inserted to determine the flow of public opinion towards decisions already in the works.Just imagine if Nira Radia's cell phone was bugged by the NSA.It probably was!

More startling revelations.The secret realtionship between US,UK and EU intel outfits exposed.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013 ... ce-snowden
GCHQ and European spy agencies worked together on mass surveillance

Edward Snowden papers unmask close technical cooperation and loose alliance between British, German, French, Spanish and Swedish spy agencies

The Guardian, Friday 1 November 2013
BND NSA GCHQ DGSE
In this photo illustration, the logos of intelligence agencies the NSA, BND, GCHQ, DGSE are displayed on folders. Photograph: Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images

The German, French, Spanish and Swedish intelligence services have all developed methods of mass surveillance of internet and phone traffic over the past five years in close partnership with Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping agency.

The bulk monitoring is carried out through direct taps into fibre optic cables and the development of covert relationships with telecommunications companies. A loose but growing eavesdropping alliance has allowed intelligence agencies from one country to cultivate ties with corporations from another to facilitate the trawling of the web, according to GCHQ documents leaked by the former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

The files also make clear that GCHQ played a leading role in advising its European counterparts how to work around national laws intended to restrict the surveillance power of intelligence agencies.

The German, French and Spanish governments have reacted angrily to reports based on National Security Agency (NSA) files leaked by Snowden since June, revealing the interception of communications by tens of millions of their citizens each month. US intelligence officials have insisted the mass monitoring was carried out by the security agencies in the countries involved and shared with the US.

The US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, suggested to Congress on Tuesday that European governments' professed outrage at the reports was at least partly hypocritical. "Some of this reminds me of the classic movie Casablanca: 'My God, there's gambling going on here,' " he said.

Sweden, which passed a law in 2008 allowing its intelligence agency to monitor cross-border email and phone communications without a court order, has been relatively muted in its response.

The German government, however, has expressed disbelief and fury at the revelations from the Snowden documents, including the fact that the NSA monitored Angela Merkel's mobile phone calls.

After the Guardian revealed the existence of GCHQ's Tempora programme, in which the electronic intelligence agency tapped directly into the transatlantic fibre optic cables to carry out bulk surveillance, the German justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, said it sounded "like a Hollywood nightmare", and warned the UK government that free and democratic societies could not flourish when states shielded their actions in "a veil of secrecy".
'Huge potential'

However, in a country-by-country survey of its European partners, GCHQ officials expressed admiration for the technical capabilities of German intelligence to do the same thing. The survey in 2008, when Tempora was being tested, said the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), had "huge technological potential and good access to the heart of the internet – they are already seeing some bearers running at 40Gbps and 100Gbps".

Bearers is the GCHQ term for the fibre optic cables, and gigabits per second (Gbps) measures the speed at which data runs through them. Four years after that report, GCHQ was still only able to monitor 10 Gbps cables, but looked forward to tap new 100 Gbps bearers eventually. Hence the admiration for the BND.

The document also makes clear that British intelligence agencies were helping their German counterparts change or bypass laws that restricted their ability to use their advanced surveillance technology. "We have been assisting the BND (along with SIS [Secret Intelligence Service] and Security Service) in making the case for reform or reinterpretation of the very restrictive interception legislation in Germany," it says.

The country-by-country survey, which in places reads somewhat like a school report, also hands out high marks to the GCHQ's French partner, the General Directorate for External Security (DGSE). But in this case it is suggested that the DGSE's comparative advantage is its relationship with an unnamed telecommunications company, a relationship GCHQ hoped to leverage for its own operations.

"DGSE are a highly motivated, technically competent partner, who have shown great willingness to engage on IP [internet protocol] issues, and to work with GCHQ on a "cooperate and share" basis."

Noting that the Cheltenham-based electronic intelligence agency had trained DGSE technicians on "multi-disciplinary internet operations", the document says: "We have made contact with the DGSE's main industry partner, who has some innovative approaches to some internet challenges, raising the potential for GCHQ to make use of this company in the protocol development arena."

GCHQ went on to host a major conference with its French partner on joint internet-monitoring initiatives in March 2009 and four months later reported on shared efforts on what had become by then GCHQ's biggest challenge – continuing to carry out bulk surveillance, despite the spread of commercial online encryption, by breaking that encryption.

"Very friendly crypt meeting with DGSE in July," British officials reported. The French were "clearly very keen to provide presentations on their work which included cipher detection in high-speed bearers. [GCHQ's] challenge is to ensure that we have enough UK capability to support a longer term crypt relationship."
Fresh opportunities

In the case of the Spanish intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), the key to mass internet surveillance, at least back in 2008, was the Spaniards' ties to a British telecommunications company (again unnamed. Corporate relations are among the most strictly guarded secrets in the intelligence community). That was giving them "fresh opportunities and uncovering some surprising results.

"GCHQ has not yet engaged with CNI formally on IP exploitation, but the CNI have been making great strides through their relationship with a UK commercial partner. GCHQ and the commercial partner have been able to coordinate their approach. The commercial partner has provided the CNI some equipment whilst keeping us informed, enabling us to invite the CNI across for IP-focused discussions this autumn," the report said. It concluded that GCHQ "have found a very capable counterpart in CNI, particularly in the field of Covert Internet Ops".

GCHQ was clearly delighted in 2008 when the Swedish parliament passed a bitterly contested law allowing the country's National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) to conduct Tempora-like operations on fibre optic cables. The British agency also claimed some credit for the success.

"FRA have obtained a … probe to use as a test-bed and we expect them to make rapid progress in IP exploitation following the law change," the country assessment said. "GCHQ has already provided a lot of advice and guidance on these issues and we are standing by to assist the FRA further once they have developed a plan for taking the work forwards."

The following year, GCHQ held a conference with its Swedish counterpart "for discussions on the implications of the new legislation being rolled out" and hailed as "a success in Sweden" the news that FRA "have finally found a pragmatic solution to enable release of intelligence to SAEPO [the internal Swedish security service.]"

GCHQ also maintains strong relations with the two main Dutch intelligence agencies, the external MIVD and the internal security service, the AIVD.

"Both agencies are small, by UK standards, but are technically competent and highly motivated," British officials reported. Once again, GCHQ was on hand in 2008 for help in dealing with legal constraints. "The AIVD have just completed a review of how they intend to tackle the challenges posed by the internet – GCHQ has provided input and advice to this report," the country assessment said.

"The Dutch have some legislative issues that they need to work through before their legal environment would allow them to operate in the way that GCHQ does. We are providing legal advice on how we have tackled some of these issues to Dutch lawyers."
European allies

In the score-card of European allies, it appears to be the Italians who come off the worse. GCHQ expresses frustration with the internal friction between Italian agencies and the legal limits on their activities.

"GCHQ has had some CT [counter-terrorism] and internet-focused discussions with both the foreign intelligence agency (AISE) and the security service (AISI), but has found the Italian intelligence community to be fractured and unable/unwilling to cooperate with one another," the report said.

A follow-up bulletin six months later noted that GCHQ was "awaiting a response from AISI on a recent proposal for cooperation – the Italians had seemed keen, but legal obstacles may have been hindering their ability to commit."

It is clear from the Snowden documents that GCHQ has become Europe's intelligence hub in the internet age, and not just because of its success in creating a legally permissive environment for its operations. Britain's location as the European gateway for many transatlantic cables, and its privileged relationship with the NSA has made GCHQ an essential partner for European agencies. The documents show British officials frequently lobbying the NSA on sharing of data with the Europeans and haggling over its security classification so it can be more widely disseminated. In the intelligence world, far more than it managed in diplomacy, Britain has made itself an indispensable bridge between America and Europe's spies.

[Austin]

Germany, Brazil submit UN draft resolution to end mass surveillance

The text of the resolution asks the 193-nation assembly to declare that it is "deeply concerned at human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications.”

The circulated draft also urges member states "to take measures to put an end to violations of these rights and to create the conditions to prevent such violations, including by ensuring that relevant national legislation complies with their obligations under international human rights law.”

It is expected that the draft resolution will be debated in the General Assembly's Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues.

"We have received the draft and will evaluate the text on its merits," said an official at the US mission to the United Nations.

Several diplomats said they expect the resolution to receive support from the vast majority of UN member states.

The goal of the resolution is to gain wide international support and spread moral and political values on the subject of surveillance.

The resolution’s intention is to call on member states “to establish independent national oversight mechanisms capable of ensuring transparency and accountability of State surveillance of communications, their interception and collection of personal data.”

It would also ask UN human rights chief Navi Pillay to publish a report "on the protection of the right to privacy in the context of domestic and extraterritorial, including massive, surveillance of communications, their interception and collection of personal data.”

US global surveillance sparked international outrage following leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel found themselves in the middle of the controversy after reports emerged that both leaders were spied on by the NSA.

The US has stated that it is not spying on Merkel will not do so in the future. However, Washington has not commented on possible past surveillance.

Meanwhile, spy chief Keith Alexander has blamed US diplomats for ordering the surveillance of EU politicians. The White House is seeking to distance itself from the scandal, intimating the NSA was acting of its own volition.

In a video conference to London on Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry addressed accusations that the NSA recorded millions of European citizens’ telephone calls. Kerry conceded that US surveillance has “in some cases...reached too far” and said the NSA had been conducting its espionage on “automatic pilot.”

[Singha]

fratboys within the hive must be having a good time snooping on their ex's , shuffling through all their pvt photos, reading emails and listening to their calls, pulling their medical records....

[Kati]

I always thought that the antidote to fratboys' cyber-snooping lies in a very low-tech
system, that is, - feed more and more garbage, perhaps by sending billions of spams.
Also, what I heard from some experts that the smart spam filters were devised (and still being done) not for common people's sake, it is to help the fratboys' ability to separate the chaffe from the kernel. In any case, the solution is simple - for every useful digital communication generate ten more useless ones to confuse the big guys.

[Philip]

Disinformation, the perfect CW device is coming into play yet again.

Now the Snoop-Gate scandal is getting curiouser and curiouser and furiouser and furiouser!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 23082.html

Germany demands explanation from British ambassador over 'secret listening post' in Berlin
Foreign minister summons ambassador to provide explanation after report in The Independent

Nigel Morris Author Biography , Tony Paterson
Berlin
Tuesday 05 November 2013

Revealed: Britain's 'secret listening post in the heart of Berlin'

The German Government called in the British ambassador today to demand an explanation over concerns the United Kingdom operated a secret listening post from the roof of its embassy in Berlin.
Guido Westerwelle, its foreign minister, summoned Simon McDonald to provide an explanation following the exclusive revelations in The Independent today.

In a dramatic intervention, Berlin left no doubt over the seriousness with which it viewed the allegations, with its Foreign Ministry saying the ambassador was reminded that "tapping communication from an embassy would be violation of international law".

A Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed: "Her Majesty's Ambassador attended a meeting with a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at their invitation this afternoon."

David Cameron's official spokesman insisted the ambassador had been "invited", rather than summoned, but would not discuss the content of the meeting

"We don't comment on intelligence matters," he said.

He said Mr Cameron had an "excellent" relationship with both the German chancellor Angela Merkel and her government and said it would continue.

The spokesman said that Britain's intelligence and security services operate under a "strong and clear legal framework".

The diplomatic row came after senior figures from Ms Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic party said they were outraged by reports that GCHQ had installed a clandestine listening post on the roof of Berlin's British Embassy.
Commentators pointed out that the embassy building in Berlin's Wilhelmstrasse was merely 200 yards from the German parliament or Bundestag and MPs' adjoining offices.

Revelations that the US bugged Chancellor Merkel’s phone dominated the EU summit meeting in Brussels last month (Getty) Revelations that the US bugged Chancellor Merkel’s phone dominated the EU summit meeting in Brussels last month (Getty)
Wolfgang Bosbach, a home affairs specialist for Ms Merkel's party said the revelation showed that it was high time for a "No Spy" agreement between London and Berlin. "Since disclosures about the Tempora spying programme, we have been aware of the extent to which the British carry out data surveillance," he said. "The latest developments show that we should also reach a " No spy" agreement with Great Britain," he said in a reference to the agreement currently being negotiated between in Berlin and Washington.

Mr Bosbach said such an agreement would only work if both sides abided by a mutual obligation to refrain from spying on each other and that its would have to be subjected to regular tests to ensure that no one was cheating. "It is regrettable that such agreement should be necessary at all between partners, but total surveillance is completely unacceptable and action is needed," he insisted.

Heat maps show how activity in the US embassy's spying nest significantly reduced from 24 October (top picture) to 25 October, after it emerged that the US bugged Chancellor Merkel’s phone (ARD Panorama) Heat maps show how activity in the US embassy's spying nest significantly reduced from 24 October (top picture) to 25 October, after it emerged that the US bugged Chancellor Merkel’s phone (ARD Panorama)
But Hans-Peter Uhl - an MP in the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Ms Merkel's conservatives - said he was sceptical about no spy agreements. " You can make many agreements with partners, including Great Britain, but their real value is uncertain," he said. Mr Uhl said technical answers were needed as well as legal and political responses. "Our aim must be to develop Germany technology so that it can protect our data," he said. " There won't be a perfect solution, but we have to make it more difficult for spies irrespective of where they come from," he insisted.

Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper noted that at the recent EU summit at the end of October, David Cameron had joined the leaders other EU member states in condemning the US National Security Agency for bugging Ms Merkel's mobile telephone for over a decade.

There are concerns that Britain operates a top-secret listening post from its Berlin embassy to eavesdrop on the seat of German power (EPA) There are concerns that Britain operates a top-secret listening post from its Berlin embassy to eavesdrop on the seat of German power (EPA)

[Austin]

MI6 chief: Snowden leaks 'damaging,' put intel ops 'at risk'

GCHQ staff do not spend their time “listening to telephone calls or reading the e-mails of the majority,” GCHQ director Sir Iain Lobban said at a public grilling by MPs at the UK parliament’s security committee.

"If the internet is a hay field, we are trying to collect haystacks, and fragments of needles," said Lobban. "We look at needles, we look at friends of needles – we do not look at the surrounding hay."

He said that monitoring the calls and e-mails of the innocent majority of UK nationals and foreigners “would not be proportionate, that would not be legal, and we would not do it.”

The UK’s three primary intelligence chiefs were testifying to MPs’ Joint Security Committee – this is the first time they have spoken publicly about the revelations disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden earlier this year.

The leaked documents published by The Guardan, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel and other media internationally left British authorities embarrassed by the reports that its Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) assisting the National Security Agency, its US counterpart, in snooping on public communications, e-mails and phone calls.

During the hearing, MI6 chief Sir John Sawers lashed at Snowden's leaks "have been very damaging" playing into adversaries' hands.

"The leaks from Snowden have been very damaging, they've put our operations at risk. It's clear that our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee, al Qaeda is lapping it up," Sawers said.

He also lashed out at the Guardian reporting the leaks saying their journalists are «not particularly well placed to make that judgment" of security risks when making revelations of this kind.

Lobban added the reports would make life "far harder" for security agencies in the coming years; but he refused to elaborate on the actual damage.

Sawers said that MI6 had close partnerships with spy agencies in Europe and in North America, adding that the threat to the UK comes from secretive states, failed states and states with large areas which are ungovernable, such as Syria and Yemen.

Since the July 7, 2005, terrorist attacks in London, the terrorist threat facing the UK has “diversified,” Andrew Parker, the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5, said.

Since the 7/7 attacks there have been 34 attempted terrorist plots in the UK that have been disrupted by intelligence, some of them major plots which involved targeting a large number of people, Parker told the committee. He added that the vast majority of these plots came from people living in the UK.

[Austin]

US anti-snoop tent

Obama’s Portable Zone of Secrecy (Some Assembly Required)

WASHINGTON — When President Obama travels abroad, his staff packs briefing books, gifts for foreign leaders and something more closely associated with camping than diplomacy: a tent.

Even when Mr. Obama travels to allied nations, aides quickly set up the security tent — which has opaque sides and noise-making devices inside — in a room near his hotel suite. When the president needs to read a classified document or have a sensitive conversation, he ducks into the tent to shield himself from secret video cameras and listening devices.

American security officials demand that their bosses — not just the president, but members of Congress, diplomats, policy makers and military officers — take such precautions when traveling abroad because it is widely acknowledged that their hosts often have no qualms about snooping on their guests.

The United States has come under withering criticism in recent weeks about revelations that the National Security Agency listened in on allied leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. A panel created by Mr. Obama in August to review that practice, among other things, is scheduled to submit a preliminary report this week and a final report by the middle of next month. But American officials assume — and can cite evidence — that they get the same treatment when they travel abroad, even from European Union allies.

“No matter where you are, we are a target these days,” said R. James Woolsey Jr., the director of central intelligence during the Clinton administration. “No matter where we go, countries like China, Russia and much of the Arab world have assets and are trying to spy on us so you have to think about that and take as many precautions as possible.”

On a trip to Latin America in 2011, for example, a White House photo showed Mr. Obama talking from a security tent in a Rio de Janeiro hotel suite with Hillary Rodham Clinton, then the secretary of state, and Robert M. Gates, the defense secretary at the time, about the air war against Libya that had been launched the previous day. Another photo, taken three days later in San Salvador, showed him conferring from the tent with advisers about the attack.

Spokesmen for the State Department, the C.I.A. and the National Security Council declined to provide details on the measures the government takes to protect officials overseas. But more than a dozen current and former government officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, described in interviews some of those measures.

They range from instructing officials traveling overseas to assume every utterance and move is under surveillance and requiring them to scrub their cellphones for listening devices after they have visited government offices, to equipping the president’s limousine, which always travels with him, to keep private conversations private. Mr. Obama carries a specially encrypted BlackBerry; one member of his cabinet was told he could not take his iPad on an overseas trip because it was not considered a secure device.

Countermeasures are taken on American soil as well. When cabinet secretaries and top national security officials take up their new jobs, the government retrofits their homes with special secure rooms for top-secret conversations and computer use.

In accordance with a several-hundred-page classified manual, the rooms are lined with foil and soundproofed. An interior location, preferably with no windows, is recommended. One of the most recent recipients: James B. Comey, the new director of the F.B.I., whose homes in the Washington area and New England were retrofitted.

During the Cold War, a former senior official said, listening devices were found embedded in the walls and light fixtures of the hotels where American diplomats stayed. These days, the official said, American analysts worry more about eavesdropping radio signals beamed toward hotel rooms in the hopes of picking up officials’ conversations.

“We took it for granted that in some of these hotels, no matter the state, that devices were built in there,” the official said.

It is not exactly clear when American officials began using the tents while traveling. According to several former senior law enforcement and intelligence officials, George J. Tenet, the director of the C.I.A. from 1997 to 2004, was one of the first officials to use one regularly.

“Clinton and the White House were using him as an emissary in the Middle East with Arafat, and he was always over there and in Israel and needed to have something secure to read and talk,” said a former senior intelligence official who worked directly with Mr. Tenet. “He started using it and just continued through the rest of his tenure.”

The official said that the C.I.A. was particularly insistent that Mr. Tenet use the tent in Israel because it has some of the most sophisticated spying software. “We would get especially concerned when our Israeli hosts wanted to reserve the hotel rooms for us at the King David,” the official said, referring to a famous hotel in Jerusalem.

Mr. Woolsey, an executive now at the consulting firm Opportunities Development Group in Washington, said that when he traveled abroad as the nation’s top intelligence official from 1993 to 1995, he had only encrypted phones. “We were so far ahead of the rest of the world at that point technologically,” Mr. Woolsey said. “But by the time Tenet came along in the late ’90s, they started to get worried about China, and things were changing.”

Before the security tents are set up, hotel rooms are checked for bugs and radio waves. A former senior government official who read classified documents in the small tents said that they were far less attractive than the sleek ones that sleep six and are sold at camping stores like REI.

“I felt like I was in the middle of the big woods, but I was in the middle of a hotel room,” said the former official.

Many of the measures taken for travel are for only the most senior officials because they are costly and cumbersome. Instead of the tent, less senior officials can end up using smaller structures that look like telephone booths. But all officials traveling in this age of high surveillance are given one basic marching order: Use common sense.

“You follow procedures about what to do and what not to do,” said William J. Lynn III, a former deputy defense secretary under Mr. Obama. “It wasn’t like I had to make calls in the shower.”

Official American visitors to Russia and China are warned that they should never retrieve or discuss sensitive or classified information outside the embassy. In recent years, many private companies have gone further, instituting policies that forbid employees to take their cellphones to Russia and China.

But even outside countries with histories of spying on Americans, diplomats say, they are resigned to the fact that no electronic message sent or received is ever really private anymore.

“We do operate with the awareness that anything we do on a cellphone or BlackBerry is probably being read by someone somewhere, or lots of someones,” said a senior American diplomat.

Even with rigorous security protocols drilled into their heads by their superiors — like rules barring some White House and National Security Council staff members from gaining access to social media on their computers and phones out of fear of downloading malware — officials say it is hard to police every utterance on a mobile device.

“Given the press of events and the ubiquity of cellphones,” said one former American diplomat with experience in the Middle East, “it is in practice very difficult to constantly self-edit conversations to ensure that you don’t stray into classified information.”

[Austin]

Spying on everything: white 'sheds' on Five Eyes Embassies are SIGINT posts