Snowden files 'show massive UK spying op'

LateX'Dog · 22 Jun 2013 at 11:44

BRITISH spies are running an online eavesdropping operation so vast that internal documents say it even outstrips the United States' international internet surveillance effort, The Guardian newspaper says.

The paper cited UK intelligence memos leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to claim that UK spies were tapping into the world's network of fibre optic cables to deliver the "biggest internet access" of any member of the Five Eyes - the name given to the espionage alliance composed of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

That access could in theory expose a huge chunk of the world's everyday communications - including the content of people's emails, calls, and more - to scrutiny from British spies and their US allies. How much data the Brits are copying off the fibre optic network isn't clear, but it's likely to be enormous.

The Guardian said the information flowing across more than 200 cables was being monitored by more than 500 analysts from the NSA and its UK counterpart, GCHQ.

"This is a massive amount of data!" The Guardian quoted a leaked slide as boasting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/21/gchq-cables-secret-world-communications-nsa?CMP=twt_gu

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...ive-uk-spying-op/story-e6frfkui-1226667923388

When did this become common practice in the UK that all of its citizens are suspects in need of surveillance?

I thought we were in a free country with free speech? And a shining beacon of democracy. :confused:

pooley · 22 Jun 2013 at 11:46

LateX'Dog said:
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...ive-uk-spying-op/story-e6frfkui-1226667923388

When did this become command practice in the UK that all of its citizens are suspects in need of surveillance?

I thought we were in a free country with free speech? And a shining beacon of democracy.

Obviously you were misled

arknor · 22 Jun 2013 at 11:51

You're only as free as your fooled into believing.
if you think about it we are basically slaves for the government.

welcome to minority report on steroids

doofer · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:04

LateX'Dog said:
I thought we were in a free country with free speech? And a shining beacon of democracy.

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free"

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I'm waiting for the day it becomes illegal to be a law abiding citizen in the UK because you simply must be a criminal or a terrorist, we should all just completely give up our Rights and let our Govts. walk all over us and be done with it.

aayzof · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:07

UK spies conduct spying ops shocker. :eek:

scorza · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:08

Non-story imo. Spy's spying on people, whatever next. I don't see how this doesn't make us a free country with freedom of speech either, we have laws, they should be followed by everyone and if they're not then there are consequences.

Zefan · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:12

I bloody hope this IS true. I'd be more shocked if they weren't doing this...

Ceryndrion · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:22

Nowhere in that article, does it say that it is british spies spying on british people

arknor · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:24

scorza said:
Non-story imo. Spy's spying on people, whatever next. I don't see how this doesn't make us a free country with freedom of speech either, we have laws, they should be followed by everyone and if they're not then there are consequences.

yea just a pity we have no privacy laws any more.

Maybe if the government didn't let so many immigrants in without properly checking their backgrounds we wouldn't need to spy on our own people.

James J · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:30

arknor said:
yea just a pity we have no privacy laws any more.

Maybe if the government didn't let so many immigrants in without properly checking their backgrounds we wouldn't need to spy on our own people.

Lol what the hell has immigration got to do with our own government spying on us? You do realise that we have home grown terrorists right? Our own citizens murder each other etc. How many immigrants actually do that then?

Xordium · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:31

LateX'Dog said:
I thought we were on a forum where the OP contributes to the threads they start?

arknor · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:50

James J said:
Lol what the hell has immigration got to do with our own government spying on us? You do realise that we have home grown terrorists right? Our own citizens murder each other etc. How many immigrants actually do that then?

well it all seems to have came around from terrorist plots.

most of which are committed by people from other countries who come here and recruit/brainwash people

if we were more careful with who we were letting in and stopped poking our nose around the middle east and africa then we wouldn't need to worry so much about terrorists or islam extremists preaching hate

James J · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:51

arknor said:
well it all seems to have came around from terrorist plots.

most of which are committed by people from other countries who come here and recruit/brainwash people

if we were more careful with who we were letting in and stopped poking our nose around the middle east and africa then we wouldn't need to worry so much about terrorists

Rubbish. You can get training over the internet from just reading articles into how to make explosives, basic chemistry and how to strip down and oil an AK-47 in less than a minute. Most of that is available on youtube so shall we ban that as well?! :rolleyes:

gillywibble · 22 Jun 2013 at 13:07

LateX'Dog said:
When did this become common practice in the UK?

Oh I don't know, about 1984?

dowie · 22 Jun 2013 at 13:30

I'm not sure quite what the fuss is about - I mean the story just confirms that the national agency responsible for collecting signals intelligence is doing its job. In fact its basically saying that its doing its job very well and seemingly punching above its weight. That's a good thing really as the relationship with the US shouldn't just be the UK relying on them for everything rather the UK ought to be able to add some value and seemingly, if this story is correct, then the UK can add a lot of value in this area....

Aside from that I'm still finding it a bit odd that people are shocked that intelligence agencies collect information.... Most of this story is seemingly concerned with a system which doesn't look at the content of communications but rather just keeps a record of who contacts who. We have more intrusion into our lives from being filmed by CCTV cameras on our local high street than from the times/location of our phone calls being logged on a database somewhere and likely never actually looked at by a human being because for 99.9% of us the person we've contacted isn't a terrorist or a foreign spy.

areksnumbr1sxylady · 22 Jun 2013 at 13:35

I remember what a massive uproar was caused in Berlin when the wall fell and people found out that they were monitored by the soviets in the Eastern Germany...

To this days, USSR is referred as a police state where everyone`s move was observed and how horrible it is to do such things.

scorza · 22 Jun 2013 at 13:44

James J said:
Lol what the hell has immigration got to do with our own government spying on us? You do realise that we have home grown terrorists right? Our own citizens murder each other etc. How many immigrants actually do that then?

Britain has been a safe haven for global Islamic terrorists for decades. The policy was known as Londonistan, it was a disaster.

arknor · 22 Jun 2013 at 13:47

James J said:
Rubbish. You can get training over the internet from just reading articles into how to make explosives, basic chemistry and how to strip down and oil an AK-47 in less than a minute. Most of that is available on youtube so shall we ban that as well?!

My point was how many of these kinds of acts are carried out by people who have not been influenced by outsiders immigrating to this country from places in africa and the middle east?

if we were more careful with who we let in maybe we would not have to snoop on our own people to such great extents and if we were more careful with what wars we get involved in.

dowie · 22 Jun 2013 at 14:11

Lazder said:
I remember what a massive uproar was caused in Berlin when the wall fell and people found out that they were monitored by the soviets in the Eastern Germany...

To this days, USSR is referred as a police state where everyone`s move was observed and how horrible it is to do such things.

Rather different when its an authoritarian regime which can and will detain its citizens for political purposes rather than a liberal democracy which is more interested in seeking out serious security threats.

Its not like we're packing people off to Gulags in some remote part of Scotland because we dislike their political views. In fact we're hard pressed to even deport the most obvious looking comedy terrorist character to Jordan because our courts fear that some evidence used against him over there could be related to torture.

James J · 22 Jun 2013 at 14:11

So you can make a distinction between radicalism with religion and mental illness? These people often use islam as an excuse for wanting to become infamous for killing people. Those two guys who killed lee rigby are a prime example. Not an islamic bone in their body even though thats their reasonibg to brutally murder someone. No longer do we have murderers who simply do it for fun such as charles manson, instead its all ploitically motivated nonsense.