GCHQ Operation Tempora

 

Snowden said of Tempora that "It's not just a U.S. problem. The UK has a huge dog in this fight...They [GCHQ] are worse than the U.S."^[3]

Edward Snowden claimed the two principal components of Tempora are called "Mastering the Internet" and "Global Telecoms Exploitation". The aim of each, according to Snowden, is to collate online and telephone traffic.^[3] Data utilised by Tempora is extracted from fibre-optic cable communications, and processed. Data are preserved for three days while metadata are kept for thirty days.^[1] It is alleged that GCHQ produces larger amounts of metadata than NSA. By May 2012 300 GCHQ analysts and 250 NSA analysts had been assigned to sort data.^[3] About 850,000 people have security clearance to access the data.^[1]

The Guardian claims that no distinction is made in the gathering of data between private citizens and targeted suspects.^[3] Tempora is said to include recordings of telephone calls, the content of email messages, Facebook entries and the personal internet history of users. Snowden said of Tempora that "It's not just a U.S. problem. The UK has a huge dog in this fight...They [GCHQ] are worse than the U.S."^[3]

Claims that Tempora was possible only with secret agreements with commercial companies exist, and were described in Snowden's leaked documents as "intercept partners." Some companies are alleged to have been paid for their co-operation. Snowden also alleged that GCHQ staff were urged to disguise the origin of material in their reports for fear that the role of the companies as intercept partners would cause "high-level political fallout".^[3] The companies are forbidden from revealing the existence of warrants compelling them to allow GCHQ access to the cables. If the companies fail to comply they can be compelled to do so.^[3]

Lawyers for GCHQ said it would be impossible to list the total number of people targeted by Tempora because "this would be an infinite list which we couldn't manage".^[3]

GCHQ set up a three year trial at the GCHQ Bude in Cornwall. GCHQ had probes attached to more than 200 internet links by Summer 2011, each probe carried 10 gigabits of data a second.^[3] NSA analysts were brought into the trials, and Tempora was launched in Autumn 2011, with data shared with the NSA. Content collected by Tempora was stored for three days, and metadata stored for 30. Ongoing technical work is expanding GCHQ's capacity to collect data from new super cables that carry data at 100 gigabits a second.<sup>[3]

Source: Wikipedia</sup>

Documents leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden suggest that Verizon Business, Vodafone Cable and BT were among those who gave GCHQ unlimited access to their network of cables.

India: The POSCO Issue where do we stand ? by Asit Das

THE POSCO ISSUE WHERE DO WE STAND?

(An appeal to the left and democratic organizations and anti-POSCO struggle solidarity groups)

 

 

Dear Friends and Comrades,

 

All of you might be aware of the tragic turn of events in the anti-POSCO struggle area. Last week armed police conducted flag march, raided homes, and were forcibly trying to erect a boundary wall to democrat the area for POSCO. The events which have unfolded for the past two months especially after the arrest of Mr. Abhay Sahu the president of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samity raises many pertinent questions about the nature of the leadership and their relationship with Odisha Govt. and POSCO. Needless to say is that Mr. Abhay Sahu president of PPSS is a National Council member of CPI and Mr. Shishir Mohapatra secretary of PPSS is a card holding member of CPI. Their role in the past two months has raised many eyebrows not only in the anti-POSCO struggle villages, but in the media and the entire thinking population of Odisha.

 

The latest attitude of PPSS is quite disturbing for 4 days last week armed police have been conducting flag marches, raiding homes in Gobindpur, and also they have been trying to constructing a boundary wall to demarcate the land for POSCO, this was successfully resisted by the people of Gobindpur. Strangely PPSS didn’t come out with and update when I heard about it I immediately circulated on update. My update was widely circulated in different activist website and list serves. Then a day after my update was circulated Willy PPSS update came out duly signed by Prashant Paikray the official spokes person of PPSS. This makes the position of PPSS and CPI highly suspect. Over the years whenever any such incidents were to happen in the anti-POSCO struggle villages then within hours PPSS update was circulated and Prashant Paikray used to make numerous phone calls to different metropolitan centre. Strangely this time the update came a day after my update was circulated where I had pointed out why the PPSS update has not been circulated.

 

Senior activists of Odisha like Shri Prafulla Samantra and Sudhir Patnaik who are intimately involved in the Anti-POSCO struggle from the day one and know the movement and its internal dynamics thoroughly have suggested that the left and democratic organizations and anti-POSCO struggle solidarity groups should write an open letter to CPI and PPSS questioning their role in the murky deal between Odisha Government and PPSS and between CPI and BJD.

 

There is a propaganda in the mainstream media that the POSCO struggle is over and the Odisha Govt. has successfully acquired 2700 acres of land in Gobindpur, Nuagaon on and Gadkujang. The statements’ quoted from Govt. of Odisha official and POSCO management that Govt. of Odisha will soon handover the 2700 Acres to POSCO for the first phase. Those of us were involved in the anti-POSCO struggle should make an objective assessment of the situation and take a firm stand.

 

Appointment of interventionism expert as US ambassador insults Filipino people -- CPP

 

picture Philip Goldberg

 

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the appointment by US President Barrack Obama of “interventionism expert” Philip Goldberg as next US ambassador to the Philippines mocks and insults the Filipino people even as it signals US intent of heightening its interference and military intervention in the Philippines with the aim of further strengthening its foothold in the country and in the Asia-Pacific region.

Goldberg is set to replace Harry Thomas, who had been US ambassador to the Philippines since 2010. Goldberg is currently Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research under the US Department of State.

“It is a grave insult to the Filipino people that the US government is set to dispatch as its ambassador to the country someone who has been declared persona non grata in another country,” said the CPP. The CPP pointed out that Goldberg was expelled as US ambassador to Bolivia in 2008 for having carried out interventionism and acts of subversion against the government of Evo Morales. The Morales government of Bolivia has been openly assertive of its national sovereignty against US interventionism and foreign economic domination.

The US government is known to carry out illegal acts of intervention in countries ruled by governments that oppose US domination and policy impositions. To pursue its political and military interests, the US has been carrying out interventionism efforts including funding and arming of opposition groups, in order to undermine, destabilize and overthrow the political rule of governments that have exercised and asserted national independence such as against the government of Venezuela, Iran and North Korea.

At the same time, the US government has carried out interventionism in countries ruled by puppet regimes which serve and advance US interests. The US imperialists have extended military, financial and political support to such governments to suppress political opposition, especially mass-based anti-imperialist mass movements.

The CPP chided the Aquino government for welcoming the scheduled appointment of Goldberg and refusing to raise the matter of his expulsion from another diplomatic post. According to a Malacañang spokesperson, the Aquino government does not see anything insulting with the assignment of Goldberg as ambassador.

“Indeed, the Amboy (American Boy) government of Aquino is extremely excited over the appointment of Goldberg, as it signals increasing interest on the part of the US to work with the Aquino government in order to strengthen US foothold in the Philippines and further fortify the Philippines as a US military outpost in the Asia-Pacific,” said the CPP. “The appointment of Goldberg form part of the heightened efforts of the US to establish its hegemony in the region with the close cooperation of the Aquino puppet government.”

“The appointment of Goldberg, who has served as an intelligence officer of the US government, as ambassador to the Philippines also signals US plans to heighten its intervention in the Philippines,” pointed out the CPP.

 “Over the past three years under the Aquino regime, the US government has been provided with increasing military access to docking and landing facilities for its warships and aircrafts and is set to have exclusive access to parts of Subic and other major sea and airports.”
 

“With the planned appointment of Goldberg, the US government has committed an increase in military aid to the Philippines from $30 million to $50 million,” pointed out the CPP. “This is set to further increase the capability of the AFP to carry out its armed suppression of the Filipino people.”
 

“With strong military and political support of the US and the appointment of Goldberg as US ambassador, the Aquino government’s armed forces are set on committing more brutalities and abuses in carrying out its Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression against the Filipino people,” added the CPP.

Condemn the unlawfaul arrest of Jayetta Das : Release her immediately !

COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

185/3, FOURTH FLOOR, ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI-110025

 

02/08/2013

 

CONDEMN THE UNLAWFUL ARREST OF JAYEETA DAS, A PEOPLE’S ACTIVIST!

RELEASE JAYEETA DAS UNCONDITIONALLY!

 

 

Once again the Special Task Force (STF) West Bengal have flouted every norms as they picked up Jayeeta Das, a people’s activist who has been active in the democratic and people’s movements in Kolkata, from the Charu market area around 2 pm on Friday August 2013. Later in the evening on the same day the STF raided and ransacked her house without any warrant and intimidated her family members. While all this intimidation was on the family members were kept in the dark about the arrest of Jayeeta Das. The STF further intimidated and forced the family to sign on blank papers. Only through the media did the family come to know that Jayeeta Das has been arrested.

 

A cursory look into the conduct of STF and similar intelligence agencies in West Bengal and elsewhere in the subcontinent proves beyond doubt the utter disdain for norms and procedures by these agencies. The right to see the warrant as well as the information for the family about the arrest of Jayeeta are fundamental. These norms and procedures are crucial for the detained/arrested as well as her kith and kin as the only way to safeguard oneself from torture, mistreatment let alone to much needed and timely access to a lawyer of her choice. To deny all this and to keep the family members in the dark about her arrest is premeditated from the side of the intelligence agencies so as to force the family (as they were forced to sign blank papers) and the detained into some kind of confession that suits so as to incriminate them.

 

This is not the first time that such acts of impunity have been committed by the intelligence agencies. On the contrary this has been the set pattern of the modus operandi of these agencies. That too despite several times the highest courts in the subcontinent having taken exception to such criminal conducts of the agencies.

 

The CRPP strongly condemn such acts of impunity of the STF of West Bengal and demand the unconditional release of Jayeeta Das. We demand that pending her release she be given access to the lawyer of her choice and be produced at the earliest before the court.

 

In Solidarity,

 

SAR Geelani

President

 

Amit Bhattacharyya

Secretary General

 

Rona Wilson

Secretary, Public Relations

 

'UK spy agency GCHQ prostitutes itself to NSA in corrupt relationship'

Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Share Close Financial Ties to Defense Industry

NSA Confirms Dragnet Phone Records Collection & Admits It Was Key In Stopping Just 1 Terror Plot 2/2

Testifying before the Senate on Wednesday, National Security Agency Deputy Director John Inglis conceded that the bulk collection of phone records of millions of Americans under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act has been key in stopping only one terror plot -- not the dozens officials had previously said.

Ahead of Wednesday's Senate hearing, the Obama administration released three heavily censored documents related to its surveillance efforts, but the White House has refused to declassify the legal arguments underlying the dragnet or the original rulings by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, on which the released order to collect phone records was based.

Meanwhile the head of the NSA, General Keith Alexander, was repeatedly interrupted by critics of government surveillance in a speech Wednesday before the Black Hat conference, a gathering of hackers and cybersecurity professionals in Las Vegas.

We're joined by two guests: Spencer Ackerman, national security editor at The Guardian; and James Bamford, an investigative reporter who has covered the National Security Agency for three decades after helping expose its existence in the 1980s.

NSA's Google: XKeyscore search engine for all private info

Thanks Edward Snowden for revealing the Prism Programme and now XKeyscore.

Snowden granted 1 yr asylum in Russia, leaves airport to undisclosed location