A judge has ordered that the criminal trial of two persons accused of terrorism (or rather of ‘preparing for terrorism’) should be held in secret, and that even the existence of this trial should be kept secret on the grounds provided by the crown prosecution that “there was a serious possibility that the trial may […]
Posts Tagged ‘Edward Snowden’
Who gave away access for US surveillance of all British citizens?
Nov 22nd, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The revelations from Edward Snowden’s documents get ever more breathtaking. It had always previously been thought that under the so-called Five-Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangements (established under the UKUSA Signals Intelligence Agreement in 1946) between the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the citizens of each of these countries were off-limits from surveillance by any of […]
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This week’s spooks hearing proves urgent need for independent inquiry
Nov 9th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.To call it a grilling would be unfair to fried fish. It was a soft-centre velvet-glove exchange between decent establishment chaps which only confirmed just how feeble and inadequate the present system of so-called oversight of the security services really is. As spy chiefs came before parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), it is incredible […]
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Who can you trust in Britain today?
Oct 28th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The latest evidence that GCHQ in their systematic electronic harvesting of information went far beyond what the law allowed, and were acutely well aware of this, is certainly troubling, but perhaps not surprising. The mood and culture in Britain today in the use of power is push your advantage to the limit and beyond – […]
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Time for a public inquiry into mass surveillance
Oct 12th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The role of Parliament is to hold the Executive (Government) to account and the role of the media is to prevent the abuse of power and to provide a mechanism of accountability where that fails. Are they at present fulfilling that role? Neither is. And both have failed at the critical point where today the […]
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The total surveillance state is a nightmare waiting to happen
Oct 6th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Why are apparently so few people worried that a state employee can now select on a computer any item in their individual make-up – their address, phone, mobile, email, passport number, credit card number (any of them), any of their logins to a web service, etc. – and can thus access the content of their […]
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A US attack on Syria won’t stop chemical weapons: there’s a better way
Sep 1st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.An American military strike against Syria in the next few days is a virtual certainty, despite the fact that US public opinion seems as tepid about this action as in the UK. What may be driving the US is not so much an abhorrence against a resort to chemical weapons – the US said nothing […]
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Regulation of the security services needs to be completely overhauled
Aug 4th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The cascade of revelations from the Edward Snowden files gets ever more damning. After exposure of the US National Security Agency’s Prism system and the matching UK GCHQ’s Tempora system, allowing interlocking and virtually unlimited access to almost all internet activity regardless of so-called privacy protections, we now find that a NSA programme entitled XKeyscore […]
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Uncle Sam, what big ears you have!
Jul 3rd, 2013 by Tom Gill.Translated from the original by François Delapierre We do not know what is more astonishing. The revelations about the spying on the European Union by the United States intelligence services? Or the surprise this causes among EU leaders? It seems that amid the rhetoric of the unity of the “free world” during the Cold War, […]
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What is being done to control mass surveillance?
Jul 2nd, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The cascade of revelations about secret surveillance, thanks to Edward Snowden, rolls on. Today it’s Dropmire which apparently refers to a bug inserted in an encrupted fax machine used for transmission of commercial data at the EU mission in Washington DC. Once revealed, the Americans explain it as designed to collect data on policy disagreements […]
