Two Green Party parliamentarians are taking legal action against the Government over claims that their communications continue to be intercepted by GCHQ. Caroline Lucas MP and Baroness Jenny Jones have started legal proceedings at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the tribunal which examines complaints about surveillance by the country’s intelligence agencies and other public bodies. Lawyers will argue […]
Posts Tagged ‘GCHQ’
Couldn’t make it up: Tribunal dealing with complaints against MI5/GCHQ is housed in Home Office!
Mar 12th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, passed in 2000, one of the most insidious Acts of Parliament in modern times, set up a tribunal with the power to investigate any complaints against MI5, MI6 or GCHQ, including complaints about surveillance activities of the police or any other public bodies. Very little at first was heard […]
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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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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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Intelligence Services Committee clears GCHQ: so that’s all right then!
Jul 19th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The usual Establishment farce is being played out once again. Faced with Edward Snowden’s evidence that the UK government’s spy centre GCHQ used the US National Security Agency’s Prism programme to gain illicit access on an industrial scale to the content of private communications of millions of people across the world, the Commons’ Intelligence Services […]
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Time for a public inquiry on the standards and ethics of policing
Jun 27th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The secretive parts of the British state are slowly being exposed to the light, and it’s a pretty ugly vista. Today we learn that over 8,900 political activists are being monitored by a secret police organisation called the National Domestic Extremism Unit within the Met. Apparently it uses surveillance techniques, paid informers, intercepts and under-cover […]
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The use of drones should be brought under international law
Oct 25th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The first legal hearing in Britain is taking place over UK participation in US drone strikes in Pakistan. The case has been brought by a man whose father was killed by a strike from an unmanned aircraft, and he is seeking to have the sharing of UK locational intelligence with US drone controllers declared illegal. […]
