[LINK] Revealed: secret European deals to hand over private data to America

Kim Holburn kim at holburn.net
Sun Jun 30 09:27:00 AEST 2013


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/29/european-private-data-america

> At least six European Union countries in addition to Britain have been colluding with the US over the mass harvesting of personal communications data, according to a former contractor to America's National Security Agency, who said the public should not be "kept in the dark".
> 
> Wayne Madsen, a former US navy lieutenant who first worked for the NSA in 1985 and over the next 12 years held several sensitive positions within the agency, names Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Italy as having secret deals with the US.


http://www.privacysurgeon.org/blog/incision/former-nsa-contractor-warns-of-murky-interception-arrangements/

> He was particularly concerned about the "sanctimonious outcry" of political leaders who were "feigning shock" about recently disclosed  spying operations such as PRISM while staying silent about their own role in global interception arrangements with the United States.
> 
> "I can't understand how Angela Merkel can keep a straight face – demanding assurances from Obama and the UK – while Germany has entered into those exact relationships"
> 
> "She's acting like inspector Reynaud in Casablanca: 'I'm shocked – shocked – to find gambling going on here'"


....

> Madsen warned that the public were being intentionally confused by the utterances of politicians. "Spain and Germany had the same deal as GCHQ and NSA at [the spy station] Bude, Cornwall with their Project TEMPORA, tapping the TAT14 cable between Denmark and Germany, Netherlands, France, UK and US."
> 
> He outlined the "significant extent" of signals intelligence operations in Europe, cautioning that the public needed to be made aware  of the scale of these activities.
> 
> "The Danes have an NSA listening post at Aflandshage, outside Copenhagen and the Finns provide 4th Party feed to NSA from the Santahamina facility outside Helsinki. The Swedish FRA also sends 4th Party SIGINT [signals intelligence] to NSA and has done so since the Cold War."
> 
> "Bundesnachrictendienst (BND) and Spanish CESID jointly operated an undersea cable tapping station at Conil called Operation Delikatesse. The station tapped the cables linking Spain to the Canaries, other Mediterranean nations, Africa, and BND turned over operation of the station to CESID in1992 but like all these arrangements, German intelligence personnel likely remained for support."
> 
> "NSA did the same with its Turkish SIGINT stations, turning over operation of Sinop on the Black Sea, for example, to Turkey's MIT intelligence organization. The tapping facility, on "Camino de los Militares" in Conil is near the Telefonica satellite ground station."


....

> However Madsen's reference to Turkey as a country that conducts SIGINT was not raised in the EP inquiry report. The possibility that Turkey has been covertly engaged in interception operations – possibly against European countries – could place additional pressure on Turkey's already strained candidature to the EU.
> "A lot of this information isn't secret, nor is it new" commented Madsen. "It's just that governments have chosen to keep the public in the dark about it. They don't understand that the days when they could get away with a conspiracy of silence are over."
> 
> Madsen's criticism applies with particular relevance to the UK government, which for decades denied the existence of a web of SIGINT bases in Britain, instead describing them as "defence facilities" subject to full accountability.
> 
> Madsen also expressed anger over the NSA's hypocrisy over Edward Snowden.
> 
> "Snowden is being roundly condemned by many who say he had no authority or right to provide the public with details of NSA snooping. But what right or authority did NSA director, General Keith Alexander, have to provide information on NSA surveillance at five meetings of the global Bilderberg Conference – two in Virginia and one meeting each in Greece, Spain and Switzerland?"

> "Alexander claims he is protecting the American people from a constantly changing number of terrorist attacks. In fact, he is providing information to elites on the methods NSA uses to spy on labor, student, religious and progressive organizations."
> 
> "When Alexander leaks to the elites, he's thanked. When Snowden does it, he's called a traitor and a coward."

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
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