Snowden files: Manipulating polls, netting from LinkedIn and YouTube in GCHQ’s bag of tricks

Written on July 15th, 2014 in politics Comments Off

Published on Russia Today RT, July 14, 2014.

The UK’s spy agency has developed a number of crafty tools to monitor and comb the web, planting false information when necessary, Glenn Greenwald said while disclosing a fresh batch of Snowden’s files.

The tools were created by the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) within the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), according to the leaked documents havoc can be caused … //

… The JTRIG document appears in an archive used by GCHQ to discuss its online surveillance activities.

The latest bombshell of revelations comes as the UK parliament debates a fast-track bill to provide the government with greater justification for its spy agencies’ sweeping surveillance powers, which Prime Minister David Cameron has said is necessary to “help keep us safe.”

GCHQ did not comment and issued its usual response, namely that it acts “in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework” and is subject to “vigorous oversight.”

But previous GCHQ memos leaked to the Guardian said that, “our main concern is that references to agency practices (i.e., the scale of interception and deletion) could lead to damaging public debate which might lead to legal challenges against the current regime.”

There is also the possibility that top ministers and officials in the UK government are not fully aware of what GCHQ is up to. Chris Huhne, a member of the National Security Council until 2012, said that minsters were in “utter ignorance” even about ‘Tempora,’ the spy agencies largest digital surveillance program.

Meanwhile the British watchdog Privacy International has filed legal action against GCHQ for using malware to spy on internet and mobile phone users.

(full text).

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Other Links:

Philip Pilkington: The Great Unwinding – Some Thoughts on the Incoherence of Mainstream Economics, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, July 14, 2014;

Hunting American Spooks: Germany Prepares Further Spying Clampdown – part 1, on Spiegel Online International, July 14, 2014: The latest revelations of US spying on Germany have unleashed unprecedented levels of distrust in Berlin. The government has already expelled the CIA’s chief here and may soon be planning additional measures as it seeks answers from Washington …;
part 2: A Palpable Sense of Insecurity;

US: $32 Billion For-Profit College Industry Becomes Pass-Through for Wall Street, 7.41 min, on The Real News, by Glen Ford, July 14, 2014: With a 50% graduation rate and heavily indebted students, the government needs to establish a federal agency to regulate this newest Wall Street-connected scam …;

El Dorado in the Amazon: A Deluded German and Three Dead Bodies, part 1, on Spiegel Online International, by Alexander Smoltczyk, July 11, 2014 (Photo Gallery): A German man claims to be an Indian chief in the Amazon rainforest. His tales of El Dorado even impressed Steven Spielberg and Jacques Cousteau. His tales would be harmless if there weren’t three unsolved deaths connected to his fantasy world …;
Part 2: Bom Dia, I’m Tatunca;
Part 3: Do You Want to Go to El Dorado? It’s No Legend.

Losing Iraq, on al-Ahram weekly online, by Salah Nasrawi, July 10, 2014: With their hard-won empowerment under threat, the Iraqi Shia realise that it takes more than being in office to keep Iraq intact …;

Seeing Like a State, on Why Nations Fail, by DARON ACEMOGLU AND JAMES ROBINSON, July 10, 2014;

More on Argentina, the Vulture Funds, and the Sanctity of Contracts, on Triple Crisis, by Mathias Vernengo, July 10, 2014;

Stopping Job Piracy in Dayton, Denver … and maybe even Kansas City, on Middle Class Political Economist, by Kenneth Thomas, July 9, 2014;

Adaptation with an Envelope, on Greed, Green & Grains Economics, Environment & Agriculture, Michael Roberts, June 5, 2014;

… and this:

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