Free Republic

Britain's spy agency GCHQ has secretly gained access to the network of cables which carry the world's phone calls and internet traffic and has started to process vast streams of sensitive personal information which it is sharing with its American partner, the National Security Agency (NSA). The sheer scale of the agency's ambition is reflected in the titles of its two principal components: Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation, aimed at scooping up as much online and telephone traffic as possible. This is all being carried out without any form of public acknowledgement or debate.

Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.

Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.

The Government's Intelligence and Security Committee is going on a week-long tour, when it will meet senior figures from the America’s intelligence agencies. The news came after leaked US documents appeared to show that Britain’s listening post GCHQ has been secretly gathering intelligence from some of the world’s biggest internet firms through America’s National Security Agency.

<p>London, England (CNN) -- Metropolitan police in London, England, appealed Monday for further information about last month's death of a man who worked for a British intelligence agency and whose naked body was found in a padlocked duffel bag in his bathroom.</p>

Al Qaeda 'Re-Emerging' in Pakistan Sanctuaries The U.S. military said Tuesday it expected Al Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence" in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan. Sanctuary was provided to Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels after Islamabad signed a peace deal with militants in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally administered areas in September 2006, a U.S. military official said. The militants called off the deal in July this year after Pakistani security forces raided a radical mosque in Islamabad where rebels had massed. Dozens were killed in those...

We had a few comments last time suggesting that the challenge which we gave you was a little too easy. Well, here's something which will take a bit more work, but has a few things in common with the last challenge. There are three parts to the solution. What is the connection between the men in the first list and the women in the second list? Which man pairs with which woman? And what is the hidden quotation? Just to make things a little more interesting, GCHQ will be offering copies of 'Big Bang' the latest book by Simon Singh,...

When thieves stole a steel watch and two bottles of perfume from Niger's embassy on Via Antonio Baiamonti in Rome at the end of December 2000, they left behind many questions about their intentions. The identity of the thieves has not been established. But one theory is that they planned to steal headed notepaper and official stamps that would allow the forging of documents for the illicit sale of uranium from Niger's vast mines. The break-in is one of the murkier elements surrounding the claim - made by the US and UK governments in the lead-up to the Iraq war...

LONDON - A British intelligence translator has been cleared of leaking a secret e-mail that alleged the U.S. wanted to spy on United Nations Security Council members before the war against Iraq. "The prosecution offer no evidence against the defendant on this indictment as there is no longer sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction," prosecutor Mark Ellison told the court. Katharine Gun, 29, works at the Government Communications Headquarters, Britain's global surveillance centre. She was charged in November with breaching Britain's Official Secrets Act after an memo was leaked to the British newspaper The Observer. The newspaper reported...

The prosecution is preparing to abandon the case against a former GCHQ employee charged with leaking information about a "dirty tricks" spying operation before the invasion of Iraq, the Guardian has learned. Katharine Gun, 29, is due to appear at the Old Bailey next week where she has said she will plead not guilty to breaking the Official Secrets Act. She has said her alleged disclosures exposed serious wrongdoing by the US and could have helped to prevent the deaths of Iraqis and British forces in an "illegal war". The case is potentially hugely embarrassing for the government and...

Britain helped America to conduct a secret and potentially illegal spying operation at the United Nations in the run-up to the Iraq war, The Observer can reveal. The operation, which targeted at least one permanent member of the UN Security Council, was almost certainly in breach of the Vienna conventions on diplomatic relations, which strictly outlaw espionage at the UN missions in New York. Translators and analysts at the Government's top-secret surveillance centre GCHQ were ordered to co-operate with an American espionage 'surge' on Security Council delegations after a request from the US National Security Agency at the end of...

AN AL-QAEDA plot to target GCHQ was last night suggested as the possible trigger for the arrest of a suspected terror agent in Gloucester. GCHQ - the Government Communications Headquarters - has been at the centre of the fight against terrorism, providing vital intelligence to authorities, particularly in the wake of the 11 September atrocities. GCHQ’s Cheltenham offices, which are about ten miles from yesterday’s first arrest, were created to streamline the task of monitoring countless phone calls and e-mails around the world to aid the fight against terrorists. Housed in an elaborate circular building, Britain’s £1.6 billion spying centre...

A British intelligence officer charged with leaking a top-secret memo to the press has appeared in court.Katharine Gun, 29, is charged under Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act.Mrs Gun, from Moor End Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire worked for the Government communications headquarters GCHQ as a translator at the security services main monitoring centre in Cheltenham.It is claimed she leaked an email from American spies asking British counterparts to tap telephones.Mrs Gun appeared in the dock at Bow Street Magistrates Court, central London only to confirm her name and address.Ben Emmerson QC, representing Mrs Gun, said: “We will be entering a...

GCHQ translator 'revealed secrets' By Neil Tweedie and John Steele (Filed: 14/11/2003) A former employee of GCHQ, the signals intelligence agency, was charged yesterday with leaking details of an Anglo-American operation to eavesdrop on members of the United Nations Security Council in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Katharine Gun, 29, who was sacked from her job as a translator with the agency, is accused of passing classified information to an unauthorised person under Section 1 (1) of the Official Secrets Act. The charge follows the publication of an article in The Observer in early March disclosing a request...

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/4/9/163800.shtml The Death of Saddam Hussein Charles R. Smith Thursday, April 10, 2003 Freedom Comes to Baghdad In the late afternoon of April 17, 1943, a top-secret message arrived at Army Air Force headquarters on Guadalcanal. Code breakers working for the U.S. Navy had deciphered a critical message sent by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Imperial Navy and the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was scheduled to arrive in Bougainville the next morning. The admiral's arrival placed him in range of American P-38 Lighting fighters based on Guadalcanal. Unknown to Yamamoto,...