 "Details of UK spying programme Tempora emerge after more Snowden revelations")
Britain’s spy agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has tapped fibre-optic cables that carry international phone and internet traffic and is sharing vast quantities of personal information with the USA’s National Security Agency (NSA), The Guardian said on Friday.
The paper, which has in recent weeks been publishing details of top-secret surveillance programmes exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, said on its website that Snowden had shown documents about a project codenamed ‘Tempora’. Tempora has been running for about 18 months and allows GCHQ to tap into and store huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables for up to 30 days, the paper said. The Guardian said Snowden had provided it with access to documents about GCHQ’s alleged cable-tapping operation as part of his effort to expose “the largest programme of suspicionless surveillance in human history.”
The big eye in the sky (Image credit: Getty Images)
For decades, the NSA and GCHQ have worked as close partners, sharing intelligence under an arrangement known as the UKUSA agreement. They also collaborate with eavesdropping agencies in Canada, Australia and New Zealand under an arrangement known as the ‘Five Eyes’ alliance.
The latest story will likely put more pressure on British Prime Minister David Cameron’s government to reassure the public about how data about them is collected and used. Earlier this month, in response to questions about the secret US data-monitoring programme Prism, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told Parliament that GCHQ always adhered to British law when processing data gained from eavesdropping. He would not confirm or deny any details of UK-US intelligence sharing, saying that to do so could help Britain’s enemies. “In line with long-standing practice we do not comment on intelligence matters,” a GCHQ spokesman said on Friday.
NSA spokeswoman Judith Emmel rejected any suggestion the US agency used the British to do things the NSA cannot do legally. Under US law, the NSA must get authorisation from a secret federal court to collect information either in bulk or on specific people. “Any allegation that NSA relies on its foreign partners to circumvent US law is absolutely false. NSA does not ask its foreign partners to undertake any intelligence activity that the US government would be legally prohibited from undertaking itself,” Emmel said.
The Tempora operation involves attaching intercept probes to transatlantic cables where they land on British shores from North America, the Guardian said. That was done with the agreement of unnamed companies, which were forbidden from revealing warrants that compelled them to allow GCHQ access, it added.
Reuters
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