'GCHQ is Worse than US', says whistleblower Edward Snowden as he claims British spies are collecting huge amounts of data from internet and phone calls
- Operation Tempora sees agency storing web and telephone data for 30 days
- Access to innocent people's phone calls, e-mails and even Facebook entries
- Collecting general public's communication data as well as targeted suspects
- Sharing sensitive data with U.S. counterpart the National Security Agency
- NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden charged with espionage in the U.S.
- Says GCHQ 'worse than the U.S' in terms of 'suspicionless surveillance'
- Cheltenham-based agency said it was 'scrupulous' in complying with law
By Daily Mail UK, 22 June 2013
British eavesdropping agency GCHQ has secretly accessed fibre-optic cables carrying huge amounts of internet and communications data, according to documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The agency is able to tap into and store data - including phone calls and e-mails between innocent people - from the cables for up to 30 days so it can be analysed under an operation codenamed Tempora, the Guardian reported.
The Cheltenham-based agency would not comment on intelligence matters but insisted it was 'scrupulous' in complying with the law.
Whistleblower: GCHQ has secretly been tapping into and storing internet and communications data via fibre optic cables, according to Edward Snowden
The information is the latest leak from Mr Snowden, the NSA whistleblower responsible for a string of disclosures about U.S. intelligence operations.
The newspaper claimed Operation Tempora had been running for 18 months and GCHQ and the NSA are consequently able to access vast quantities of communications between entirely innocent people as well as targeted suspects.
It means the agency has the ability to sift through everything from an individual's phone calls to their internet search history and even the content of their e-mails and Facebook entries.
The newspaper said there were two principal components to the agency's surveillance programme, called Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation.
It claimed the data was shared with the organisation's U.S. counterpart the National Security Agency (NSA).
Mr Snowden, who fled the US for Hong Kong after deciding to reveal the NSA's secrets, told the Guardian he wanted to expose 'the largest programme of suspicionless surveillance in human history'.
'It's not just a U.S. problem. The UK has a huge dog in this fight,' he said. 'They (GCHQ) are worse than the U.S.'
The Guardian reported that GCHQ lawyers told U.S. counterparts there was a 'light oversight regime' in Britain compared with America.
Yet the leaked documents reveal Britain has developed the technical capacity to access the cables that carry the world's communications and process the vast ocean of data.
The newspapers said the documents revealed that by last year GCHQ was handling 600 million 'telephone events' each day, had tapped more than 200 fibre-optic cables and was able to process data from at least 46 of them at a time.
Each cable carries data at a rate of 10 gigabits per second - giving some idea of the sheer quantity of information being processed by the British spy agency - and the operation is expanding further still as more and more cables are tapped, according to the report.
Surveillance: National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden said that when it came to 'suspicionless surveillance' Cheltenham-based GCHQ was 'worse than the U.S.'
Partner: It is claimed GCHQ is sharing sensitive information gleaned via Operation Tempora with its U.S. counterpart the National Security Agency
Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch's director Nick Pickes said: 'This appears to be dangerously close to, if not exactly, the centralised database of all our internet communications, including some content, that successive governments have ruled out and Parliament has never legislated for.
'Britain has a clear legal process in place to govern the interception of the content of communications and blanket interception is not a part of that system.
'If GCHQ have been intercepting huge numbers of innocent people's communications as part of a massive sweeping exercise, then I struggle to see how that squares with a process that requires a warrant for each individual intercept. This question must be urgently addressed in Parliament.
'The fact GCHQ staff have been discussing how light the UK's oversight regime is compared to the US highlights why we need a wholesale review of surveillance law, including the fact that there is absolutely no judicial process within the current system and the people making these decisions are able to hide in the shadows rather than face public scrutiny.'
A GCHQ spokeswoman said: 'We do not comment on intelligence matters. Our intelligence agencies continue to adhere to a rigorous legal compliance regime.
'GCHQ are scrupulous in their legal compliance.'
Former NSA contracter Edward Snowden is facing up to 30 years in prison after he was charged with espionage and theft of government property by the Justice Department last night.
Snowden, believed to be holed up in Hong Kong, has admitted providing information to the news media about two highly classified NSA surveillance programs.
A one-page criminal complaint unsealed yesterday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, says Snowden engaged in unauthorized communication of national defence information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information.
The intelligence gathered via Operation Tempora is understood to have contributed to a number of arrests and convictions including a terror cell in the Midlands who were jailed for planning co-ordinated attacks.
It is also claimed to have led to the arrest of five Luton-based individuals preparing acts of terror, and three London-based people planning attacks prior to the Olympics.
A source with knowledge of the work of the intelligence agencies said: 'It's not about going through everybody's emails or phone calls. It's about homing in on criminal activity in order to lead the intelligence agencies to be able to take action.'
The source said the vast majority of the data gathered was discarded, with the agency focused on the 'needles' of relevant information within the 'haystack' of material.
The source said: 'What they do is scan the haystack of bulk data for any needles that could have national security implications.
'All the rest gets discarded and is not looked at. The vast bulk of the data is not looked at in any detail.'
The 'needles' are logged and the reason for holding any information has to be justified, the source said.
The logs are regularly audited and subject to scrutiny by the Interception of Communications Commissioner.
A ministerial warrant authorised the process of scanning the data and the work was done in a 'proportionate and legal way', the source said.
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