The British newspaper Independent made an important revelation: he made public, citing "documents obtained by o Edward Snowden by the US National Security Agency ”(NSA), the existence of a secret British base for mass wiretapping of telecommunications and Internet traffic throughout the Middle East. The station, part of a wider £1 billion surveillance network, was commissioned during David Miliband's time at the helm of British diplomacy and is based at a location which the newspaper is refusing to name for security reasons, but is believed to be of exceptional importance, due to the access it offers to the region's submarine fiber optic networks. The collected data is forwarded to Cheltenham, UK headquarters serviceof monitoring GCHQ, and are mostly notified to the US NSA.
This revelation is noteworthy for three reasons: first, because it shifts the focus of Anglo-American service action to the already flammable and, by many opinions, "topical" region of the Eastern Mediterranean. Secondly, because it is the first leak in the "Snowden case", which is published in the Independent and not in its competitor Guardian or the The Washington Post. And third and foremost, because he himself Snowden states that it is not the source of this leak.
The complete material that the American fugitive has received from the NSA is, as has been said, in the hands of only three people: Snowden himself, a former American attorney, former Guardian, Glenn Greenwald, and a Berlin-based lawyer based in Rio de Janeiro American producer of award-winning documentaries (and informal co-ordinator of the trio) Laura Poitras.
It is therefore of particular importance that Greenwald's post on the Guardian website (a few hours after Independent's publication) under the title "Snowden: The British Government is now channeling documents for itself". In it, a statement of the 30 fugitive is being transferred that it has never worked with Independent journalists, and it is argued that the source of this leak can only be the British government itself, in its attempt to devalue, as a threat to national security, already leaked under the responsibility of Snowden and his associates to the Guardian and the Washington Post. The same statement highlights: "The journalists with whom I have collaborated have, on my request, been very careful to reveal only what the public ought to know, not information that could put a person at risk."
For his part, Greenwald sees the leak to the Independent as an attempt by the British government to divert attention from the abusive invocation of anti-terrorism law to the nine-hour detention and interrogation of his Brazilian partner, David Miranda, at Heathrow Airport. from Berlin and heading to Rio) and confiscation of all its equipment. Indeed, British police have announced that they are investigating allegations that Miranda was in possession of terrorism documents, the disclosure of which "could be life-threatening". Opera shows show…
Greenwald also denies the claim that the Guardian's manager agreed with the British authorities to "limit" Snowden's leakage coverage. It is recalled that a paradox (and apparently unremarkable in digital technology) took place recently in the basement of the Guardian offices in London, a "ceremony" of the destruction of hard drives with the Snowden records, in the presence of British service men, in order for the newspaper not to be compelled to allow access to the data in question, in accordance with British legislation on preventive censorship.
Contrary to what is the case in the US (obliging President Obama to maneuver, reassuring denials and corrective actions, such as the appointment of a panel of experts to oversee the NSA's activity), in Britain, the country with the world's largest number of closed-circuit cameras per capita, the surveillance framework of the secret services is extremely lax and the ability to shield them through restrictions on information much bigger. The White House spokesman himself acknowledged that such supervised destruction of hard drives would be unthinkable in his own country.
Beyond, however, issues of civil liberties, the leak to the Independent, if and as long as Snowden's and Greenwald's speculations are true, is of great importance from a security point of view and indeed with implications for Greek interest.
Because, despite the "discretion" of Independent officials in naming the location of the monitoring station in question, it is obvious that the only location that could provide secure facilities, proximity to the Middle East and access to the Mediterranean submarine cables is British "sovereign bases" in Cyprus.
Pointing to them as a critical "war on terror" hub of surveillance of the entire region is almost an "invitation for terrorist retaliation." Those prone to conspiracy theories would see in such a thing an ideal recipe for more intense involvement of the EU countries. in Syriac crisis but also for "uniting" the two communities of Cyprus in the face of a newly created threat from outside. And anyway, given the experience of the British side in black flag operations (the arrest in September 2005 in Basra is recent, after the murder of two Iraqi policemen, British soldiers disguised as Arabs), Nicosia and Athens should show maximum caution.
Source:www.capital.gr
