At least six European Union countries in addition to Britain have been colluding with the US over the mass harvesting of personal communications data, according to a former contractor to America's National Security Agency, who said the public should not be "kept in the dark".
Revealed: secret European deals to hand over private data to America
Germany 'among countries offering intelligence' according to new claims by former US defence analyst
Wayne Madsen, an NSA worker for 12 years, has revealed that six EU countries, in addition to the UK, colluded in data harvesting.
Jamie Doward
At least six European Union countries in addition to Britain have been colluding with the US over the mass harvesting of personal communications data, according to a former contractor to America's National Security Agency, who said the public should not be "kept in the dark".
Wayne Madsen, a former US navy lieutenant who first worked for the NSA in 1985 and over the next 12 years held several sensitive positions within the agency, names Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Italy as having secret deals with the US.
Madsen said the countries had "formal second and third party status" under signal intelligence (sigint) agreements that compels them to hand over data, including mobile phone and internet information to the NSA if requested.
Under international intelligence agreements, confirmed by declassified documents, nations are categorised by the US according to their trust level. The US is first party while the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand enjoy second party relationships. Germany and France have third party relationships.
In an interview published last night on the PrivacySurgeon.org blog, Madsen, who has been attacked for holding controversial views on espionage issues, said he had decided to speak out after becoming concerned about the "half story" told by EU politicians regarding the extent of the NSA's activities in Europe.
He said that under the agreements, which were drawn up after the second world war, the "NSA gets the lion's share" of the sigint "take". In return, the third parties to the NSA agreements received "highly sanitised intelligence".
Madsen said he was alarmed at the "sanctimonious outcry" of political leaders who were "feigning shock" about the spying operations while staying silent about their own arrangements with the US, and was particularly concerned that senior German politicians had accused the UK of spying when their country had a similar third-party deal with the NSA.
Although the level of co-operation provided by other European countries to the NSA is not on the same scale as that provided by the UK, the allegations are potentially embarrassing.
"I can't understand how Angela Merkel can keep a straight face, demanding assurances from [Barack] Obama and the UK while Germany has entered into those exact relationships," Madsen said.
The Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Ludford, a senior member of the European parliament's civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee, said Madsen's allegations confirmed that the entire system for monitoring data interception was a mess, because the EU was unable to intervene in intelligence matters, which remained the exclusive concern of national governments.
"The intelligence agencies are exploiting these contradictions and no one is really holding them to account," Ludford said. "It's terribly undermining to liberal democracy."
Madsen's disclosures have prompted calls for European governments to come clean on their arrangements with the NSA. "There needs to be transparency as to whether or not it is legal for the US or any other security service to interrogate private material," said John Cooper QC, a leading international human rights lawyer. "The problem here is that none of these arrangements has been debated in any democratic arena. I agree with William Hague that sometimes things have to be done in secret, but you don't break the law in secret."
Madsen said all seven European countries and the US have access to the Tat 14 fibre-optic cable network running between Denmark and Germany, the Netherlands, France, the UK and the US, allowing them to intercept vast amounts of data, including phone calls, emails and records of users' access to websites.
He said the public needed to be made aware of the full scale of the communication-sharing arrangements between European countries and the US, which predate the internet and became of strategic importance during the cold war.
The covert relationship between the countries was first outlined in a 2001 report by the European parliament, but their explicit connection with the NSA was not publicised until Madsen decided to speak out.
The European parliament's report followed revelations that the NSA was conducting a global intelligence-gathering operation, known as Echelon, which appears to have established the framework for European member states to collaborate with the US.
"A lot of this information isn't secret, nor is it new," Madsen said. "It's just that governments have chosen to keep the public in the dark about it. The days when they could get away with a conspiracy of silence are over."
This month another former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, revealed to the Guardian previously undisclosed US programmes to monitor telephone and internet traffic. The NSA is alleged to have shared some of its data, gathered using a specialist tool called Prism, with Britain's GCHQ.
Lode Vanoost, former deputy speaker of the Belgian parliament, believes that the main purpose of the US surveillance program was “economic spying” on the EU.
“At the moment, the EU is negotiating a new free trade agreement with the United States,” the former deputy speaker noted. “Well, [now the US can gather] what their opponent is already discussing internally of strategy. That is one of the possibilities.”
Vanoost also believes that part of the reason for the spying was due to the decline in US economic strength.
“On the economic level, [the US] is losing ground everywhere,” he said. “Look at what the BRIC countries are doing. The EU is having stronger ties with Russia, with Africa, with Latin America. And the US doesn’t seem to get its economic priorities imposed as it used to. So what I see is a big risk for economic spying.”
He added that there is “too much at stake” for there to be a total breakdown in US-EU bilateral relations, however, “behind closed doors there will be some very tough words” exchanged between EU and American officials.
Prantsusmaa president François Hollande käskis esmaspäeval USA-l Euroopa Liidu institutsioonide järele nuhkimine otsekohe lõpetada.
"Me ei saa lubada partnerite ja liitlaste vahel niisugust käitumist," ütles Hollande Loode-Prantsusmaal Lorient'is ajakirjanikele AFP ja BNS-i vahendusel. "Me nõuame, et see kohe lõppeks."
Vastuseks "häirivatele uudistele" USA jälitustegevusest ELi institutsioonides, andis Euroopa Komisjoni president Jose Manuel Barroso täna korralduse komisjoni kontorid viivitamatult võimalike pealtkuulamisseadmete avastamiseks üle vaadata.
The NSA can track real-time events such as email logins or the sending of email, and the logging in or out of a user to a chat service according to the Washington Post.
New PRISM slides shed further light on the program, a facet of the wider NSA surveillance programs that have in essence, along with cohort efforts by other nations, ended digital privacy. Contained in the new information is the inference that someone is lying: new allegations of government hardware on-premises at technology companies surface, placing earlier denials by firms that you know and use into doubt.
rex, Enemy of the State, 1998 (Will Smith, Gene Hackman). Reaalsus juba - ARGUS drone + NSA kasutatavad tooriistad vms. _________________ 17/1/2023, Scart: "Selle sajandi senise möödunud aja üks suuremaid skandaale on hetkel lahti rullumas..."
6/4/2025, RFK Jr: "The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccines."
Jah, kahtlemata seegi, kirjeldades hästi riigi võimet sinust sõrmenipsuga eikeegi teha. 15a jooksul on muidugi kardinaalselt muutunud inimeste arvutikasutamise maht ja iseloom. 1998 tegid seda mõned kontoritöötajad, tööl, peamine, mida eraelus nuhkida sai, olid kaardimaksed, telefonikõned, nüüd aga igaüks, igal pool, korja aga kokku ja koosta korralikke toimikuid.
tore ju kui salvestatakse kõike... 99% võrguliiklusest pidi ju olema spämmkirjad ja piraatlus... palju õnne selle 1% sorteerimine _________________ People have been calling for a month and we've been sold out for a week or so.
Ben Swann Full Disclosure is asking the questions the rest of the media is ignoring. Even by the overreaching standards of the Patriot Act, Ben Swann demonstrates how the NSA's Prism program is clearly illegal.
Link _________________ 17/1/2023, Scart: "Selle sajandi senise möödunud aja üks suuremaid skandaale on hetkel lahti rullumas..."
6/4/2025, RFK Jr: "The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccines."
On arusaadav, et läänemaailma riigid kõik tegelevad (illegaalse) andmete kogumise, kauplemise ja analüüsiga. Mitmetes riigimeestes tekitab selline olukord ilmselt ebakindlust ja muret. Olukorra lahendamiseks tuleb kiiremas korras sõlmida riikidevaheline kaubanduslepe, mis annaks tegevusele seaduslikud raamid ning paneks vundamendi paljutõotavale uue ajastu bisnisele.
sa ei või postitada uusi teemasid siia foorumisse sa ei või vastata selle foorumi teemadele sa ei või muuta oma postitusi selles foorumis sa ei või kustutada oma postitusi selles foorumis sa ei või vastata küsitlustele selles foorumis sa ei saa lisada manuseid selles foorumis sa võid manuseid alla laadida selles foorumis
Hinnavaatlus ei vastuta foorumis tehtud postituste eest.