New Snowden Docs Reveal Brit Spies' Attempts To Control & Manipulate Web
The Intercept has published new revelations from Edward Snowden-provided documents, this time showcasing the underhanded villainy of the British GCHQ’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), which has numerous programs in place designed to infiltrate personal data online and via mobile phones as well as toolsets designed to disseminate propaganda subversively.
The “tools” have been assigned boastful code names. They include invasive methods for online surveillance, as well as some of the very techniques that the U.S. and U.K. have harshly prosecuted young online activists for employing, including “distributed denial of service” attacks and “call bombing.” But they also describe previously unknown tactics for manipulating and distorting online political discourse and disseminating state propaganda, as well as the apparent ability to actively monitor Skype users in real-time—raising further questions about the extent of Microsoft’s cooperation with spy agencies or potential vulnerabilities in its Skype’s encryption. Here’s a list of how JTRIG describes its capabilities:• “Change outcome of online polls” (UNDERPASS)• “Mass delivery of email messaging to support an Information Operations campaign” (BADGER) and “mass delivery of SMS messages to support an Information Operations campaign” (WARPARTH)• “Disruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through concerted target discovery and content removal.” (SILVERLORD)• “Active skype capability. Provision of real time call records (SkypeOut and SkypetoSkype) and bidirectional instant messaging. Also contact lists.” (MINIATURE HERO)• “Find private photographs of targets on Facebook” (SPRING BISHOP)• “A tool that will permanently disable a target’s account on their computer” (ANGRY PIRATE)• “Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website” (GATEWAY) and “ability to inflate page views on websites” (SLIPSTREAM)• “Amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube)” (GESTATOR)• “Targeted Denial Of Service against Web Servers” (PREDATORS FACE) and “Distributed denial of service using P2P. Built by ICTR, deployed by JTRIG” (ROLLING THUNDER)• “A suite of tools for monitoring target use of the UK auction site eBay (www.ebay.co.uk)” (ELATE)• “Ability to spoof any email address and send email under that identity” (CHANGELING)• “For connecting two target phone together in a call” (IMPERIAL BARGE)While some of the tactics are described as “in development,” JTRIG touts “most” of them as “fully operational, tested and reliable.” It adds: “We only advertise tools here that are either ready to fire or very close to being ready.”
Anyone who has followed the bizarre online polling results or removals during elections here in the US (CNN is especially odious) can attest that the manipulation no doubt occurs here as well. As I've commented in the past, our Big/Little British brother is quite adept at taking the State's lead and running with it, and this news is breaking right as a new fast-track bill to expand government surveillance capability is on the floor in the UK. Because obviously, they aren't doing enough.And here's a nice cherry on the top of this sundae - just like our US government, the Brit government also keeps their Parliamentary representatives in the dark, so as not to enable any challenges to their shadow powers.
As for oversight, serious questions have been raised about whether top national security officials even know what GCHQ is doing. Chris Huhne, a former cabinet minister and member of the national security council until 2012, insisted that ministers were in “utter ignorance” about even the largest GCHQ spying program, known as Tempora—not to mention “their extraordinary capability to hoover up and store personal emails, voice contact, social networking activity and even internet searches.” In an October Guardian op-ed, Huhne wrote that “when it comes to the secret world of GCHQ and the [NSA], the depth of my ‘privileged information’ has been dwarfed by the information provided by Edward Snowden to The Guardian.”
This underscores the importance of an independent media that doesn't kowtow to the government - journalists are truly our last remaining line of defense, for even those in "power" know nothing of what is truly going on in the rotting basements of the State. And this dedication to outing the truth to the benefit of all of us must continue to be protected and recognized.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
