NSA Provided £100m Funding For GCHQ Operations 143
cold fjord writes "The Telegraph reports, 'GCHQ has received at least £100 million from the U.S. to help fund intelligence gathering, raising questions over American influence on the British agencies. ... It also emerged that the intelligence agency wants the ability to "exploit any phone, anywhere, any time" and that some staff have raised concerns over the "morality and ethics" of their operational work. ... The agency has faced claims it was handed intelligence on individuals from the US gained from the Prism programme that collected telephone and web records. However, it has been cleared of any wrongdoing or attempts to circumvent British law by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, as well as by Mr Hague. The payments from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) are detailed in GCHQ's annual "investment portfolios", leaked by Mr Snowden to The Guardian. The NSA paid GCHQ £22.9million in 2009, £39.9million in 2010 and £34.7million in 2011/12. ...Another £15.5million went towards redevelopment projects at GCHQ's site in Bude, Cornwall, which intercepts communications from the transatlantic cables that carry internet traffic. ... A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "In a 60-year alliance it is entirely unsurprising that there are joint projects in which resources and expertise are pooled, but the benefits flow in both directions."'"
dryriver also wrote in with news that several telecoms are collaborating with GHCQ (BT, Vodafone, and Verizon at least). From the article: "GCHQ has the ability to tap cables carrying both internet data and phone calls. By last year GCHQ was handling 600m '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. ... Documents seen by the Guardian suggest some telecoms companies allowed GCHQ to access cables which they did not themselves own or operate, but only operated a landing station for. Such practices could raise alarm among other cable providers who do not co-operate with GCHQ programmes that their facilities are being used by the intelligence agency."
Re:quality (Score:5, Informative)
You aren't really paying much attention if this is the first time you've heard about GCHQ. Shutoff the CNN and bookmark this: http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files [theguardian.com]
July 7: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/07/nsa-gchq-metadata-reassurances [theguardian.com]
July 2: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/02/nsa-revelations-debate-edward-snowden [theguardian.com]
July 1: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/defence-and-security-blog/2013/jul/01/gchq-nsa-eu [theguardian.com]
June 27: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/27/snoopers-charter-zero-chance-law [theguardian.com]
June 25: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/25/nsa-gchq-spy-germans [theguardian.com]
June 22: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/23/mi5-feared-gchq-went-too-far [theguardian.com]
June 22: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/22/gchq-internet-snooping-kafkaesque [theguardian.com]
June 22: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/22/gchq-spying-catastrophe-german-politicans [theguardian.com]
June 22: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/22/gchq-uksecurity [theguardian.com]
June 21: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/21/gchq-mastery-internet-mastery-everyone [theguardian.com]
June 21: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21/how-does-gchq-internet-surveillance-work [theguardian.com]
June 21: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21/gchq-mastering-the-internet [theguardian.com]
June 21: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21/gchq-cables-secret-world-communications-nsa [theguardian.com]
Re:Nothing new here (Score:4, Informative)