U.K. and Double Game of Terrorist Ratlines and GCHQ Spying: Control of Smartphones
Noriko Watanabe and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Edward Snowden warns about the role of big government in the United Kingdom (UK) and how the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) can literally control smartphones at the drop of a hat. Of course, this isn’t a shock to anyone because the British government is obsessed with monitoring various different social media networks and all forms of telecommunications. However, despite this, it is still alarming to know that GCHQ can even spy on individuals when smartphones are turned off and take images.
Before focusing on the advice of Snowden and looking into GCHQ in relation to smartphones, it is important to mention the terrorist intrigues of the British government. After all, various governments in the UK, irrespective if the Conservative Party or Labour Party, have supported various terrorist groups since the late 1970s onward in relation to Sunni Takfiri Islamist groups. Indeed, if you go further back into history then obviously several British governments also helped America in various areas in relation to supporting right-wing authoritarian regimes throughout South America.
In other words, while GCHQ can manipulate the laws of the land by utilizing the fear of terrorism at home. The same national government is involved in terrorist intrigues and destabilization policies. At the same time, the United Kingdom allows Saudi Arabia and various Gulf states to spread Salafi indoctrination internally based on Gulf petrodollars. Therefore, a complete contradiction is at play within the corridors of power. After all, why are repeating British governments helping terrorist ratlines against other governments and then doing little to prevent the spread of Takfiri Islam internally based on the intrigues of Gulf allies?
In the 1980s America, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom – and several Gulf powers – created and trained a potent international jihadist movement to fight in Afghanistan. Not only this, The Taliban was based on the intrigues of Pakistan despite this nation being supported by America and the United Kingdom. Following on from Afghanistan, various NATO nations, Gulf powers, and Iran all helped international jihadists to enter Bosnia in order to fight Serbian Orthodox Christians. Likewise, more recently, various NATO and Gulf powers have utilized various Takfiri Islamist terrorist groups against the governments of Libya and Syria. Indeed, powerful Muslim Brotherhood leaders were also given a chance by America and the United Kingdom to spread indoctrination and endanger the freedoms of Egypt. Therefore, it is clear that GCHQ and the British government is playing “a double game” that appears contradictory. However, both meet based on power mechanisms, geopolitics, state control, secrecy, and divide and rule, while hiding the truth to the general public and manipulating facts on the ground.
Turning back to Snowden, the BBC reports “Smartphone users can do “very little” to stop security services getting “total control” over their devices, US whistleblower Edward Snowden has said…The former intelligence contractor told the BBC’s Panorama that UK intelligence agency GCHQ had the power to hack into phones without their owners’ knowledge.”
Snowden made it abundantly clear that GCHQ can obtain access to handsets based on encrypted messages by text being sent. If GCHQ desires this, then listening in and obtaining private information becomes obtainable all too easily. In saying this, Snowden isn’t claiming that America and the United Kingdom are involved in “mass-monitoring.” However, the implication is clear because he stresses that both GCHQ and the US National Security Agency (NSA) have invested massively in developing powerful technology that can hack into smartphones.
Snowden told Panorama (BBC television) that these agencies “…want to own your phone instead of you…Dreamy Smurf is the power management tool which means turning your phone on and off with you knowing.”
He continues: “Nosey Smurf is the ‘hot mic’ tool. For example, if it’s in your pocket, [GCHQ] can turn the microphone on and listen to everything that’s going on around you – even if your phone is switched off because they’ve got the other tools for turning it on.”
Other important information is provided by Snowden for example tools that GCHQ can use in the area of geo-location. While internationally, Snowden claims Cisco (US company) routers were hacked in Pakistan covertly in order for the British government to accumulate vast data.
Snowden alarmingly notifies that if GCHQ accesses your private handset then basically they know who you contact, what information you sent by text, access to all your personal contacts, searches you have browsed, places where you visit and even “photograph you.” All this is done without individuals ever knowing.
He states categorically “GCHQ is to all intents and purposes a subsidiary of the NSA… They [the NSA] provide technology, they provide tasking and direction as to what they [GCHQ] should go after.”
However, digging deeper than the role of GCHQ internally, the question should be why are successive British governments involved in a double game in relation to utilizing technology to allegedly prevent terrorism, while at the same time being involved in terrorist ratlines. This notably applies to linking the British government with terrorist intrigues in Afghanistan in the 1980s and early 1990s, Bosnia in the 1990s and more recently Libya and Syria. Similarly, the same applies to allowing Gulf petrodollars to spread Salafi Islamist indoctrination internally in the United Kingdom and developing links with known terrorists like Anas al-Liby. Therefore, it appears that GCHQ is being used to spy internally while successive governments are involved in internal and external intrigues that are boosting the same forces that the central government is claiming to be spying on.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34444233
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