Huge Snowden story:British spy agency intercepted emails from journalists at NYT, WaPo, Reuters, BBC

[kpete]

GCHQ captured emails of journalists from top international media
• Snowden files reveal emails of BBC, NY Times and more
• Agency includes investigative journalists on ‘threat’ list
• Editors call on Cameron to act against snooping on media



GCHQ’s bulk surveillance of electronic communications has scooped up emails to and from journalists working for some of the US and UK’s largest media organisations, analysis of documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.

Emails from the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, the Sun, NBC and the Washington Post were saved by GCHQ and shared on the agency’s intranet as part of a test exercise by the signals intelligence agency.

The disclosure comes as the British government faces intense pressure to protect the confidential communications of reporters, MPs and lawyers from snooping.

The journalists’ communications were among 70,000 emails harvested in the space of less than 10 minutes on one day in November 2008 by one of GCHQ’s numerous taps on the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet.

The communications, which were sometimes simple mass-PR emails sent to dozens of journalists but also included correspondence between reporters and editors discussing stories, were retained by GCHQ and were available to all cleared staff on the agency intranet. There is nothing to indicate whether or not the journalists were intentionally targeted.


http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/19/gchq-intercepted-emails-journalists-ny-times-bbc-guardian-le-monde-reuters-nbc-washington-post

[Fred Sanders]

1. Holy media firestorm, Batman. Has Wolf Blitzer taken any time off from bashing Islam to cover this?

Did you really think the systemic government and privste corporate invasion of privacy ever did NOT include the media?

[uhnope]

2. "a test exercise... nothing to indicate whether or not the journalists were intentionally targeted"

Once again a sensational headline to cover a dud story designed for the overly excitable.

[Fred Sanders]

3. The British editors seem pretty excited....why does one believe the spies now? Why "test" at all?

"Senior editors and lawyers in the UK have called for the urgent introduction of a freedom of expression law amid growing concern over safeguards proposed by ministers to meet concerns over the police use of surveillance powers linked to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa).

More than 100 editors, including those from all the national newspapers, have signed a letter, coordinated by the Society of Editors and Press Gazette, to the UK prime minister, David Cameron, protesting at snooping on journalists’ communications.

In the wake of terror attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices and a Jewish grocer in Paris, Cameron has renewed calls for further bulk-surveillance powers, such as those which netted these journalistic communications.

Ripa has been used to access journalists’ communications without a warrrant, with recent cases including police accessing the phone records of Tom Newton-Dunn, the Sun’s political editor, over the Plebgate investigation. The call records of Mail on Sunday reporters involved in the paper’s coverage of Chris Huhne’s speeding row were also accessed in this fashion."

[uhnope]

4. your post makes little sense. pls reword. nt

[randome]

5. It was a test to sift out communications that were NOT part of targeting.

Hopefully it worked and the emails they were not interested in went straight to the trash bin.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[Fred Sanders]

6. Yeah, hopefully. And hopefully they did not do it ever, ever again. Then why are the hundreds of

editors so upset? They can trust what the spy agency is saying, of course they can. They don't.

Although Snowden having to reveal to the public this harmless little test is......revealing.

[WillyT]

7. K & R !!!

[George II]

8. Snowden must miss seeing his name in the headlines.

[Fred Sanders]

9. The hundreds of editors in Britain sure do appreciate that he did.

[sibelian]

11. I certainly do.

[George II]

27. The only time I'd like to see Snowden's name in the headlines is if the headline reads:

"Snowden returns to US"

[Hissyspit]

19. So you don't think this is a big deal?

How in the fuck can you not understand that this is a big deal?

[ReRe]

20. He/she needs to read more. n/t

[cheapdate]

21. "A spokesman for GCHQ said:

...all of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight..."

Etc., etc., etc.

The debate is the same. Security vs. Privacy.

[malaise]

24. As a very good friend would say

Just laugh - this is a huge deal but the hatred for Snowden supersedes the magnitude of this information.

[George II]

28. Read past the headline - it happened in 2008, about seven years ago.

[Hissyspit]

29. So?

[RufusTFirefly]

10. Although it would probably be icky...

... I sometimes wonder what it would be like to get into the heads of some knee-jerk authoritarians.

Although it's conspiratorial to suggest such a thing, sometimes I almost wish that they turned out to be mercenaries who didn't truly believe what they were asserting. The alternative is just too alarming, perplexing, and depressing.

[grasswire]

12. love those Brit comments

Here's one:

Gerry westerby
5h ago
16 17

It's about time the people decided what they want not bloody shiny arsed civil servants. That's why we have a bloody democracy. That's why we are supposed to be free, to think for ourselves, to act for ourselves and to have the bloody freedom to talk to each other without some fucking spy poking his nose in because some tosser thought it would be ok.
Fuck the lot of them. I don't want to live in a fucking prison.

[Octafish]

18. +1

And all I own, including Sacred Honor.

[ReRe]

22. +2

[billhicks76]

13. Sanctions Against UK

That would be nice. But we know NSA colluded with them to snatch these calls.

[elias49]

14. K&R

[Helen Borg]

16. Weren't they using encryption?

...

[Fawke Em]

25. Ha!

As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers to create a "back door" in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September. Reuters later reported that RSA became the most important distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance security in personal computers and many other products.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/us-usa-security-rsa-idUSBRE9BJ1C220131220

(But, I think by the way you said that, you were being sarcastic. )

[Helen Borg]

30. Yes, I was being sarcastic. Sorry, should have added the sign!

[Octafish]

17. Ka-BOOM!

The Free Press is what makes Democracy possible. And it's also why Tyrants do all they can to destroy the First Amendment.

[ReRe]

23. K&R

[grasswire]

26. Orwell via Guardian comments

Winston Smith: [observing the Prole woman from their hideaway] The future is hers... we are the dead...
Julia: We are the dead...
Big Brother: [voice] YOU ARE THE DEAD!
[Winston and Julia look around the room, startled]
Big Brother: [voice] Remain EXACTLY where you are! Make NO move until you are ordered!

[woo me with science]

31. K&R

[bvar22]

32. DURec.