Wayne Madsen Reveals: Secret European deals to hand over private data to America

[Warlord]

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Hold the Front Page!






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

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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...e-data-america

[Warlord]

** WORLD EXCLUSIVE ***

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.

[Warlord]

Pretty big scoop.

[Warlord]

Madsen has really set a fire storm off. Wonder what the reaction will be like in Germany? Merkel is up for re-election this year.

[Elias Graves]

Lets hope the Europeans aren't too far gone to stand up.

[Warlord]

Lets hope the Europeans aren't too far gone to stand up.

I'm getting distracted by the tennis lady's legs.

[better-dead-than-fed]

"This article has been taken down pending an investigation."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/info/2013/jun/30/taken-down

[Elias Graves]

I'm getting distracted by the tennis lady's legs.

As well you should be. Go back to watching the television, ok? Nothing to see here, subject.

[better-dead-than-fed]

I'd like to investigate those legs.

[Elias Graves]

"This article has been taken down pending an investigation."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/info/2013/jun/30/taken-down

[HOLLYWOOD]

[Warlord]

Quinto is better SPOCK than Nimoy. I'm now convinced after seeing the 2nd film in Kabul's IMAX. he was superb.

[Warlord]

LOL what did Jack say? i thought this might be a little out there for him He certainly would suggest that now

[Elias Graves]

Quinto is better SPOCK than Nimoy. I'm now convinced after seeing the 2nd film. he was superb.

Your inner nerd is now revealed!
But I agree. He's great.

[Warlord]

Your inner nerd is now revealed!
But I agree. He's great.

I thought it was a shame they brought Nimoy back for the 2nd film. There's no need now. Quinto is the new Spock.

[Elias Graves]

I thought it was a shame they brought Nimoy back for the 2nd film. There's no need now. Quinto is the new Spock.

They came dangerously close to overdosing on old references in the new one. You're right; it's time to let the old universe fade.

[Warlord]

They came dangerously close to overdosing on old references in the new one. You're right; it's time to let the old universe fade.

I hope they make a new film every 3 years for the next 30 years and JJ Abrams lives forever. It'll be interesting to see what direction they go in now they have a winning formula and if they keep it on the big screen or do a tv series? lots of potential and a very young cast. They will surely want to milk it for all its worth knowing Paramount.

[Elias Graves]

I've always thought trek did better on the small screen than the theater. The "big story" can only be trotted out so many times before fatigue sets in. I always liked the smaller stories on the series myself. You don't have to save the whole world every week.

[Warlord]

I've always thought trek did better on the small screen than the theater. The "big story" can only be trotted out so many times before fatigue sets in. I always liked the smaller stories on the series myself.

I think what they've done with the 2 movies so far has worked very well. They've been huge box office successes which is more than you can say from the last attempt when Burman ran the show and had TV series going on at the same time. I think they were simply doing too much and lost control of direction and new ideas while they continuously churned out scripts. I wonder what they will do with trek and whether Paramount will want it on TV.. I think the $$$ calculation will be made. There's lots of money still being made from DVD and now BLURAY boxsets of the series from decades ago. The question is can they make money on the tv in the short term and will they need to make 24 episodes to satisfy the networks. I think that's too much. They should maybe try and do something with HBO who have a great reputation for high quality series. Would they be interested/

[Warlord]

Why have the GUARDIAN pulled the Madsen story? This is extremely odd particularly as its gone to print. If they're pulling it from print they will have to do a late edition in the UK> That's not unheard of.

[Elias Graves]

Hbo or the like might be a cool idea. Unfortunately I dropped my cable a couple months ago. :lol:

[Warlord]

They might have been subjected to a D-Notice in the UK. This is a blanket censorship tool used by the Ministry of Defense and invoked on national security matters. Would not surprise me if they had to pull it because of that.

[Elias Graves]

Why have the GUARDIAN pulled the Madsen story? This is extremely odd particularly as its gone to print. If they're pulling it from print they will have to do a late edition in the UK> That's not unheard of.

That's why I posted the "fascinating" pic. It is curious.

[Warlord]

Save the front page and all the story if you can... archive it somewhere. I dont have a full copy sadly. damnit. someone must have.

This has been spiked because of a D-Notice from the FASCIST Cameron government . I know it.

[Warlord]

Cameron/Hague and the fascist NEOCONS have spiked this story... pretty sure... there's no other reason. This was a well written piece wth quotes from various lawyers and organizations and its gone to print. Guess we'll find out soon if they have spiked the print edition which is due to be distributed in a few short hours.

[Warlord]

Cameron is in Afghanistan trying to put a brave face on defeat and capitulation to the stated enemy (Taliban)

[Warlord]

Full copy of the article they spiked:

-
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



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.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...ExcqE95c&pbx=1

[Warlord]

editors have taken it down while they look at it... they've had complaints about Madsen the source of the story due to him being an alleged "conspiracy" theorist i.e someone who tells the truth most of the time.

[Warlord]

Disgraceful they took it down!

[QuickZ06]

Quinto is better SPOCK than Nimoy. I'm now convinced after seeing the 2nd film in Kabul's IMAX. he was superb.

LMAO!