11 August 2014 — Statewatch News Online

NEWS
http://www.statewatch.org/news/

1.    Statewatch Analysis: Mass surveillance of communications in the EU: CJEU judgment and DRIPA 2014/RIPA 2000 in the UK
2.    EU: Data adrift on the high seas: work continues on connecting maritime surveillance systems
3.    UK: National Extremism Coordination Unit: Re-visiting NETCU – Police Collaboration with industry
4.    EU 2014 ELECTIONS: Turnout at record low after all
5.    UK: Government Wiki edits downplay high profile killings
6.    Gamma FinFisher hacked: 40 GB of internal documents published
7.    USA: CIA RENDITION-TORTURE: CIA Detention program denounced
8.    UK EXTENDS BIOMETRICS TO CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS OLD
9.    African migrants injured in clashes in Calais
10.  European Group Conference for the Study of Deviance and Social Control: The emerging EU state
12.  UK: Activists complain to IPCC over police efforts to recruit them as spies
13.  EU: Council of the European Union: Information Assurance Security Guidelines on Data Separation
14.  SPAIN: Mass protests as strike organisers face prison
15.  UK: POLICING STATISTICS
16.  GREECE: Human rights watchdog criticises decision in Farmakonisi case: migrant deaths
16.  UK: Whitehall plans to share your private data
17.  ITALY:G8: Thirty cops suspended for G8 brutality
18.  NORWAY:  Reintroduction of border controls:

EU-NSA-GCHQ: DATA SURVEILLANCE: Selected stories for full coverage see:

1.  USA-NSA: Edward Snowden given permission to stay in Russia
2.  USA: WATCHLISTS:  Secret terrorist-tracking system – of half not connected to any known terrorist group
3.  USA-ISRAEL: Wiretapped: Israel eavesdropped on John Kerry in Mideast talks

USING THE STATEWATCH WEBSITE

1.  Statewatch Analysis: Mass surveillance of communications in the EU: CJEU judgment and DRIPA 2014/RIPA 2000 in the UK (pdf) by Tony Bunyan:

“The CJEU ruled that mass surveillance under the EU Data Retention Directive entails an interference with the fundamental rights of practically the entire European population and is a clear breach of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Under DRIPA 2014 the UK is clearly ignoring the Court’s ruling by maintaining the mass surveillance of communications and extending its reach, though permanent warrants, to service providers based in the EU, USA and elsewhere.

DRIPA 2014 amends RIPA 2000 but leaves untouched the power of the Foreign Secretary to sign limitless warrants for GCHQ to spy on the rest of the world under Section 8.4 of RIPA 2000.”

2. EU: Data adrift on the high seas: work continues on connecting maritime surveillance systems

At the beginning of July the European Commission announced its proposed “next steps” for “enhancing information exchange between maritime surveillance authorities,” in order to “increase the efficiency, quality, responsiveness and coordination of surveillance operations in the European maritime domain and to promote innovation, for the prosperity and security of the EU and its citizens.”

3. UK: National Extremism Coordination Unit: Re-visiting NETCU – Police Collaboration with Industry (Corporate Watch, link) and See: January 19, 2011: Farewell to NETCU: A brief history of how protest movements have been targeted by political policing (Corporate Watch, link)

4. EU 2014 ELECTIONS: EU election turnout at record low after all (euobserver, link): “The definitive turnout for the elections is 42.5 percent, down from 43 percent at the 2009 EU elections and down from the estimated 43.09 percent announced on 25 May, shortly after polls closed”

A European Parliament spokesperson claimed that “The final figure, which is a little bit lower than in 2009, confirms that the big descending tendency of previous years has been stopped,”which is not really much consolation – in 1979 61.99% of the electorate voted in the EU parliament elections and in every election since voter participation has fallen and is now at its lowest point ever.

5. UK: Government Wiki edits downplay high profile killings (Channel 4 News, link):

“A Channel 4 News investigation reveals Wikipedia edits to pages on Jean Charles de Menezes, Lee Rigby and Damilola Taylor made from government computers. The spokesman for the family of Jean Charles de Menezes today spoke of his shock after hearing that users on government computer networks were found to have altered key information in his Wikipedia entry and sought to cover up police failings.

The edits were all made from internet addresses that have in the past been confirmed as being on the Government Secure Intranet (GSI), the system through which government workers, including some police officers, connect to the internet.”

And: Wikipedia edits made by government sought to minimise high-profile killings – Articles pertaining to Jean Charles de Menezes and Damilola Taylor were edited using devices on government internet (Guardian, link) and INTER-NETCU: As government agency caught infiltrating activist media outlet (SchNEWS, link): “”For years now, police have been using activist website Indymedia in attempts to sow mistrust, demoralise movements and to incite violence and illegality.” and: Advocating Domestic Extremism – Cops on Indymedia – An Exposé (Indymedia UK, link)

See also: Special Demonstration Squad: unit which vanished into undercover world – Analysis: Officers infiltrated political groups for 40 years – but also targeted 18 families fighting for justice from police (Guardian, link) and Full-text Herne Report: Operation Herne: Special Demonstration Squad Reporting: Mentions of Sensitive Campaigns (pdf)

6. Gamma FinFisher hacked: 40 GB of internal documents and source code of government malware published (Netzpolitik, link):

“A hacker claims to have hacked a network of the surveillance technology company Gamma International and has published 40 gigabytes of internal data. A Twitter account has published release notes, price lists – and source code. Malware researchers and human rights activists welcome the publication, Gamma itself refuses to comment.”

See: Wiki: Finfisher (link) and also: German police instructed Tunisia and Egypt on internet surveillance prior to revolutions (Statewatch database) and Complaint lodged with OECD by Privacy International over spyware sales by UK and Germany to Bahrain (Statewatch database)

And: Bahrain Government Hacked Lawyers and Activists with UK Spyware (Bahrainwatch, link): “New evidence has emerged suggesting that the Bahraini government infected the computers of some of the country’s most prominent lawyers, activists and politicians with the malicious FinFisher spy software (also known as FinSpy). The infections would have enabled the government to steal passwords and files, and spy through an infected computer’s webcam and microphone. “

7. USA: CIA RENDITION-TORTURE: Senator Denounces Redactions of Report on C.I.A. Detention Program (New York Times, link): “The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Tuesday that heavy censorship by the Obama administration of her committee’s voluminous report on the C.I.A.’s detention program eliminates or obscures “key facts” buttressing the document’s conclusions, and pledged to fight for more of it to be declassified.”

8. UK EXTENDS BIOMETRICS TO CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS OLD: New biometrics rule set for young children (link) “What is the change? The U.K. is rolling out a new biometrics requirement for visa applicants under 5 years old.” and UK Visas and Immigration (link):

“As of 07 July 2014, children under the age of five will be required to apply for their UK visa in person in order to attend a biometric enrolment appointment. New rules governing the collection of biometric data comes into effect at this time, requiring all applicants to provide a live-capture digital photograph.”

See: Home Office guidance on Biometric Information (126 pages, pdf) does not seem to have been updated, it says: ““Children under the age of six (at the date of application, not at the date of enrolment). The requirement for fingerprints to be taken from the age of six comes from EU Regulation 380/2008. Up to the age of six the Home Office only requires a digitised image of the child’s face, although the regulation does not prevent fingerprints being recorded from children aged less than six years. There is no upper age limit for biometric information to be taken.”

9.  African migrants injured in clashes in Calais as one asylum seeker shot in head (Evening Standard, link)

10. Speech delivered at the European Group Conference for the Study of Deviance and Social Control in Oslo in 2013 by Tony Bunyan, Director of Statewatch: The emerging EU state(podcast link). See all podcasts (link)

12. UK: Activists complain to IPCC over police efforts to recruit them as informers – Four campaigners lodge complaint with police watchdog that approaches left them feeling intimidated, stressed and paranoid (Guardian, link):

“Four campaigners have lodged a complaint with an official watchdog, alleging that they felt intimidated by covert police officers who were trying to persuade them to spy on their political colleagues.They say that coercive and at times repeated police approaches caused them to abandon their political campaigning, or left them stressed and paranoid. They also say that the clandestine manoeuvres to spy on students, environmentalists, anti-fascists and other campaigners erode free speech and the freedom to protest.

One of the quartet, a 23-year-old single mother, said she stopped campaigning against racism after police threatened to prosecute her if she told anyone, including her mother, about the attempt to recruit her as an informer.”

13.  EU: Council of the European Union: Agreed by the Council Security Committee: Information Assurance Security Guidelines on Data Separation (pdf)

“These guidelines describe minimum standards to be observed for the purpose of data separation methods in communication and information systems [CIS] for protecting EU classified information (EUCI) in terms of confidentiality, integrity, availability and, where appropriate, authenticity and non-repudiation, especially in consolidated systems where several CIS share common components. This document covers mainly the use of technical data separation methods inside common hardware used by one or different CIS or between different hardware components inside a contiguous secure area.”

14.  SPAIN: Mass protest as strike organisers face prison (Think Spain, link) and see: CCOO y UGT denuncian ante partidos la “ofensiva” contra el derecho de huelga (link):“In a joint statement, the unions said it is not acceptable that about 300 union members are subject to administrative and criminal proceedings for participating in the call for, extension and organisation of general strikes”

15.  UK: POLICING STATISTICS: House of Commons: Public Administration Committee: Government Response on crime statistics (pdf) and Caught red-handed: Why we can’t count on Police Recorded Crime statistics (pdf)

16.  GREECE: Human rights watchdog criticizes decision to file Farmakonisi case (ekathimerini.com, link): “Europe’s top human rights official has criticized a decision by a Greek prosecutor earlier this week to shelve the investigation into the deaths of 11 immigrants who drowned during a controversial coast guard operation near the eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonisi in January.” See:

– Greek Council for Refugees, Hellenic League of Human Rights, Network of Social Support to Refugees and Migrants, Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees:Background briefing on the investigation into the Farmakonisi boat wreck of 20.1.2014 (pdf)

– Survivors’ declaration (pdf)

16.  UK: Revealed: Whitehall plans to share your private data – Driving licences, criminal records and energy use data could be shared under radical plans to link government databases (Daily Telegraph, link): “Driving licences, criminal records and energy use data could be shared under radical plans to link government databases “

See: Cabinet Office Initial Discussion document on data sharing policy for publication (pdf)

17.  ITALY:G8: Thirty cops suspended for G8 brutality – Suspensions of up to 6 months for mistreatment of demonstrators (ANSA, link): “An appeals court on Friday suspended 30 police officers following disciplinary hearings into accusations of brutality during demonstrations at the G8 conference in Genoa in 2001.”

18.  NORWAY: Immediate temporary reintroduction of border control at Norway’s internal borders (DG Home, link): “Norway has informed that due to a serious threat to public policy and internal security where unknown subjects on their way to Norway have the intention to commit targeted attacks to Norwegian interest, infrastructure and/or persons, border control has been reintroduced at the Norway’s internal borders initially during the period from Thursday 24 July 2014 to Monday 28 July 2014, then prolonged until Tuesday 12 August 2014 12:00. During this period, border checks on persons will be carried out at Norwegian air, land and sea borders to the extent necessary to respond to the threats and will be flexible in time and location.” [emphasis in original]

EU-NSA-GCHQ: DATA SURVEILLANCE: Selected stories for full coverage see:
http://www.statewatch.org/eu-usa-data-surveillance.htm

1. USA-NSA: Edward Snowden given permission to stay in Russia – video (Guardian, link): “dward Snowden has been granted permission to remain in Russia for the next three years, his lawyer says on Thursday. The NSA contractor turned whistleblower now has a three-year residence permit, with effect from 1 August 2014,..”

See: Statewatch Observatory: EU-UK-GCHQ-USA-NSA: Data surveillance

2.  USA: WATCHLISTS: Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers – Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group (The Intercept, link) and See: Watchlist document (pdf)

See also: More than 17,000 sign up to Austrian student’s Facebook privacy class action – Max Schrems, 26, who accuses social network of data violations and supporting NSA spying, calls response to his appeal ‘giant’ (Guardian, link)

3.  USA-ISRAEL: Wiretapped: Israel Eavesdropped on John Kerry in Mideast Talks (Spiegel Online, link): “New information indicates that Israeli intelligence eavesdropped on telephone conversations by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Sources told SPIEGEL the government then used the information obtained from the calls during negotiations in the Mideast conflict.”

On the other hand see these documents: NSA Intelligence Relationship with Israel (pdf) and MOU between NSA and the Israeli Sigint National Unit (ISNU) (pdf)

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