How Close Is 1984 Today?

When I think back to high school and recall the books I read that have had the most impact on my thinking since then, certainly the dystopian novels 1984 (1949) by George Orwell and Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley ranked high among them. Our world must never turn into the world’s created by Huxley and Orwell. This afternoon we looked at a reason to cast a vote to reelect Colorado Senator Mark Udall based on his role in preventing 1984 encroachment by the CIA and the rest of the U.S. Military-Industrial-Intellegence Complex on our society and our democracy. Will Colorado voters appreciate how important this Udall ad is for them-- and for all of us?



After wrting it, I came across a summary of a Guardian investigation in the homeland of both Brave New World and 1984 that reveals that most telephone carriers automatically give all of their customers’ information to the police.

Most of the U.K.’s big mobile carriers give the police automated access to their customers’ metadata, the Guardian reported on Friday.

British data retention laws, notably the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), ensure that operators must hang onto call records so they can be queried without a warrant by the authorities-- but they don’t say the cops should get direct access. Nonetheless, that seems to be what EE, Vodafone and Three allow, with O2 being the only standout.

The Guardian compared this direct-access program with the Prism scheme in the U.S. Indeed, though Edward Snowden’s revelations have been wide-ranging, the first one to emerge was about the NSA accessing Verizon call records— more of a scandal in the U.S., which doesn’t have U.K.-style data retention laws.

RIPA has recently been implicated as a mechanism for the police to secretly figure out the identity of journalists’ sources. According to a separate Guardian report on Sunday, the government will alter the law so that any requests relating to journalistic sources must be approved by a judge.

As over half a million RIPA requests were made by UK public authorities in 2013 alone, it’s not hard to see why an automated system is preferable for efficiency reasons, though I’d argue that the fact it has to do with customer privacy means the practice is ethically questionable.

One of the things we found out from the Snowden revelations is that the US indeed did share the PRISM spy technology with the U.K. and that the U.K., like the NSA and CIA uses it to illegally spy on its own citizens. In fact, the two countries’ spy establishments work together— much more than anyone ever imagined. In his book, The Edward Snowden Affair, Michael Gurnow paints a frightening picture of how the spy establishments in the U.S. and U.K. trample their own laws to spy on everyone and everything always.

A week after Snowden had gone public and two days after the SCMP [South China Morning Post] went into greater, more incriminating detail about American surveillance in China, Ewen MacAskill led a team of Guardian journalists with “GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians’ communications at G20 summits.” Whereas the SCMP’s exposés only made reference to unseen, unverified directives and forms, The Guardian provided its readers with primary documentation. The article’s sources are a top secret January 20, 1999 briefing paper, various classified documents and confidential PowerPoint slides all provided by Snowden. The report debuted a day before the eight wealthiest countries— all of which were potential targets of the headline spying— were to meet in Ireland at the annual G8 Summit.

Started in 1999, the G20 Summit is the once biannual and now annual aggregation of 19 of the world’s top financial leaders with the European Union (EU) as the final member. They represent two-thirds of the world’s population and 80 percent of its gross product and trading. Its purpose is to discuss and examine international economic policy issues which lie outside the scope and capability of any one particular country or organization to address. Due to the growth of other world nations, in 2009 the G20 replaced the G8— started in 1975— as the main economic forum for wealthy nations.

MacAskill and Co. offer no quarter from the beginning: “Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by The Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using Internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.” GCHQ’s stated eavesdropping agenda was to learn each country’s negotiating position and leverage so Britain could have tactical advantage during the April and September 2009 meetings. However, Snowden’s documents make clear the confiscated user access data, i.e., user names and passwords, was intended to be used to continue spying on various nations’ officials after the summit ended: “[We] were able to extract key logging info, providing creds for delegates, meaning we have sustained intelligence options against them even after [the] conference has finished.” England’s specific targets were its allies South Africa and Turkey. South Africa was a crucial swing vote. With the latter, Britain’s ob- jective was to “establish Turkey’s position on agreements from the April London summit” and its “willingness (or not) to co- operate with the rest of the G20 nations.” The overriding concern was the various countries’ positions and attitudes regarding financial reform after the 2008 global banking meltdown.

British intelligence had already hacked into South Africa’s foreign affairs network in 2005. It had gathered information by “investigating” the country’s telephone lines and compromising diplomats’ user accounts. The mission was successful, because South Africa updated its systems shortly thereafter. GCHQ countered by immediately installing electronic backdoors “to increase reliability.”

Multiple delegates had been led into Internet cafes that had email filtration and keystroke logging software installed on the diners’ computers. For wireless communications, remote relays retrieved the politicians’ cell phone data, which was telecast almost live to 45 stand-by GCHQ analysts. The analysts would make their assessments then “provide timely information to UK ministers.” Keystroke logging is the recording of what is being typed as it is being typed. This permits the viewer to see the content of any document as it appears on the screen as well as login information, including passwords and phrases, as it is being entered. Over 20 new email “selectors” were obtained by GCHQ.

The Guardian highlights that the covert directives originated at the senior level during then-prime minister Gordon Brown’s time in office. Once finalized, orders were issued to various ministers. They were therefore sanctioned by the British government. Like the NSA’s data intercepts within Hong Kong and mainland China, none of the G20 targets were under any suspicion of wrongdoing by GCHQ. Britain legally justified its eavesdropping with the 1994 Intelligence Services Act, which states clandestine foreign intelligence is “in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom in relation to the actions or intentions of persons outside the British Island.” Britain had given itself permission to spy if not doing so risked financial loss or inhibited economic growth.

As disclosed in a classified report titled, “Russian Leadership Communications in support of President Dmitry Medvedev at the G20 summit in London— Intercept at Menwith Hill station,” the NSA intercepted and decrypted then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s telephone calls as they dispatched through satellite links to Moscow starting the day he arrived at the first summit, April 1. Menwith Hill is an NSA outpost located in Harrogate, North Yorkshire in England. Until 2013, it was believed to be the largest intelligence facility in the world. Menwith Hill occupies 560 acres.


Without having to lend a word to the topic, MacAskill made demonstrably clear the United States was in espionage cahoots with England. As Gellman had reported, the NSA had given Britain PRISM and was in possession of classified GCHQ documents. Like Greenwald, MacAskill left the reader to discover that Menwith Hill had been in operation since 1966, is leased to America and suspiciously staffed with both American and British intelligence agents. As of March 2012, there is a one-to-three mix of British to American Menwith employees: 400 to 1,200. Menwith Hill is so productive it was given the NSA’s “Station of the Year” award in 1991. The obvious question remained: Why wouldn’t Britain be concerned with more powerful attendees’ data, such as its former colony, Australia, or America’s neighbor, Canada? The answer was coming.

Turkey flipped out and today we’re seeing the results in their refusal to cooperate with the West’s strategy against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. “Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, reports Gurnow, “specifically cited the BBC as sustaining and advocating civil unrest in Turkey amid nationwide demonstrations and violent protests.” China and Russia noted the behavior against them as well. Rest assured. Doesn't Ron Paul look young in this clip from the House floor?