Many thanks to Terry Hanstock for contributions. Comments and contributions to
Shayler case and human rights
David Shayler went on trial at the Old Bailey in October/ November 2002 for disclosing information and documents relating to security and intelligence, under s1(1) and 4(1) of the Official Secrets Act 1989. During the trial he was not able to utilise a public interest defence (previously ruled out by House of Lords, see below); in addition, PII certificates signed by the Home and Foreign secretaries prevented any disclosures relating to security and intelligence matters in court (see below), and the prosecution had to be given advance notice of questions he intended to ask four MI5 witnesses, screened from the public and press. The jury were therefore unable to be told about important allegations including the involvement of MI6 in a plot to assassinate General Gadaffi; that MI5 had prior knowledge of a plan to bomb the Israeli Embassy in London in 1994 (information that would have helped the defence of the two convicted for this, see below); and that MI5 could have prevented the IRA bombing in Bishopsgate in 1993. He was found guilty and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
For large archive of articles on Shayler see www.guardian.co.uk/shayler; see also cryptome.org. Also see article on Gadaffi plot, ‘MI6 “halted bid to arrest bin Laden”‘ by Martin Bright, Observer 10 November 2002: www.observer.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,837319,00.html; also ‘Shayler was right over bomb at Israeli Embassy’, 27 October 2000, www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp? story=5714 and article by Shayler on the Bishopsgate bombing, ‘MI5 could have stopped the bomb going off’, first published in Punch July 26-Aug 8 2000, at www.bilderberg.org/sisHASH Punch
The PII certificate signed just before the trial by David Blunkett, Home Secretary, on 4 October 2002 is at cryptome.org/r-v-shaylerhtm. It states: ‘I am making this Certificate and the sensitive Schedule available to the Court to assist it in determining the prosecution’s application that the public be excluded during any part of the hearing which touches, or purports to touch, whether directly or indirectly, upon any sensitive operational techniques of the security and intelligence services, and in particular upon their sources of information, including the identity of any officer, contact or agent.’
After the House of Lords ruling (see below), Liberty is taking the issue of whether the Official Secrets Act 1989 is compatible with the ECHR to Strasbourg; this will take 2-3 years.
House of Lords judgment in Shayler case
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200102/ldjudgmt/jd020321/shayle-1htm
Judgment released 21 March 2002, dismissing Shayler’s appeal. Ruled that the Official Secrets Act 1989 ban on disclosure of information by former intelligence officers [S1(1) and 4(1) and (3)] did not contravene the right to freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 10 of the ECHR, and Shayler could not claim a public interest defence, or a defence of necessity, to charges under the OSA 1989.
Times law report http://cryptome.org/hmg-v-shayler3.htm
Free Samar and Jawad
http://www.freesaj.org.uk
Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh were convicted in Dec 1996 of conspiracy in relation to the 1994 London bombings of the Israeli Embassy and Balfour House and both were sentenced to 20 years. ‘Freedom and Justice for Samar and Jawad is determined to fight this miscarriage of justice by explaining why it is believed that Samar and Jawad are innocent of these charges…’ Much relevant evidence was withheld at their trial on national security grounds after PII hearings. Includes info on the case; the appeal; biographies and ‘Cover-up Confirmed’, detailing the reasons for doubting the safety of the convictions, and Justice Denied: www.freesaj.org.uk/booklet/deniedTOC.html
Your Rights
Liberty’s excellent comprehensive guide to human rights law in England and Wales. Plus guide to the Human Rights Act.
Data rentention, electronic privacy and FOI
Privacy and Human Rights: An International Survey of Privacy Laws and Developments.
http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/phr2002
Released by the US Electronic Privacy Information Center (www.epic.org) and Privacy International in Sept 2002, the report examines the impact of Sept 11 on privacy and civil liberties and finds that anti terrorism legislation adopted by many countries since Sept 11 threaten freedom and civil liberties, particularly by increased communications surveillance and search powers; weakening of data protection regimes; increased data sharing and a move towards increased profiling of individuals and national ID schemes. On the UK, the report says ‘The privacy picture in the UK is mixed…crime and public order laws passed in recent years have placed substantial limitations on numerous rights, including freedom of assembly, privacy, freedom of movement, the right of silence, and freedom of speech’. Can download report.
The Internet on Probation: 11 September 2001-11 September 2002
http://www.rsf.org/IMG/doc-1274.pdf
Report by free speech defenders Reporters Without Frontiers, Sept 2002, warns that since the Sept 11 attacks, govts worldwide have increasingly taken measures that put the internet under the control of security services.
EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications
http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/02/st03/03636en2.pdf
http://www.cyber-rights.org/interception/1_20120020731en00370047.pdf
Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and the Council, came into force 12 July 2002, concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in electronic comms. Introduces principle of data retention, strongly opposed by privacy groups. To be implemented by all EU countries by 31 Oct 2003. Leaves each Member State free to adopt laws authorising data retention.
Statewatch. EU: Data protection to be ‘compulsory’ for 12-24 months http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/aug/05datafd1.htm
‘Now the traffic data of the whole population of the EU (and the countries joining) is to be held on record. It is a move from targeted to potentially universal surveillance’
See Statewatch News Online (www.statewatch.org/news/) for up to date info on this and other developments concerning civil liberties in the EU: secrecy; data protection; access to info; privacy. Also see www.statewatch.org/observatory2.htm
Copy of Draft Framework Decision on retention of traffic data and access for law enforcement agencies leaked to Statewatch. Links to analysis and full text of the draft Framework Decision:
www.statewatch.org/news/2002/aug/analy11.pdf
Full text: www.statewatch.org/news/2002/aug/05datafd.htm
Analysis: www.statewatch.org/news/2002/aug/05Adataret.htm
Confidential Europol document on data retention
http://www.radicalparty.org/europol/europol.pdf
See also cryptome.org/europol-rape.htm which gives a more readable version of the Europol document.
EPIC’s International Data Retention page
http://www.epic.org/privacy/intl/data_retention.html
Latest news from round the world on data retention; documents; campaigns; EU member states’ implementation of data retention; info and links.
Network Against Data Retention
http://www.stop1984.com/netzwerk
Initiative started Sept 2002. Links to organisations worldwide opposed to data retention.
Guardian Special Reports on Privacy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/bigbrother/privacy/
Published 7/14/21 Sept 2002. ‘Uncovering the extent to which our daily lives are watched, recorded and analysed by others’. Articles cover many different aspects of privacy; surveillance; Echelon, GCHQ; workplace surveillance; Freedom of Information Act; data collection; data privacy, eg financial and medical confidentiality; using the Data Protection Act;
Observer Libertywatch campaign
http://www.observer.co.uk/libertywatch
‘These pages contain the best of the Observer’s commentary and analysis on civil liberties issues in the wake of Sept 11′, eg Terror, Security and the Media (21 July 02) Martin Bright on how the Security Services seek to influence the media www.observer.co.uk/libertywatch/story/0,1373,758265,00.html
Freedominfo.org
freedom.info provides info on FOI campaigns around the world. Describes best practices, info on FOI laws, and links the efforts of FOI advocates around the world. Includes FOI and Access to Govt Records around the world. Also news; case studies; reports and analysis.
Link to IFTI Watch (www.freedominfo.org/ifti.htm) latest developments on access to information in international financial and trade institutions such as the World Bank, WTO and IMF.
Includes study by Tony Bunyan of Statewatch on Secrecy and Openness in the EU, documenting the struggle, over the past decade, to open the structures of the EU; October 2002 (www.freedominfo.org/case/eustudy.htm)
Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner for 2001
http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/deps/hc/hc1243/ 1243.pdf
By the Interception Commissioner Rt Hon Sir Swinton Thomas. Published 31 Oct 2002
Covert Surveillance Code of Practice
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/code_of_practice/covert_surveillance.htm
Issued under s71 RIP Act 2000 ‘this code applies to every authorisation of covert surveillance or of entry on or interference with property or with wireless telegraphy carried out under s5 of the Intelligence Services Act 1994, Part III of the Police Act 1997 or Part II of the RIP Act 2000 by public authorities..’
Covert Human Intelligence Sources Code of Practice
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/code_of_practice/covert_human_intelligence.htm
Issued under s71 RIP Act 2000, ‘this code applies to every authorisation of the use or conduct by public authorities of covert human intelligence sources carried out under Part II of RIPA 2000…’
Both the above issued and came into force on 1 August 2002.
Home Office RIP Act page: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/ripact.htm includes links to these and the Statutory Instruments which bring the codes of practice into force.
Interception of Communications Code of Practice
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/ioccop.htm
Published 7 August 2002, under S71 RIP Act 2000. Came into force 1 July 2002 ‘This code of practice sets out the powers and duties conferred or imposed under Chapter 1 of Part 1 of RIPA. It provides guidance on the procedures that must be followed before interception of communications can take place under those provisions.’
Office of Surveillance Commissioners
http://www.surveillancecommissioners.org/
‘This website is primarily designed to be used by those who authorise and conduct covert surveillance operations and covert human intelligence sources (as informants and undercover officers are now known). It shows you how to carry out these activities in compliance with the powers granted by Parliament.’
Report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner for 2000-2001
http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/ cm53/5360/ cm5360.pdf
Annual report, presented to Parliament Jan 2002.
Entitlement Cards unit
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/ecu.htm
Responsible for running the consultation exercise on the entitlement card scheme and for policy on ID cards
Entitlement Cards and Identity Fraud
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/cpd/entitlement_cards.pdf
A consultation paper on ID cards, July 2002. Consultation period runs until Jan 10 2003.
Privacy International: ID cards
http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/idcard/uk/
Launched July 2002, PI’s UK ID card webpage includes FAQ on ID cards and a guide to responding to the consultation document, plus articles and statements on ID cards.
Privacy and Data Sharing: the Way forward for Public Services
www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/innovation/2002/privacy/report/index.htm
http://www.piu.gov.uk/2002/privacy/report/index.htm
Report published April 2002 by PM’s think tank the Performance and Innovation unit. Calls for big increase in sharing of confidential data, eg medical records, tax info and benefit entitlements.
Data Protection Act 1998: Subject Access
Lord Chancellor’s Dept Consultation Paper, Oct 2002
http://www.lcd.gov.uk/consult/foi/dpsacons.htm
Consultation paper seeks comments from individuals and organisations regarding fees, exemptions, response time and other subject access matters. Liberty has raised concerns about the fees being raised too high, and that there is a clear invitation to seek more exemptions from the duty to provide information on request. It is important to respond; site gives details how to; responses by 31 Jan 2003.
EPIC Carnivore FOIA litigation
http://www.epic.org/privacy/carnivore/
The FBI claim that the Carnivore internet monitoring system, which is installed at ISPs and can monitor all data traffic, can be programmed to only deliver to investigators those ‘packets’ they are lawfully authorised to obtain.
Includes Carnivore documents obtained by EPIC under FOIA, released May 2002, including FBI memo describing how technical flaws in Carnivore system interfered with an investigation possibly involving Usama bin Laden, because Carnivore software picked up non-authorised data on individuals in addition to data on authorised targets so technician destroyed all the email intake.
TCPA/Palladium
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
Ross Anderson’s website provides detailed and accessible account of Palladium the controversial software Microsoft wants to incorporate into future versions of Windows. ‘The proposed mechanisms could have some disturbing consequences for privacy, censorship and innovation.’ Would allow remote censorship, eg could detect and delete pirated/unlicensed software, pirated music, or certain documents. Could provide greater security for confidential documents and make it more difficult to leak documents electronically.
International Criminal Court
http://www.icc.int
Established by the Rome Statute of the ICC on 17 July 1998, which came into force July 1 2002. The court, situated in The Hague, will have jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, where such crimes are committed by a national or on a territory of a govt that has ratified the court’s treaty (neither the US not Iraq are among the 81 govts that have ratified the treaty so far) and will only act when national courts are unable or unwilling to investigate or prosecute.
Ireland
Panorama – A Licence to Murder
Two-part documentary broadcast by the BBC June 19 and 23 2002 ‘reveals the extent to which some members of the British Intelligence services colluded with – and even tried to direct – loyalist death squads in N. Ireland.’ ‘John Ware uncovers the role of Military Intelligence and RUC Special Branch officers in one of the most brutal and controversial murders of the “troubles”: that of Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane.’ Can read transcripts and see video extracts at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/2019301.stm
Finucane Report: Beyond Collusion: the UK security forces and the murder of Pat Finucane http://www.lchr.org/media/finucanereport.pdf
Report by US-based Lawyer’s Cttee on Human Rights, Feb 2002. This 77p. report calls on the UK govt to establish a public inquiry into Finucane’s murder and for accountability and reform of the Security Services. The Stevens report on collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries has now been delayed until spring 2003. (www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,817808,00.html)
Omagh bombing
Two Channel 4 News reports on 28 and 29 October 2002 by Alex Thomson allege that the Irish police had a major informant, used by the Real IRA to buy cars for bombings; the police allowed the Omagh car bomb of August 1998 to go ahead despite advance knowledge of it, and that after Omagh a govt minister cut a deal with the Real IRA: no arrests for Omagh in return for a Real IRA ceasefire.
http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20021028/omagh.html
http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20021029/omagh2.html
Non Lethal Technologies
Less Than Lethal Technologies – initial prioritisation and evaluation
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/pcrg/psdb/publications/lesslethal.pdf
First published 2001, by the Home Office Police Scientific Development Branch, which was tasked ‘with reviewing available technologies that have the potential for use as an option that is less lethal than a firearm.’ Five areas considered to merit immediate further research: impact devices/kinetic energy rounds; long range chemical delivery devices; water cannon; electrical devices, particularly the taser; distraction/disorientation devices, particularly laser/light and noise generating devices (‘high volume – above 150 dB’ – low frequency audible sounds are reported to cause ‘intolerable coughing and choking respiration’). Further research also merited on malodorants and tranquillisers; Also discusses stun grenades; smoke; nets and wire entanglement systems; glue, foam and grease; accoustic devices (on infrasound ‘violent nausea has been reported at 12 Hz, and lower frequencies of 3-7 Hz are reported to cause death by resonance with internal organs’); electromagnetic waves (‘the USAF Research Laboratory has developed a device that creates a heating effect in the skin using a beam of high frequency (95 GHz) near MW EM radiation. The device is intended for use as an area-denial or crowd control system’).
An Assessment of Non Lethal Weapons Science and Technology
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/nsb/NSB_Reports.html
Report from National Academy of Science’s National Research Council, 4 November 2002. Recommends highest priority be placed in 4 areas: developing calmatives (sleep-inducing and mind altering) and malodorants to control crowds; more advanced directed-energy systems for stopping vehicles or vessels; marine barrier systems to stop attack vessels and protect perimeters; and unmanned or remotely piloted vehicles and sensors to provide warning, localisation and tracking of enemy threats.
Sonic Weapons: Noisemakers called to Arms
http://www.us.net/signal/Archive/July02/noisemakers-july.html
From July 2002 SIGNAL magazine, article about ATC technology and sonic weapons for military, psychowarfare and possible communications use.
War on Terrorism
GlobalSecurity.org
http://www.globalsecurity.org
Maintained by John Pike, GlobalSecurity.org provides research, analysis and commentary on issues relating to security. Sections on military; intelligence; special weapons; Public Eye (using high-resolution satellite imagery to improve public understanding of the status of nuclear weapons and missile programs around the world); and Target Iraq (www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq.htm) news, analysis and resources on Iraq’s military power, weapons, intelligence and security agencies, plus pros and cons of attacking Iraq and links to related websites: anti-war, UNMOVIC, UNSCOM, IAEA.
DARPA Information Awareness Office
http://www.darpa.mil/iao/
‘The DARPA IAO will imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop systems that will counter assymetric threats by achieving total information awareness useful for pre-emption; national security warning and national security decision making. Programs include: Biosurveillance (detect pathogens and bio-attack); Human Identification at a Distance (the development of automated biometric identification techniques to recognise people from a distance, including face recognition and gait); Effective affordable re-usable speech-to-text (automatic transcription); Communicator (interaction between war fighters and computers); Babylon: to develop rapid 2-way natural language speech translation ‘in multiple environments’; Evidence Extraction and Link Discovery: technology and tools for automated discovery, extraction and linking of sparse evidence contained in large amounts of data sources; Total Information Awareness Program – goal to revolutionise the ability of the US to detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists and decipher their plans. Run by John Poindexter, the IAO is designing a global computer surveillance system with massive data mining capabilities
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40942-2002Nov11.htm)
National Security Strategy of the United States of America
Http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf
Sept 2002. 35 page document puts forward the Bush administration’s rationale for shifting US military strategy, since Sept 11 2001, from the Cold War doctrine of deterrence and MAD, towards pre-emptive action against hostile states and terrorist groups developing Weapons of Mass Destruction. ‘ America will act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed.’
Intelligence and Security Committee Annual Report, 2001-2
http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/intelligence/intelligence.pdf
June 2002. Includes the Agencies’ responses to the Sept 11 attacks:
MISC
The Memory Hole
Launched July 2002 by Russ Kick.. ‘The Memory Hole exists to preserve and spread material that is in danger of being lost, is hard to find or is not widely known. This includes court files, corporate memos; court documents; Congressional testimony; reports…the emphasis is on material that exposes things that we’re not supposed to know’
The Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/index.html
The Internet Archive is building a digital library of internet sites; includes the Wayback Machine, which allows users to surf over 10 billion webpages stored in the Internet Archive’s web archive.
www.cultureshop.org
Offers radical films/videos on globalisation etc. The site was created by i-Contact Video Network (a non-for profit media group in Bristol, UK) with collaboration from various alternative video groups in the UK including Undercurrents, Conscious Cinema, Guerillavision and Spectacle Productions.
Media Lens
www.medialens.org
‘Correcting the distorted vision of the corporate media’. Nice, easy to use site with a good collection of articles.
Red Star Research
http://www.red-star-research.org.uk
Aims to provide details of Labour’s high value donors and the unelected Special Advisors at the heart of govt policy. Also asks to hear from anyone, especially if connected with a miscarriage of justice case, who has had phones and/or mail interfered with, and provides information and articles on Malcolm Kennedy’s case. (www.red-star-research.org.uk/malcolm.html)
On Malcolm Kennedy, at the time of going to press (November 2002), no judgment has been given by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in connection with the case brought by Liberty which is challenging the Tribunal’s rules and procedures as not complying with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act. The Tribunal has said that the judgment is complex. Therefore Malcolm Kennedy’s complaint has not yet been heard.
The Business of War
http://www.icij.org/dtaweb/icij_bow.asp
Investigation by the Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists into private military forces – ie mercenaries.