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Statewatch News online: Spain: State agencies put protestors under extensive internet surveillance

28 March 2012

Spain
State agencies put protestors under extensive internet surveillance

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In the run-up to the Barcelona EU Summit 15-16 March the Spanish police and the Guardia Civil put the website, discussion pages and mailings lists of the organisation Nodo50 under extensive surveillance. The group monitored the monitors and their story is told below.

This story originated on: http://losvigilantes.nodo50.org/infoenglish.html
The home page of nodo50.org is: http://losvigilantes.nodo50.org
(with thanks to www.cryptome.org)

Download story in PDF format

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Watching the watchmen: police espionage on Nodo50 and the anti-globalisation movement

In this report we will explain how Nodo50 has been monitored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to point out that the Government knows everything that the Antiglobalitation Movement thinks and discusses. Hence it is lying when it maintains that violent actions are being prepared from Nodo50 including production of a sabotage manual, urban guerrilla warfare etc.

"On December 11th, the Head Director of the Spanish Police, Juan Cotino, declared to the EFE news agency that the Anti-globalisation Movement represented a threat to national security on the occasion of the semester of the Spanish presidency of the EU, comparing it implicitly to terrorism. He also declared that the security forces are investigating the Anti-globalisation Movement"
(Source: El Mundo, http://www.el-mundo.es/2001/12/12/espana/1083326.html)

On January 25th 2002 we read in the Spanish mass media of the "fears" of the Spanish Internal Affairs Ministry. An unidentified spokesman alerted officials of the supposed arrival of "4,000 antisystem militants", gathering to demonstrate against the EU summits which will be celebrated during the first semester of this year. Of the many comments, we want to emphasize the following in particular:

"One and a half months ago, the police information services detected a meeting in Zaragoza of radical groups, anarchists, squatters and supporters of leftish "abertzale", at which they suspect protest actions were being prepared for the six months of the Spanish presidency".
(Source: El Mundo: http://www.elmundo.es/2002/01/25/espana/1097727.html)

This news and the nature of the information filtered from the police suggests that "something suspicious" was being prepared in Zaragoza. The news, gilded with violent shades, gives the impression that what was in reality a public and open meeting of the Antiglobalitation Movement, was little less than a clandestine meeting to destabilize the Spanish Presidency of the EU.

In this report we will explain how Nodo50 has been monitored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to point out that the Government knows everything that the Antiglobalitation Movement thinks and discusses. Hence it is lying when it maintains that violent actions are being prepared from Nodo50 including production of a sabotage manual, urban guerrilla warfare etc. Most of the information included in this report is extracted from our server "logs". Neither special knowledge nor espionage skills has been necessary to collect this information: only the ability to read.

A clear example of what we considered media manipulation coordinated by the police is the note of the Colpisa Agency of January 13th 2002 which can be read at:
http://www.nodo50.org/criminalizacion_mov_sociales/nodo50/colpisa.html

The poisonous nature of this information demonstrates clearly that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has the objective of preparing the ground for repression of the organs of communication of the Anti-globalisation Movement. A previous campaign of criminalization as a basic tool and means for power control is well understood by Mr. Cotino. Indeed it was this news from Colpisa that encourage us to make this investigation.

HOW WE KNOW THAT THEY ARE WATCHING US

From the end of December 2001, the following IP addresses (the unique number that identifies computers on the Internet) have been making exhaustive surveillance of everything published on Nodo50:

[195.76.172.14,] belonging to the Main directorate of the Police
[194.179.107.29] and 194,179,107,131, belonging to the Main directorate of the Guardia Civil
[195.76.204.34,] belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs

The identity of the owners of these IP numbers can be verified by using:

http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/pub-services/db/whois/whois.html

In all cases, the IP addresses correspond to a set of proxy servers. We have determined that behind the proxy servers were: 8 computers in the case of the Police, 4 in the case of the Guardia Civil and 3 in the case of the Ministery of Interior.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING?

We have identified two main activities: A systematic tracking of all Nodo50's web pages and infiltration of different mailing lists.

WEB TRACKING

The activity of the National Police is daily. From 8.30 in the morning until 21.00 during working days, with brief pauses at 10:00hs. (the coffee break) and a break of one hour between 15:00 and 16:00 (lunch and change of agents). There is also activity on Sundays though for less hours. In the days prior to the Summit of Ministers of Interior and Defense of Santiago de Compostela the activity was more intense, from 7:30 to 23:30 almost without interruption.

The activity of the Guardia Civil is also daily. It normally begins in the morning around 10:00 and continues until 14:00. The pause for coffee is shorter and the activity in the evening is minimal.

The activity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is far less. On many days there is no activity, and when active, only for an hour or two.

In any case, all of the monitoring is by human intervention. We are not aware of any massive downloads of web pages by means of software for later analysis.

INFILTRATION OF MAILING LISTS

The mailing list of most interest to the security agensies is the anti-ue@listas.nodo50.org, a private mailing list dedicated to coordination of the different antiglobalitation organizations.

We have ascertained that the following addresses have subscribed to the anti-ue list from Police computers:

- decancienes@xxxx.xx the 24/09/2001
- juanpedelucas@xxxx.xx the 25/09/2001
- pedritoanarka@xxxx.xx the 04/10/2001

From of the Guardia Civil the following:

- ferdihor@xxxx.xx the 27/09/2001
- moralespelo@xxxx.xx the 14/01/2002

Security Agencies have also tried to subscribe to the contrainf-antiue@listas.nodo50.org, a list dedicated to coordination of the thematic area of disinformation and communication of the campaign against the Spanish presidency of the EU.

The Police:

- decancienes@xxxx.xx the 24/09/2001
- pedritoanarka@xxxx.xx the 03/10/2001

The Guardia Civil:

- ferdihor@xxxx.xx the 25/09/2001

They were unable to subscribe to the moderated mailing list due to the requirement of a previous presentation for subscription approval.

Nevertheless, they have been reading the contents of the mailing list via the public web interface until the middle of January when access to these archives was restricted to the members of the list.

On 24/01/2002 there was an attempt by the Guardia Civil to subscribe to the cntweb@listas.nodo50.org list, a public list of news of the web of the CNT-AIT Union. The subscription was not successful because a non existent or non verifiable address was used. The address was xxxxxx@globalum.com and belongs to Repsol-YPF S.A..

Both security agencies are subscribed to the novedades@listas.nodo50.org list, a public list of news published by Nodo50 with the following addresses:

- rianomasy@xxxx.xx (Police) from the 11/01/2002
- sane@xxxx.xx (Guardia Civil) from the 14/01/2002

In all of the lists, the subscribers from security agencies have limited themselves to only reading messages, just as they do in meetings they attend to note and monitor everything discussed and those proposing. We are certain that no active intervention will take place.

WHAT INFORMATION ARE THEY LOOKING FOR?

The following key words were searched using our search engine: http://www.nodo50.org/busca.htm:

The Guardia Civil searched for the following words:

- Actividades+contra+la+Unión+Europea+en+Caceres
- antiglobalización
- calendario+presidencia+ue
- globalización
- lasagencias
- ley+de+extranjeria
- okupa
- presidencia+europea
- Valladolid
- zaragoza
- zaragoza+asamblea+2001
- zaragoza+noviembre+2001

In the case of the National Police we have:

- 8-March-02
- acciones+mrg+madrid
- antiglobalizacion
- antiglobalizacion+caceres
- antiue
- anti-ue
- arde+barcelona
- asturias
- attac
- baladre
- barcelona+arde
- bloque+negro
- caceres+febrero
- calendario+presidencia+española
- Coordinadora+Estatal+contra+el+Paro
- cordoba
- criminalizacion
- globalizacion+caceres
- granada+and+globalizacion
- griesca
- marinaleda
- monos+blancos
- movilizaciones+caceres
- movimiento+antimastri
- movimiento+contra+europa+globalizacion
- mrg
- mrg+cordoba
- mrg+madrid
- mrgmadrid
- mujer
- Murcia
- okupas
- santa+cruz+de+tenerife
- upa
- via+campesina

NODO50 WEB PAGES UNDER SURVEILLANCE

Both of the national security agencies normally initiate their visits at the main page of Nodo50:
http://www.nodo50.org or at the Website that contains the list of almost 500 organizations hosted on our server:
http://www.nodo50.org/organi.php?x=%).

The pages and organizations they have shown most interest in are:

By the National Police:

Space managed by Nodo50 where documents and the news of the antiglobalitation movement are published:
http://www.nodo50.org/antiglobalizacion
Hemen eta Munduan, popular Initiative of Euskal Herria around the globalitation:
http://www.nodo50.org/hemenetamunduan
Agency of the News UPA, newspaper of Molotov disinformation: http://www.nodo50.org/upa-molotov
Free Association of Lawyers: http://www.nodo50.org/ala
Page managed by Nodo50 for all kind type of calls: http://www.nodo50.org/convocat
Attac Madrid: http://www.attacmadrid.org
Space managed by Nodo50 against the war of Afghanistan: http://www.nodo50.org/paremoslaguerra
Guides of the Disinformation: http://www.nodo50.org/guiacontrainf
Transatlantic Social Forum: http://www.nodo50.org/forosocial
From within, diffusion of the fights against the jail: http://www.nodo50.org/desdedentro
Movement of Global Resistance of Alicante: http://www.nodo50.org/mrg-alacant
Committee of Solidarity with the Arab Cause: http://www.nodo50.org/csca
Left Castilian: http://www.nodo50.org/izca
Salamanca Platform Another 2002: http://www.salamancaotro2002.org

By the Guardia Civil:

Space managed by Nodo50 where documents and the news of the antiglobalitation movement are published:
http://www.nodo50.org/antiglobalizacion
Attac Madrid: http://www.attacmadrid.org
Hemen eta Munduan, popular Initiative of Euskal Herria around the globalitation:
http://www.nodo50.org/hemenetamunduan
Transatlantic Social Forum: http://www.nodo50.org/forosocial
Left Castilian: http://www.nodo50.org/izca
General Confederation of the work: http://www.cgt.es
Confederation of Unions of Workers of Education: http://www.stes.es
Guide of the disinformation: http://www.nodo50.org/guiacontrainf
Page managed by Nodo50 yet type of calls: http://www.nodo50.org/convocat
National Confederation of the Work: http://www.cnt.es
Athenian Libertario Gregorio Baticón of Valladolid: http://www.nodo50.org/algrebat
Agency of the News UPA, newspaper of Molotov disinformation: http://www.nodo50.org/upa-molotov
From within, diffusion of the fights against the jail: http://www.nodo50.org/desdedentro

SO WHY DO WE SAY THAT THE MINISTERY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS IS LYING?

When the Ministry of Internal Affairs says that it has detected a "meeting in Zaragoza of radical groups, anarchists, squatters, and supporters of the left "abertzale", at which they suspect protest actions were being prepared" it is lying.

There is no need to covertly DETECT or have SUSPICIONS about public meetings, the materials of which, including information about decisions made, are circulated freely and profusely by the network. The "mysterious" meeting was in fact publically called for, and attended by hundreds of representatives of dozens of organizations representing a wide web of networks.

The results and notes from the meetings can be read at http://www.nodo50.org/antiglobalizacion/, the call and other materials were available online several months prior to the meeting. In the same way there have been public calls for other meetings in Orcasitas in September 2001 and in Marinaleda at the beginning of February 2002.

The Ministery of Internal Affairs is lying when it insinuates that violent actions were prepared in Zaragoza because it had total knowledge of what had been discussed and decided prior to the meeting.

The National Police has consulted the Zaragoza meeting materials on nine occasions, six of them prior to the note released by the Ministery of Internal Affairs on January 25th 2002:

-3rd of January 2002 at 10:46 hs.
-7th of January 2002 at 11:36 hs.
-18th of January 2002 at 07:26 hs.
-18th of January 2002 at 08:57 hs.
-18th of January 2002 at 11:27 hs.
-22nd of January 2002 at 10:59 hs.
-28th of January 2002 at 18:25 hs.
-29th of January 2002 at 11:03 hs.
-04th of February 2002 at 10:07 hs.

The Guardia Civil has consulted the Zaragoza meeting materials on six occasions, four of them prior to the note released by the Ministery of Internal Affairs on January 25th:

-8th of January from 2002 to 13:17 hs.
-8th of January from 2002 to 13:46 hs.
-8th of January from 2002 to 14:32 hs.
-18th of January from 2002 to 10:23 hs.
-28th of January from 2002 to 09:58 hs.
-29th of January from 2002 to 10:41 hs.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?

Firstly, we have decided to deny access to the mail addresses and IP numbers of the security agencies to all mailing lists hosted at Nodo50. We will keep access to the Website open and unrestricted as everything published is legal and public.

Secondly, we will continue watching the watchmen to avoid perpetuating the image that the speech of the anti-globalitation movement can be manipulated and its actions criminalized.

At the same time, we will continue to make alert calls of any possible provocations originating from the police, similar to that carried out in Barcelona June 25th, which was widely covered by mass media.

Concretely, we want to alert the public that possible provocations can be carried out on freely published Web-logs that justify the intervention of webs of communities or the kidnapping of servers.
- - -
Assembly of Nodo50
Madrid 2002/03/15
Note: The personal e-mails addresses included in this report has been protected until we get public consent from its owners.

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