Security - new material (2)
01 December 1998
Crypto AG: The NSA's Trojan Whore? Wayne Madsen. Covert Action No. 63 (Winter 1998) pp36-42. An agreement between the US National Security Agency and the Swiss producer of "secure commercial encryption technology" Crypto AG has allowed the US to routinely intercept and decipher top secret encrypted messages for decades.
How paranoia ruled the swinging sixties Seumas Milne & Richard Norton-Taylor. Guardian 1.1.98, p.3. This piece examines official papers from 1967 released at the Public Record Office under the thirty-year rule.
IRA intercepts British intelligence documents: British spies operating in 26 counties. An Phoblacht/Republican News 29.1.98, pp10-11. This article discloses British intelligence documents intercepted by the IRA from the Intelligence Section of the Welsh Guards. The documents show that within weeks of the IRA ceasefire Britain was updating its intelligence war against republicans. The documents include a manual that describes the intelligence databases CRUCIBLE (general purpose) and VENGEFUL (vehicle intelligence) and a number of (still) encoded computer disks.
They are eavesdropping on our every word Simon Davies. Daily Telegraph Connected 16.12.97, pp4-5. This article covers the European Commission report Assessing the Technologies of Political Control which warns that "the United States has developed an extensive spying network on European citizens" via Menworth Hill.
No cloak and dagger required: Intelligence support to UN Peacekeeping Paul Johnston. Intelligence and National Security, vol 12 no 4 pp102-112. Argues that in Bosnia UNPROFOR has constructed an intelligence-gathering capacity which will have to start all over again for the next "peacekeeping mission".
Using intelligence Amos Kovacs. Intelligence and National Security vol 12 no 4 pp145-164. Interesting articles looking at the respective merits of HUMINT (human intelligence) SIGINT (signals intelligence which encompasses COMINT communications interception and ELINT intercepted intelligence other than communications) and IMINT imagery intelligence gathered from spy planes or photo-satellites.
Textbook repression: US training manuals declassified Lisa Haugaard. CovertAction Quarterly Summer 1997 pp29-38. Detailed examination of CIA and US military manuals which over decades have been used to teach repressive internal armies and intelligence agencies to "spy on civilians extract information, subvert democracy..."
National security and European law Steve Peers in the 1996 Yearbook on European Law. Reviews the different implications for the use of "national security" in the "democracies" of western Europe and argues for a more active role for the European courts.