UK: Telephone tapping: out of control
01 September 1991
In July Granada's "World in Action" programme carried an interview with Robin Robison, an administrative officer in the Joint Intelligence Unit (JIU) until last year. Mr Robison, a Quaker, resigned because of what he saw as the abuse of power by the intelligence agencies in monitoring telephone calls telexes and other phone transactions. The JIU services the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) which collates and analyses intelligence from MI5, MI6, GCHQ, and Defence Intelligence (DI).
The programme revealed that GCHQ at Cheltenham and its listening post at Bude in north Cornwall are routinely gathering conversations quite unrelated to espionage. In the post Cold War period the gathering of economic intelligence has moved to the fore both on UK companies, competitors in Europe, and Third World countries. It is said that supposedly private communications of organisations like Rolls Royce, Marconi, British oil and mining companies are being intercepted.
It was also revealed that individuals whose action might embarrass the government or state agencies have also been targeted. These include the telephones of Lieutenant Robert Lawrence, the Falklands war hero whose story was told in the film 'Tumbledown' because of Ministry of Defence concern over his claim for compensation; the Vatican and Roman Catholic archbishops to evaluate their attitude to changes in Eastern Europe; Kathleen Tacchi-Morris, the founder of Women for World Disarmament; east European trade unions; and Campbell Christie, general secretary of the Scottish Trade Union Congress.
The interception of communications is not limited to individuals. Communications satellites over the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and the Middle East are routinely trawled through "standard baseband surveys" or all calls to a particular dialling code are down loaded. The increased use of "keyword" software now enables them to select and transcribe a greater volume of traffic.
The legality of this operation is highly questionable. The Interception of Communications Act was passed in 1985 after pressure from the European Court of Human Rights. It was supposed to place limits on those placed under surveillance and the grounds for doing so. The Act placed the formal responsibility on the Home Secretary to issue warrants but this GCHQ operation, run in conjunction with the US National Security Agency comes under the Foreign Secretary.
Guardian 16.7.91 & 17.7.91.