SIGINT, COMINT, SOSUS and GCHQ talk for U3A
Is Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the United States government who copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 without authorisation, a despicable traitor or a whistleblower for civil liberties?
Peter Cox, a senior manager who worked at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham for 32 years after joining as a Russian linguist, was in no doubt it was the former description.
At a recent meeting of Cowbridge U3A, he explained that Snowden, now living in temporary asylum in Russia, had done significant harm to the national security of this country, as well as that of the USA, through his disclosures about global surveillance and information gathering.
Although still bound by the Official Secrets Act, Mr Cox revealed that he was now able to give presentations on his career inside the secret world of British Intelligence because of Snowden’s leaks; much of the material is freely available on the Internet.
Daily, three billion text messages and 205 billion e-mails are sent worldwide, with 10 billion phone calls made. It is obviously impossible to monitor all of these, so the security services filter the communications data and focus on specific targets, such as hostile governments or regimes, terrorist cells, major criminal organisations (including drug cartels), spy networks and potential military threats. Unless you are involved in one of the above activities, your information privacy is highly unlikely to be compromised.
GCHQ, set up in the 1950s, is the successor to Bletchley Park where the breaking of encrypted enemy messages probably shortened World War II by two years and may have saved 20 million lives.
Mr Cox then gave the attentive audience details of how the ‘Five Eyes’ Community of Canada, the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand co-operate to collect and share information that enables each to maintain national security.
Listening posts (large receiver dishes) in these five countries or satellites orbiting in space monitor many sources of communication: ship to shore, air to ground, ground to ground, commercial and military satellites.
Computer systems may have viruses inserted that allow information to be collected. It then falls to GCHQ to filter, select, decrypt and process all the raw data, using linguists and analytical tools to produce worthwhile security facts.
Today, codes are far more complex than those cracked by the Bletchley Park boffins and may just consist of long strings of noughts and ones (binary code), although, on occasion, eavesdropping ‘in clear’ on short-range radio or telephone messages can occur, especially where military units are involved.
These cases, however, may well involve a physical close proximity to the sources, with the additional problem of remaining undetected.
GCHQ had its own spy in the 1980s, when Geoffrey Prime, working as a Russian linguist, passed information ranging from the merely sensitive to matters of the highest secrecy (for example SOSUS, the submarine sound surveillance system) to the Soviets. Though he insisted he wished to work for them for ideological motives, they still gave him money in return for secrets. Prime eventually served nearly 19 years in prison.
Mr Cox played some tapes of conversations (with subtitles), recorded in July 2014 between Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists and the military in Moscow which left little doubt that the Boeing 777 civilian airliner, en-route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, had been shot down by a rebel group, not the Ukrainian government forces.
The final, chilling Russian statement was along the lines of: “It was bringing spies, otherwise, what was it doing in a war zone?”
Technology at GCHQ has moved on from the four track reel-to-reel tape recorders of the early 1980s, but the important work of ensuring that the UK
Government has an information advantage continues relentlessly.
The brother of the writer of this piece was employed at GCHQ for less than three years over 30 years ago, but, even now, will answer any question about that establishment with the statement: “I cannot confirm or deny that.” Perhaps it’s time for him to read online what Edward Snowden has disclosed about Britain’s security network.
Next meeting: Entertainment by the Porthcawl Ukulele Band at 2pm on Wednesday, December 13 in Holy Cross Church, Cowbridge (please note change of venue). Visitors welcome (there is a small fee, which includes refreshments). www.u3asites.org.uk/cowbridge. SPM