Britain Used Spy Team to Shape Latin American Public Opinion on Falklands
Britain Used Spy Team to Shape Latin American Public Opinion on Falklands
By Andrew Fishman and Glenn Greenwald @AndrewDFish@ggreenwald Today at 11:51 AM
Faced with mounting international pressure over the Falkland Islands territorial dispute, the British government enlisted its spy service, including a highly secretive unit known for using dirty tricks, to covertly launch offensive cyberoperations to prevent Argentina from taking the islands.
A shadowy unit of the British spy agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had been preparing a bold, covert plan called Operation QUITO since at least 2009. Documents provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, published in partnership with Argentine news site Todo Notícias, refer to the mission as a long-running, large scale, pioneering effects operation.
At the heart of this operation was the Joint Threat Research and Intelligence Group, known by the acronym JTRIG, a secretive unit that has been involved in spreading misinformation.
The British government, which has continuously administered the Falkland Islands also known as the Malvinas since 1833, has rejected Argentine and international calls to open negotiations on territorial sovereignty. Worried that Argentina, emboldened by international opinion, may attempt to retake the islands diplomatically or militarily, JTRIG and other GCHQ divisions were tasked to support FCOs [Foreign and Commonwealth Offices] goals relating to Argentina and the Falkland Islands. A subsequent document suggests the main FCO goal was to [prevent] Argentina from taking over the Falkland Islands and that new offensive cyberoperations were underway in 2011 to further that end.
More:
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/02/gchq-argentina-falklands/
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)God forbid Great Britain should want to protect one of it's sovereign territories from a potential aggressor...
And he printed it on the anniversary of the invasion, no less...Jesus Christ he's got some fuckin' hubris
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)is an outrage to some people apparently.
They must have worked really hard to get themselves in a froth over this one.