Europe spies too: Leaked documents point to cooperative surveillance program

[unhappycamper]

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/1102/Europe-spies-too-Leaked-documents-point-to-cooperative-surveillance-program



Former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden looks at a photographer on a boat during a trip on the Moscow River in Moscow, Russia, with the Christ the Savior Cathedral in the background. Edward Snowden is calling for international help to persuade the U.S. to drop its espionage charges against him, according to a letter a German lawmaker released Friday after he met the American in Moscow.

Europe spies too: Leaked documents point to cooperative surveillance program
By Estelle Shirbon, Reuters / November 2, 2013

Spy agencies across Western Europe are working together on mass surveillance of Internet and phone traffic comparable to programs run by their US counterpart denounced by European governments, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.

Citing documents leaked by fugitive former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, the Guardian said methods included tapping into fibre optic cables and working covertly with private telecommunications companies.

The Guardian named Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands as countries where intelligence agencies had been developing such methods in cooperation with counterparts including Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ.

The report is potentially embarrassing for governments, especially in Germany and France which have been the most vocal in protesting about US mass surveillance of European communication networks revealed by Snowden since June.