The US government wants a
blanket right to tap secretly all international phone calls and e-mails made
and received by US citizens.
In a letter to Congress in which he proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said,
“The proposal makes clear that court orders are not necessary to
effectively collect foreign intelligence about foreign targets overseas. The
proposal would also provide a means of obtaining assistance that may be
required from private parties.”
This means the government could force communications companies to
hand over customers' details, records and content of their messages. Nor
would it have to prove a prior link between terrorism or serious organised
crime. Information gained would be available to officials for 10 years.
The proposal prevents communications companies from telling their customers
that they are subject to investigation, and protects them from being sued by
customers. (source).
In the UK
telecoms providers will have to retain data about telephone calls for one year,
under legislation
passed by parliament on 25 July.
In a statutory instrument coming into force on 1 October this year, the home
secretary, Jacqui Smith, enacted last year's European
data retention directive, which told member states to retain traffic and
location data on telephone calls to assist in tackling crime. It said countries
should set the retention period from six months to two years. (source).
This now means that for any UK
company that does business in the US,
you now have no secrets, commercial or otherwise, as the new US law will allow
wire tapping, listening into the calls.
UK companies already have to comply with the Sarbanes Oxley
Act and hand over their accounts to the US, they have their financial
transactions handed over by the EU to the US if you use SWIFT, your personal
details handed to the US if you travel to the states and if the American
authorities don’t like the way you do business, they can conduct corruption
hearings and can have you extradited to stand trial without recourse or proof to
a UK court.
What is the UK
government doing to protect the interests of UK
companies ???
Absolutely nothing…..why, don't you know its all for your own good, its for your security, its all in the name of anti terrorism.
NuLab – Destroying Britain
from the inside out.
