Labour MPs protest as CIA gets power to snoop on any house in Britain

[Jei]

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Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 02:48:24 +0100
From: Mario Profaca <Mario.Profaca at zg.tel.hr>
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Subject: [Spy News] Labour MPs protest as CIA gets power to snoop on any house
    in Britain

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=114243

Labour MPs protest as CIA gets power to snoop on any house in Britain
By Severin Carrell
13 January 2002

The CIA has recruited British defence and hi-tech companies in an attempt to
acquire the latest technology for its spying missions and
intelligence-gathering.

The British firms, including the mobile-phone company Hutchison 3G and
aerospace contractor BAE Systems, are helping the CIA to develop
sophisticated map reading, 3-D mapping and computer communications
techniques.

In conflicts such as the war in Afghanistan, these projects would
potentially allow CIA agents in the war zone to translate an obscure
reference to a building, village or cave into a 3-D photo-realistic map of
the area via laptops and satellite phones.

One project funded by the CIA uses raw data provided by the Ordnance Survey
based on its digital maps of the UK, sparking criticism from MPs.

One Labour MP said the projects raised major questions about whether these
relationships were in Britain's interests. Alan Simpson, a senior member of
the left-wing Campaign group of backbenchers, said: "Where does this take
the CIA? If we're giving them the ability to plot grid references to any
house in Britain, it raises fundamental questions about whether this is in
the national interest."

The CIA, the world's largest and most powerful intelligence agency, has been
under immense pressure to catch up with the rapid developments and spread of
computer and internet technology over the past decade. Its directors admit
that the size and reach of the internet has left it struggling to catch up.
In 1999, it set up a unique private company called In-Q-Tel to invest about
$30m a year in hi-tech companies and research projects.

"We make investments in companies where we have a strategic interest in the
technology," a spokeswoman said.

Five British firms have become collaborators or contractors for In-Q-Tel
through a US-dominated alliance of more than 220 private companies,
government agencies and universities called the Open GIS Consortium (OGC) to
develop common technological standards for computers.

In one project overseen by OGC, Hutchison 3G is a partner with In-Q-Tel and
five US firms to design a system which allows wireless links between
computers. The mobile-phone company Vodaphone is a contractor and the
British companies Laser-Scan and its owner, Yeoman Group, have become
observers in the project.

In another project, In-Q-Tel has hired a division of BAE Systems and
Laser-Scan, which makes digital and internet maps, to develop ways of
linking geographical data from separate sources – a technique known as
inter-operability. This project uses Ordnance Survey data.

Laser-Scan is also involved with the Military Mapping Project, where the CIA
and US Army is developing further sophisticated 3-D mapping techniques, such
as sending them via the internet, in a restricted project also overseen by
OGC.

British companies appear to have avoided the most controversial projects
funded by In-Q-Tel. One US firm called SafeWeb had been paid to give the CIA
the ability to snoop on internet web sites without being detected.

All the companies and agencies involved insisted the projects were above
board, and Ordnance Survey stressed that its data was used simply for
research purposes.

In-Q-Tel denied that it required its contractors to sign secrecy deals with
the CIA, or expected to control the results of its projects with OGC.



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