Sebuah jet Typhoon daripada Tentera Udara Diraja British (RAF) mendarat di pangkalan British di Akrotiri, berhampiran bandar Limassol 29 Ogos 2013. (A Typhoon jet of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) lands at a British base at Akrotiri, near the city of Limassol August 29, 2013. (Reuters/Yiannis Nisiotis – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
SitiWanMahani - Cyprus Timur Tengah, Afrika Utara dan komunikasi Eropah sebaha-gian besarnya dikawal oleh perisikan British, bersarang di pangkalan tentera UK di Cyprus, media mendedahkan. Swasta komunikasi diplomatik dan perniagaan didakwa semua berada di bawah pengawasan.
Cyprus adalah tempat di mana banyak trans-Mediterranean kabel gentian optik dari Timur Tengah, Afrika Utara dan Eropah datang ke pantai, menjadikannya hab komunikasi pilihan yang tepat untuk menanam alat mengintip.
Satu laporan siasatan bersama oleh pasukan media merentas Eropah kini mendakwa peluang itu tidak sia-sia dengan Ibu Pejabat Komunikasi Kerajaan Britain (GCHQ).
Menurut Itali L ‘Espresso, pemasangan rahsia nama kod ‘Pemerum’ terletak di wilayah Station Ayios Nikolaos, sebahagian daripada di Kawasan Pangkalan Sovereign British Dhekelia, di timur pulau itu. Stesen ini bersenjata dengan gigi antena dan radar imbasan gelombang udara selama beratus-ratus kilometer di sekitarnya.
Perkhidmatan rahsia British telah ditoreh ke dalam sekurang-kurangnya 14 kabel dasar laut melalui Cyprus menggunakan splitter optik pasif, tuntutan laporan. Ini kononnya membolehkan GCHQ untuk memproses berjuta-juta e-mel, sms mesej dan panggilan telefon setiap hari untuk sentiasa dimaklumkan mengenai hampir apa-apa aktiviti di rantau itu.
“Beberapa kabel menyambung Cyprus kepada Israel dan Syria, sasaran yang jelas untuk Anglo-Amerika mengintip. Kabel lain dijalankan dari Cyprus ke Lubnan, Cyprus ke Mesir dan Turki ke Greece dan Itali,” L’ Espresso dilaporkan.
Dalam bahan-bahan yang diterbitkan secara berasingan, akhbar Yunani Ta Nea dan televisyen saluran TV Alpha, serta dan harian German Sueddeutsche Zeitung, mendedahkan bahawa perkhidmatan rahsia British telah memantau organisasi perdagangan dan individu dari rantau Timur Tengah dan kerajaan Mediterranean untuk tempoh yang tidak didedahkan.
Jerman harian, biasa dengan beberapa dokumen yang dikemukakan oleh pemberi mak-lumat dan bekas kontraktor NSA Edward Snowden, juga mengekalkan mereka mempunyai bukti kehadiran perisikan Amerika di dasar British di Cyprus.
“Dokumen itu berkata kakitangan perisikan Amerika yang diperlukan untuk berpakaian sebagai pelancong, kerana UK telah berjanji kerajaan Cyprus hanya kakitangan British akan bekerja di sana,” kata L’ Espresso.
Apabila ibu pejabat GCHQ di Cheltenham telah dihubungi untuk mendapatkan komen mengenai isu itu, mereka mengeluarkan jawapan standard: “Ia adalah dasar lamanya kita tidak mengulas mengenai perkara perisikan.”
Berita itu datang di atas diturunkan dalam akhbar Independent di UK, yang mendakwa bahawa GCHQ digunakan di UK kedutaan Berlin untuk mengintip Bundestag yang berdekatan, serta pejabat Canselor Angela Merkel. Walaupun laporan dalam Washington Post menegaskan bahawa agensi perisikan UK memintas maklumat dalaman dari rangkaian swasta Google dan Yahoo dan diberi makan kepada rakan sejawatannya di Amerika, NSA.
Ayat-ayat yang telah meninggalkan kerajaan British merah di muka. Pada akhir Oktober, Perdana Menteri, David Cameron menegaskan media perlu berhenti menerbitkan pende-dahan Snowden, mengatakan mereka menjadikan negara ini “kurang selamat.”
“Saya rasa ia adalah lebih baik untuk merayu kepada rasa surat khabar ‘tanggungjawab sosial. Tetapi jika mereka tidak menunjukkan beberapa tanggungjawab sosial ia akan menjadi sangat sukar bagi kerajaan untuk berdiri kembali dan yang tidak bertindak,” katanya.
UK’s military base in Cyprus ‘taps into Middle East,
Mediterranean comms’ . . .
Mideast, North African and European communications are largely controlled by British intelligence, nesting at a UK military base in Cyprus, media reveal. Private, diplomatic and business communications allegedly all come under surveillance.
Cyprus is a place where many trans-Mediterranean fiber-optic cables from the Middle East, Northern Africa and Europe come ashore, making this communication hub a perfect choice to plant a spying device.
A joint investigative report by a cross-European media team now claims the chance has not been wasted with Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
According to Italian L’Espresso, a secret installation codenamed ‘Sounder’ is situated on the territory of Ayios Nikolaos Station, a part of in the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia, in the east of the island. The station is armed to teeth with antennas and radars scanning the airwaves for hundreds of kilometers around.
British secret service has tapped into at least 14 undersea cables passing through Cyprus using passive optical splitters, the report claims. This allegedly enables the GCHQ to process tens of millions of e-mails, sms messages and phone calls on a daily basis to stay informed about practically any activity in the region.
“A number of cables connect Cyprus to Israel and Syria, obvious targets for Anglo-American spying. Other cables run from Cyprus to Lebanon, Cyprus to Egypt and Turkey to Greece and Italy,” L’Espresso reported.
In separately published materials, Greek newspaper Ta Nea and television channel Alpha TV, as well as and German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, revealed that British secret services have been monitoring governments’ trade organizations and individuals from the Mideast and Mediterranean region for an undisclosed period.
The German daily, familiar with some documents presented by whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, also maintains they have evidence of American intelligence’s presence at the British base on Cyprus.
“The document says American intelligence staff are required to dress as tourists, because the UK has promised the Cyprus government that only British staff will work there,” L’Espresso said.
When GCHQ headquarters in Cheltenham were reached for comment on the issue, they issued a standard reply: “It is longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters.”
The news comes on top of a revelation in the UK’s Independent newspaper, which claimed that GCHQ used the UK’s Berlin embassy to spy on the nearby Bundestag, as well as the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel. While a report in the Washington Post maintained that the UK spy agency intercepted internal information from Google and Yahoo’s private networks and fed it to its American counterpart, the NSA.
The revelations have left the British government red in the face. In late October, Prime Minister David Cameron insisted the media should stop publishing Snowden’s disclosures, saying they make the country “less safe.”
“I think it’s much better to appeal to newspapers’ sense of social responsibility. But if they don’t demonstrate some social responsibility it would be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act,” he said.
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