Surveillance Commissioner issues whitewash report
I've written elsewhere about the Chief Surveillance Commissioner, who issued his Annual Report into surveillance in the United Kingdom this week. It shows that the level of covert surveillance in this country is shocking – these operations are now part of our nation's everyday life.
As readers of this site will know all too well, this surveillance isn’t just being run by MI5 or the police, and it’s not just mounted to detect serious crime or terrorism. Very real concerns about covert surveillance by local councils are dismissed by the Commissioner with two cursory paragraphs, with the suggestion that the problem lies with the way that the media reports such surveillance. This really is a grave abrogation of his responsibilities.
As our research showed, local councils approved and conducted over 8,500 separate covert surveillance operations in the last two years. Surveillance has been used for everything from allegations of benefit fraud and fly-tipping to dog fouling and allegations of lying about which school catchment area you live in. For this, councils up and down the country empower their employees to watch and record us for days or sometimes weeks. Take a look at the table in our research and you’ll probably see that your own council has done this. Not only has the media been reporting on a genuine concern, it is far more common and far more serious than the Commissioner can bring himself to admit. He should be a champion of accountability in surveillance, not an apologist for it. After all, this is the body we depend on to bring responsibility to this area – if he won’t take such abuses seriously, who will?
Worst of all, the Commissioner has revealed that after four years of his expensive endeavours the number of operations conducted in the past year that were unauthorised has gone up: there has been an increase in operations that broke the important and serious rules on covert surveillance and should never have happened. In last year’s report, he stated that he was happy that the appropriate disciplinary measures had been meted out in each such case. He gives no such assurance this year.
These unauthorised operations were not only intrusive, but also often extensive – the longest lasted for 24 days. That's over three weeks of illegal surveillance by the state, of people against whom nothing at all has been proven, and have not even been charged, without any apparent repercussions for those who did it. Because the Commissioner refuses to release any details of these unlawful operations, the victims of this outrageous intrusion will never know that they and their families were watched. In such circumstances it is not scaremongering but simply stating the obvious to say that it could have happened to you.
The newest disclosure is really the worst: a total of 661 errors, in which organisations obtained the wrong communications data, were reported to the ICC by public authorities in 2009. Again, instead of being critical of these abuses, the Commissioner is an apologist for those who committed them. Kennedy said that although the number seems large:
"it is very small when it is compared to the numbers of requests for data which are made nationally. I am not convinced that any useful purpose would be served by providing a more detailed report of these errors. I should add that neither I nor any of my inspectors have uncovered any wilful or reckless conduct which has been the cause of these errors," he said.
Kennedy disclosed that a "considerable proportion" of the errors were due to the incorrect transposition of telephone numbers. That is to say that people were snooped on for no good reason due to administrative incompetence by the snoopers, and they have no right to know that their conversations were listened to, or who did it, or for how long, or what they heard.
I discussed this matter on Radio 4’s World Tonight. I stressed the seriousness of the fact that the Commissioner had overseen an increase in unlawful surveillance. It would have been good to hear their view on this but in a moment of delicious but apparently unappreciated irony, the Office responsible for bringing accountability and transparency to this opaque and sometimes frightening field… refused to discuss the matter in public.
By Alex Deane
3 Comments
Redacted
29th July 2010I wasn’t aware that there was such an office. If this is the best it can do, it must be a candidate for de-funding I would think.
Is it just a pseudo-authoritative rubberstamp for whatever happens in practice?
thecredo
31st July 2010“it is very small when it is compared to the numbers of requests for data which are made nationally…”
These guys seems to have the same comms team as BP, or the Liverpool apologist:
“The truth is, the death toll is very small when you compare it with other major disasters,”
‘a “tiny amount” in a “very big ocean”‘
Even one mistake is too many. Much in the same way that if you – say – have twelve children and one is killed, that is too many, as well.
We’ve *got* to get this quota mentality put into the grave, and carry on with some ruddy common sense! It’s doing my head in!
Demetrius Skortou
25th October 2010DearSir/Madam, Date: 25/10/10
I’m not sure whether you can help me with this matter explained below. I have tried everything to end this 7 year & 7 month nightmare. Below, I have tried to explain, exactly what has been happening to me since April 2003. No one in authority has done anything to put a stop to this intimidation & harassment. Perhaps you could give me some legal advice on what to do about this bizarre matter?
I sent the E-Mail below, to the following people; Big Brother Watch & Houses Of Parliament, for what it was worth! A few years ago I sent an E-Mail to the IPT (Investigations Powers Tribunal). However, they told me “my case could not be proved”. The IPT went on to say “that under RIPA regulations, they cannot confirm or deny whether an individual is under surveillance or not”. It doesn’t require an expert in law to realise, The IPT are just another quango, a public relations exercise, who are obtaining money from the taxpayers under false prentices. The sooner this IPT are disbanded, the better.
E-MAIL
I have found myself to be a victim of this intrusive surveillance, for nearly 8 years now!
Sometime in April 2003, a number of closed circuit TV cameras, were inserted into the cavity of my apartments walls, from the flat above me. These are special cameras that can see through four inches of plaster. The legal tenant (Miss Maxine Claypole) has not lived at her address for nearly all the time those cameras have been there, along with two people who have been waking me up, everyday, between 2:30am & 6:30am every morning for over 2900 days!
There are also unmarked aircraft/helicopters, that have been deliberately waking me up & following me, where ever I go, every day for nearly 8 years. I have written to both the CAA & the NATS, about these unmarked aircraft, and they assure me, that their should not be any aircraft circling or flying over my area of Tabard Gardens Estate. In any case, these unmarked aircraft are not registered with the CAA or the NATS. I have also written four times to the MOD, about these unmarked aircraft. However, the MOD just put my E-Mails on file. I know the MOD knows who these unmarked aircraft belong to, but they are not saying.
I don’t know what these people want with me. I have broken no laws, nor am I planning too. I don’t know how these people are allowed to psychologically torture me ( deprive me of proper sleep) and get away it, for all this time. I have no doubts that someone within our security forces obtained legal warrants on behalf of this American black operations group? And this bogus Terrorism Act was used as an excuse to obtain warrants against me.
In April of 2003, I was confronted by an American man as I walked across Tower Bridge Road; stepping in front of me he said “he just mislaid his wife”. I didn’t know why he was telling me this. However, when I looked up above the Café shops flat, I saw two people standing there behind a video camera, placed on a tripod. I must have surprised them when I looked up, because they backed away from the camera. I now know that the American was just trying to avert my attention away from these two people. I thought at first that they were just making a TV documentary, perhaps?
However, a week later, the same day, Miss Maxine Claypole moved into Tabard House, I saw this same American outside the flat above me. He looked at me, then Maxine and gestured to her to stay put, inside her flat. I thought it was odd seeing this same American guy outside of the flat directly above me. Straight after, there was a lot of drilling going on from above, you could hear these people placing items inside the cavity of my walls. Whoever these people are, they also had permission from someone in authority to black out the whole block, for up to 7 hours, to connect their surveillance equipment.
How I know these people can see me is, when I try to close my eyes, those from above, bang down. when I open my eyes, they stop. This has been going on now for nearly 8 years. I have tried everything to have these illegal occupiers of the flat above me, evicted from the premises. However, Southwark Council claim they have checked the premises and are satisfied that the legal tenant has been living there alone.
I cannot believe the Council could be so incompetent. Someone within Southwark Council did all the paper work to move Miss Claypole from Beckett House to Tabard House in April 2003. I know that Miss Claypole is friendly with a councillor, she has known for sometime now.
I have been writing to the government; Prime Ministers, Home Secretaries (which don’t seem to last long every time I have written to them), my own MP Simon Hughes, Liberty, Citizens Advice Bureau, to try and find out (for the first time in nearly 8 years), who these people are and what they want from me. It is almost certain that they want me out of the house so they can then break in secretly and take what they may believe to be important to them.
I know for sure now that I have been under intrusive electronic surveillance for nearly 8 years. If I can prove that I have been under surveillance for sometime, then I will also be able to prove that any warrants that may have been issued against me were also unlawful.
No one in authority has done anything to stop these people from putting my health & safety at serious risk. I have already lost 3 stone in weight from lack of sleep. This whole episode has been a nightmare. Some, who I have wrote to claim they don’t believe me when I told them I was under surveillance. And, others claim I am just wrong or they pretend not to believe any of this. I simply don’t know what to do. Perhaps, you could give me some suggestions on what my next move could be?
I cannot be entirely sure, why I find myself under surveillance. It could have something to do with some letters I wrote many years ago to some people within authority. As well as tell friends about a possible conspiracy against our country.
For many years I have suspected that all those bombs that have been going off in this country, by several factions of the IRA and Al Qaeda, have had nothing to do with wanting a United Ireland, or to get troops out of Afghanistan or Iraq, but to force politicians from both the Conservative & Labour parties to sign all of those treaties that have come from this European Union, the British people did not vote for in the first place. The EU actually stems from the 1946 US Marshall Plan. Some of those in the American Establishment wanted Great Britain, dragged into a one nation Euro state. Which is exactly what Adolf Hitler wanted. I also know that US Black Operations Groups recruit Neo-Nazi types to give technical help to terrorist groups and to plant bombs, which Neo-Nazis have done in the past.
So much of our power & sovereignty has been handed over to these people, within the EU, including signing other treaties that have allowed foreign competitors like Mercedes to buy Rolls Royce & the Mini Cooper, the Americans, Aston Martin & Jaguar. Not to mention the unprecedented powers that has been given to the security forces, which they would never have acquired, unless there were acts of terrorism being conducted against our country.
Have a look at other treaties that have been signed and voted for and only by those in the political classes, like this Lisbon Constitution which later became a “Treaty”. Inside this treaty, lies control of all of Britain’s armed forces, intelligence agencies, and police force. Control of all of our schools, hospitals, transport infrastructure and our industries, especially our space industry. Not to mention the signing of the Ascension Treaty which has allowed employers, an embarrassment of riches of foreign cheap labour to choose from, thus, creating a low wage culture and to boost the profits of all companies in this country. All of these treaties have been for the benefit of the rich & powerful and were virtually signed in secret behind closed doors and without the knowledge or consent of the British people.
Whether, all of what I have suspected as regards the possibility of false flag terrorist bombings has been happening or not. It seems more than a coincidence to me, after sending letters & telling friends about the possibility of a conspiracy against our country, that these people suddenly turn up and start a surveillance operation against me. I also know that Miss Claypole had a holiday in the USA a few years ago. Exactly how Miss Claypole (who has been claiming benefits) could afford an expensive trip to the US is beyond me. I suppose her family could have paid for it.
I have written several times to the Benefit Fraud Office about Miss Claypole. However, nothing has been done to stop Miss Claypole from defrauding the benefit system, by not declaring the money she has been making from these surveillance people, to the DHSS.
I am absolutely certain that I have been under some sought of electronic intrusive surveillance by an organisation, who has obtained warrants under false pretences. I also believe that the same people, who have been harassing & intimidating me, work for some US intelligence service.
Am I wrong, about all of this? Do I appear to sound just like another conspiracy theorist?
I am certain, that these people, who have me under surveillance, work for some powerful executive committee, who I believe, set up bogus/manufactured terrorist cells, using Muslim extremists to plant bombs in this country and forcing some of these politicians to sign all of these different treaties since 1975 and without a proper mandate from the British people.
What do you think about all of this?
Is there any legal advice you could perhaps give me on how I can solve this seemingly impossible situation, I find myself in?
Yours Faithfully,
Demetrius Skortou