Excerpt: "Documents published today by The Intercept demonstrate how the
Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), a unit of the signals
intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), is
involved in efforts against political groups it considers 'extremist,'
Islamist activity in schools, the drug trade, online fraud and financial
scams."
GCHQ. (photo: Getty Images)
British Documents Reveal Massive Domestic Spying
By Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman, The Intercept
22 June 15
The spy unit responsible for some of the United Kingdom's most controversial
tactics of surveillance, online propaganda and deceit focuses extensively on
traditional law enforcement and domestic activities - even though officials
typically justify its activities by emphasizing foreign intelligence and
counterterrorism operations.
Documents published today by The Intercept demonstrate how the Joint Threat
Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), a unit of the signals intelligence
agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), is involved in efforts
against political groups it considers "extremist," Islamist activity in
schools, the drug trade, online fraud and financial scams.
Though its existence was secret until last year, JTRIG quickly developed a
distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty
tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets,
launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms,
pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping
discourse online.
Early official claims attempted to create the impression that JTRIG's
activities focused on international targets in places like Iran, Afghanistan
and Argentina. The closest the group seemed to get to home was in its
targeting of transnational "hacktivist" group Anonymous.
While some of the unit's activities are focused on the claimed areas, JTRIG
also appears to be intimately involved in traditional law enforcement areas
and U.K.-specific activity, as previously unpublished documents demonstrate.
An August 2009 JTRIG memo entitled "Operational Highlights" boasts of
"GCHQ's first serious crime effects operation" against a website that was
identifying police informants and members of a witness protection program.
Another operation investigated an Internet forum allegedly "used to
facilitate and execute online fraud." The document also describes GCHQ
advice provided "to assist the UK negotiating team on climate change."
Particularly revealing is a fascinating 42-page document from 2011 detailing
JTRIG's activities. It provides the most comprehensive and sweeping insight
to date into the scope of this unit's extreme methods. Entitled "Behavioral
Science Support for JTRIG's Effects and Online HUMINT [Human Intelligence]
Operations," it describes the types of targets on which the unit focuses,
the psychological and behavioral research it commissions and exploits, and
its future organizational aspirations. It is authored by a psychologist,
Mandeep K. Dhami.
Among other things, the document lays out the tactics the agency uses to
manipulate public opinion, its scientific and psychological research into
how human thinking and behavior can be influenced, and the broad range of
targets that are traditionally the province of law enforcement rather than
intelligence agencies.
JTRIG's domestic and law enforcement operations are made clear. The report
states that the controversial unit "currently collaborates with other
agencies" including the Metropolitan police, Security Service (MI5), Serious
Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Border Agency, Revenue and Customs (HMRC),
and National Public Order and Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). The document
highlights that key JTRIG objectives include "providing intelligence for
judicial outcomes"; monitoring "domestic extremist groups such as the
English Defence League by conducting online HUMINT"; "denying, deterring or
dissuading" criminals and "hacktivists"; and "deterring, disrupting or
degrading online consumerism of stolen data or child porn."
It touts the fact that the unit "may cover all areas of the globe."
Specifically, "operations are currently targeted at" numerous countries and
regions including Argentina, Eastern Europe and the U.K.
JTRIG's domestic operations fit into a larger pattern of U.K.-focused and
traditional law enforcement activities within GCHQ.
Many GCHQ documents describing the "missions" of the "customers" for which
it works make clear that the agency has a wide mandate far beyond national
security, including providing help on intelligence to the Bank of England,
to the Department for Children, Schools and Families on reporting of
"radicalization," to various departments on agriculture and whaling
activities, to government financial divisions to enable good investment
decisions, to police agencies to track suspected "boiler room fraud," and to
law enforcement agencies to improve "civil and family justice."
Previous reporting on the spy agency established its focus on what it
regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous,
other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists deemed to be "radical,"
even monitoring the visits of people to the WikiLeaks website. GCHQ also
stated in one internal memo that it studied and hacked popular software
programs to "enable police operations" and gave two examples of cracking
decryption software on behalf of the National Technical Assistance Centre,
one "a high profile police case" and the other a child abuse investigation.
The JTRIG unit of GCHQ is so notable because of its extensive use of
propaganda methods and other online tactics of deceit and manipulation. The
2011 report on the organization's operations, published today, summarizes
just some of those tactics:
Throughout this report, JTRIG's heavy reliance on its use of behavioral
science research (such as psychology) is emphasized as critical to its
operations. That includes detailed discussions of how to foster "obedience"
and "conformity":
In response to inquiries, GCHQ refused to provide on-the-record responses
beyond its boilerplate claim that all its activities are lawful.
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GCHQ. (photo: Getty Images)
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/22/controversial-gchq-unit-domest
ic-law-enforcement-propaganda/https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/22/
controversial-gchq-unit-domestic-law-enforcement-propaganda/
British Documents Reveal Massive Domestic Spying
By Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman, The Intercept
22 June 15
he spy unit responsible for some of the United Kingdom's most controversial
tactics of surveillance, online propaganda and deceit focuses extensively on
traditional law enforcement and domestic activities - even though officials
typically justify its activities by emphasizing foreign intelligence and
counterterrorism operations.
Documents published today by The Intercept demonstrate how the Joint Threat
Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), a unit of the signals intelligence
agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), is involved in efforts
against political groups it considers "extremist," Islamist activity in
schools, the drug trade, online fraud and financial scams.
Though its existence was secret until last year, JTRIG quickly developed a
distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty
tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets,
launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms,
pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping
discourse online.
Early official claims attempted to create the impression that JTRIG's
activities focused on international targets in places like Iran, Afghanistan
and Argentina. The closest the group seemed to get to home was in its
targeting of transnational "hacktivist" group Anonymous.
While some of the unit's activities are focused on the claimed areas, JTRIG
also appears to be intimately involved in traditional law enforcement areas
and U.K.-specific activity, as previously unpublished documents demonstrate.
An August 2009 JTRIG memo entitled "Operational Highlights" boasts of
"GCHQ's first serious crime effects operation" against a website that was
identifying police informants and members of a witness protection program.
Another operation investigated an Internet forum allegedly "used to
facilitate and execute online fraud." The document also describes GCHQ
advice provided "to assist the UK negotiating team on climate change."
Particularly revealing is a fascinating 42-page document from 2011 detailing
JTRIG's activities. It provides the most comprehensive and sweeping insight
to date into the scope of this unit's extreme methods. Entitled "Behavioral
Science Support for JTRIG's Effects and Online HUMINT [Human Intelligence]
Operations," it describes the types of targets on which the unit focuses,
the psychological and behavioral research it commissions and exploits, and
its future organizational aspirations. It is authored by a psychologist,
Mandeep K. Dhami.
Among other things, the document lays out the tactics the agency uses to
manipulate public opinion, its scientific and psychological research into
how human thinking and behavior can be influenced, and the broad range of
targets that are traditionally the province of law enforcement rather than
intelligence agencies.
JTRIG's domestic and law enforcement operations are made clear. The report
states that the controversial unit "currently collaborates with other
agencies" including the Metropolitan police, Security Service (MI5), Serious
Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Border Agency, Revenue and Customs (HMRC),
and National Public Order and Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). The document
highlights that key JTRIG objectives include "providing intelligence for
judicial outcomes"; monitoring "domestic extremist groups such as the
English Defence League by conducting online HUMINT"; "denying, deterring or
dissuading" criminals and "hacktivists"; and "deterring, disrupting or
degrading online consumerism of stolen data or child porn."
It touts the fact that the unit "may cover all areas of the globe."
Specifically, "operations are currently targeted at" numerous countries and
regions including Argentina, Eastern Europe and the U.K.
JTRIG's domestic operations fit into a larger pattern of U.K.-focused and
traditional law enforcement activities within GCHQ.
Many GCHQ documents describing the "missions" of the "customers" for which
it works make clear that the agency has a wide mandate far beyond national
security, including providing help on intelligence to the Bank of England,
to the Department for Children, Schools and Families on reporting of
"radicalization," to various departments on agriculture and whaling
activities, to government financial divisions to enable good investment
decisions, to police agencies to track suspected "boiler room fraud," and to
law enforcement agencies to improve "civil and family justice."
Previous reporting on the spy agency established its focus on what it
regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous,
other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists deemed to be "radical,"
even monitoring the visits of people to the WikiLeaks website. GCHQ also
stated in one internal memo that it studied and hacked popular software
programs to "enable police operations" and gave two examples of cracking
decryption software on behalf of the National Technical Assistance Centre,
one "a high profile police case" and the other a child abuse investigation.
The JTRIG unit of GCHQ is so notable because of its extensive use of
propaganda methods and other online tactics of deceit and manipulation. The
2011 report on the organization's operations, published today, summarizes
just some of those tactics:
Throughout this report, JTRIG's heavy reliance on its use of behavioral
science research (such as psychology) is emphasized as critical to its
operations. That includes detailed discussions of how to foster "obedience"
and "conformity":
In response to inquiries, GCHQ refused to provide on-the-record responses
beyond its boilerplate claim that all its activities are lawful.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
