[governance] (Tangential) How do you keep the natives from getting restless?

[Riaz K Tayob]

  David Cameron Says GCHQ Operates 'Within The Law', Following Prism
  Revelations

*The Huffington Post UK*  |  By Ned Simons 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ned-simons> Posted: 10/06/2013 12:14 
BST  |  Updated: 10/06/2013 12:14

David Cameron has said British intelligence agencies operate "within a 
legal framework", as MPs prepare to grill William Hague on GCHQ's 
involvement with the American Prism internet surveillance system.

"I think it is right that we have well-organised, well-funded 
intelligence services to help keep us safe," the prime minister said on 
Monday morning.

"But let me be absolutely clear. They are intelligence services that 
operate within the law, within a law that we have laid down, and they 
are also subject to proper scrutiny by the intelligence and security 
committee (ISC) in the House of Commons."

The foreign secretary, who is due to make a statement on the allegations 
in the Commons later, has said the law-abiding British public had 
"nothing to fear" from the work of GCHQ.

However MPs are likely to press Hague on whether the intelligence 
service has always abided by the legal framework.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the chairman of the ISC, told BBC Radio 4's Today 
programme that GCHQ would have needed to ask ministers before requesting 
information on British citizens' internet activity from the United States.

"The law is actually quite clear: if the British intelligence agencies 
are seeking to know the content of emails by people living in the UK, 
then they actually have to get lawful authority. Normally that means 
ministerial authority," he said.

"That applies equally whether they are going to do the intercept 
themselves or whether they are going to ask somebody else to do it on 
their behalf."

The whistleblower who exposed the programme 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/10/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower_n_3413558.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics> 
has condemned the US government's attempts "to destroy privacy, internet 
freedom and basic liberty".

Details about the programme, and GCHQ's links to it, emerged in The 
Guardian 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2013/jun/10/edward-snowden-revealed-as-nsa-whistleblower-reaction-live> 
newspaper following a leak by a former technical worker at the CIA and 
National Security Agency (NSA).

Edward Snowden, 29, an American IT administrator for the defence 
contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, revealed his identity 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/10/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower_n_3413558.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics> 
at his own request, the newspaper said.

Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong, said: "I can't allow the US government 
to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties. My sole motive 
is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that 
which is done against them."

Prism is said to give the NSA and FBI easy access to the systems of nine 
of the world's top internet companies, including Google, Facebook, 
Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Skype.

The row crossed the Atlantic after documents emerged suggesting British 
eavesdropping agency GCHQ had access to the system since at least June 2010.

On Monday Downing Street said the UK has "exceptional" intelligence 
sharing with the US but said it would not comment on specific 
trans-atlantic conversations that may or may not have happened in 
relation to Prism.

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