Spying for whom?
by digby
In a shocking revelation, the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) today notified Amnesty International that UK government agencies had spied on the organization by intercepting, accessing and storing its communications.
In an email sent today, the Tribunal informed Amnesty International its 22 June ruling had mistakenly identified one of two NGOs which it found had been subjected to unlawful surveillance by the UK government. Today’s communication makes clear that it was actually Amnesty International Ltd, and not the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) that was spied on in addition to the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa.
The NGOs were among 10 organizations that launched a legal challenge against suspected unlawful mass surveillance of their work by the UK’s spy agencies.
“After 18 months of litigation and all the denials and subterfuge that entailed, we now have confirmation that we were in fact subjected to UK government mass surveillance. It’s outrageous that what has been often presented as being the domain of despotic rulers has been occurring on British soil, by the British government,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Why did they do it? Well, why not? After all, hardly anyone gives a shit about any of this. They can spy on whomever they choose on behalf of who knows what? After all, they’re spying on multi-national corporations and who knows who that benefits? (They say they’re spying on on “French” corporations, but my IRA is invested in all kinds of foreign stocks, including some of those same French companies … I guess that makes me French too. You too maybe.) Anyway, it’s unlikely to be workers in America or anywhere else, that’s for sure. But somebody’s benefiting. We just don’t know who.
But again, nobody gives a shit. Nothing to see here, folks …
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