UK signs EU statement rapping US spying activities

Press TV: The UK government has reluctantly, but without opposition, endorsed a European Union (EU) statement in which the member states voiced “deep concern” over Washington’s illegal spying activities on its allies and adversaries alike.

The common EU statement was drafted by Germany and France to demand the White House sign a “code of conduct” with Europe to make it impossible for the US spying apparatus to conduct surveillance into all members of the European Union.

The German and French governments were also seeking to isolate Britain due to its close cooperation with the US in global spying operations exposed by former CIA contractor and fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden in leaks to the London-based The Guardian newspaper.

The statement came after fresh revelations showed that a US listening post in Berlin had been tapping into German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.

Merkel told a Brussels summit on the conduct of US snooping activities that the world now needs new international agreements to hold spy agencies in check.

The UK foreign spying apparatus, MI6, meanwhile, stands accused of spying on Italy. Prime Minister David Cameron, who was attending the same summit, was forced by 27 other European leaders to sign the common EU statement.

Angela Merkel described David Cameron’s endorsement of the EU statement as “silent acquiescence”.

“David Cameron was present at the discussion. He listened to it. He wasn’t against it. That is silent acquiescence as far as I go,” she said.

“Heads of state or government discussed recent developments concerning possible intelligence issues and the deep concerns that these events have raised among European citizens,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is the UK’s domestic spying apparatus and works in parallel with the MI5, is revealed to have been making every attempt to prevent legal challenges against it over its illegal spying operations.

Snowden’s new revelations show the extent to which the GCHQ felt frightened of being challenged under the Human Rights Act if details of its attacks on privacy were leaked.

Earlier leaks indicated that the GCHQ had been running a massive project entitled “Tempora” under which the spying agency had been able to intercept and save for up to 30 days huge amounts of data including emails, social network posts, phone calls and much more culled from international under-sea fiber-optic cables.

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