Sebuah
jet Typhoon daripada Tentera Udara Diraja British (RAF) mendarat di pangkalan
British di Akrotiri, berhampiran bandar Limassol 29 Ogos 2013. (A Typhoon jet
of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) lands at a British base at Akrotiri, near
the city of Limassol August 29, 2013. (Reuters/Yiannis Nisiotis – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
MADAyuMadyan - Cyprus
Timur Tengah, Afrika Utara dan komunikasi Eropah sebaha-gian besarnya dikawal
oleh perisikan British, bersarang di pangkalan tentera UK di Cyprus, media
mendedahkan. Swasta komunikasi diplomatik dan perniagaan didakwa semua berada
di bawah pengawasan.
Cyprus
adalah tempat di mana banyak trans-Mediterranean kabel gentian optik dari Timur
Tengah, Afrika Utara dan Eropah datang ke pantai, menjadikannya hab komunikasi
pilihan yang tepat untuk menanam alat mengintip.
Satu
laporan siasatan bersama oleh pasukan media merentas Eropah kini mendakwa
peluang itu tidak sia-sia dengan Ibu Pejabat Komunikasi Kerajaan Britain (GCHQ).
Menurut
Itali L ‘Espresso, pemasangan rahsia nama kod ‘Pemerum’ terletak di wilayah
Station Ayios Nikolaos, sebahagian daripada di Kawasan Pangkalan Sovereign
British Dhekelia, di timur pulau itu. Stesen ini bersenjata dengan gigi antena
dan radar imbasan gelombang udara selama beratus-ratus kilometer di sekitarnya.
Perkhidmatan
rahsia British telah ditoreh ke dalam sekurang-kurangnya 14 kabel dasar laut
melalui Cyprus menggunakan splitter optik pasif, tuntutan laporan. Ini kononnya
membolehkan GCHQ untuk memproses berjuta-juta e-mel, sms mesej dan panggilan
telefon setiap hari untuk sentiasa dimaklumkan mengenai hampir apa-apa aktiviti
di rantau itu.
“Beberapa
kabel menyambung Cyprus kepada Israel dan Syria, sasaran yang jelas untuk Anglo-Amerika
mengintip. Kabel lain dijalankan dari Cyprus ke Lubnan, Cyprus ke Mesir dan
Turki ke Greece dan Itali,” L’ Espresso dilaporkan.
Dalam
bahan-bahan yang diterbitkan secara berasingan, akhbar Yunani Ta Nea dan
televisyen saluran TV Alpha, serta dan harian German Sueddeutsche Zeitung,
mendedahkan bahawa perkhidmatan rahsia British telah memantau organisasi
perdagangan dan individu dari rantau Timur Tengah dan kerajaan
Mediterranean untuk tempoh yang tidak
didedahkan.
Jerman
harian, biasa dengan beberapa dokumen yang dikemukakan oleh pemberi maklumat
dan bekas kontraktor NSA Edward Snowden, juga mengekalkan mereka mempunyai
bukti kehadiran perisikan Amerika di dasar British di Cyprus.
“Dokumen
itu berkata kakitangan perisikan Amerika yang diperlukan untuk berpakaian
sebagai pelancong, kerana UK telah berjanji kerajaan Cyprus hanya kakitangan
British akan bekerja di sana,” kata L’ Espresso.
Apabila
ibu pejabat GCHQ di Cheltenham telah dihubungi untuk mendapatkan komen mengenai
isu itu, mereka mengeluarkan jawapan standard: “Ia adalah dasar lamanya kita
tidak mengulas mengenai perkara perisikan.”
Berita
itu datang di atas diturunkan dalam akhbar Independent di UK, yang mendakwa
bahawa GCHQ digunakan di UK kedutaan Berlin untuk mengintip Bundestag yang berdekatan,
serta pejabat Canselor Angela Merkel. Walaupun laporan dalam Washington Post
menegaskan bahawa agensi perisikan UK memintas maklumat dalaman dari rangkaian
swasta Google dan Yahoo dan diberi makan kepada rakan sejawatannya di Amerika,
NSA.
Ayat-ayat
yang telah meninggalkan kerajaan British merah di muka. Pada akhir Oktober,
Perdana Menteri, David Cameron menegaskan media perlu berhenti menerbitkan
pendedahan Snowden, mengatakan mereka menjadikan negara ini “kurang selamat.”
“Saya
rasa ia adalah lebih baik untuk merayu kepada rasa surat khabar ‘tanggungjawab
sosial. Tetapi jika mereka tidak menunjukkan beberapa tanggungjawab sosial ia
akan menjadi sangat sukar bagi kerajaan untuk berdiri kembali dan yang tidak
bertindak,” katanya.
UK’s military base in Cyprus ‘taps into Middle
East,
Mediterranean comms’ . . .
Mideast,
North African and European communications are largely controlled by British
intelligence, nesting at a UK military base in Cyprus, media reveal. Private,
diplomatic and business communications allegedly all come under surveillance.
Cyprus
is a place where many trans-Mediterranean fiber-optic cables from the Middle
East, Northern Africa and Europe come ashore, making this communication hub a
perfect choice to plant a spying device.
A joint
investigative report by a cross-European media team now claims the chance has
not been wasted with Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
According
to Italian L’Espresso, a secret installation codenamed ‘Sounder’ is situated on
the territory of Ayios Nikolaos Station, a part of in the British Sovereign
Base Area of Dhekelia, in the east of the island. The station is armed to teeth
with antennas and radars scanning the airwaves for hundreds of kilometers
around.
British
secret service has tapped into at least 14 undersea cables passing through
Cyprus using passive optical splitters, the report claims. This allegedly
enables the GCHQ to process tens of millions of e-mails, sms messages and phone
calls on a daily basis to stay informed about practically any activity in the
region.
“A
number of cables connect Cyprus to Israel and Syria, obvious targets for
Anglo-American spying. Other cables run from Cyprus to Lebanon, Cyprus to Egypt
and Turkey to Greece and Italy,” L’Espresso reported.
In
separately published materials, Greek newspaper Ta Nea and television channel
Alpha TV, as well as and German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, revealed that
British secret services have been monitoring governments’ trade organizations
and individuals from the Mideast and Mediterranean region for an undisclosed
period.
The
German daily, familiar with some documents presented by whistleblower and
former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, also maintains they have evidence of
American intelligence’s presence at the British base on Cyprus.
“The
document says American intelligence staff are required to dress as tourists,
because the UK has promised the Cyprus government that only British staff will
work there,” L’Espresso said.
When
GCHQ headquarters in Cheltenham were reached for comment on the issue, they
issued a standard reply: “It is longstanding policy that we do not comment on
intelligence matters.”
The news
comes on top of a revelation in the UK’s Independent newspaper, which claimed
that GCHQ used the UK’s Berlin embassy to spy on the nearby Bundestag, as well
as the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel. While a report in the Washington
Post maintained that the UK spy agency intercepted internal information from
Google and Yahoo’s private networks and fed it to its American counterpart, the
NSA.
The
revelations have left the British government red in the face. In late October,
Prime Minister David Cameron insisted the media should stop publishing
Snowden’s disclosures, saying they make the country “less safe.”
“I think
it’s much better to appeal to newspapers’ sense of social responsibility. But
if they don’t demonstrate some social responsibility it would be very difficult
for government to stand back and not to act,” he said.
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