It seems the UK govt can join the global ranks of despots.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33370406Campaign group Amnesty International has called for an independent inquiry after it was confirmed it was spied on by British surveillance agency GCHQ.
It said it was "outrageous" that human rights bodies were being monitored.
It came after the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) informed Amnesty that GCHQ had breached rules by keeping data intercepted from it for too long - although it had been collected legally.
The IPT was revising an earlier ruling that had failed to name Amnesty. The tribunal had said in June that GCHQ failed to delete data intercepted from two other rights groups on time.
But it confirmed on Thursday that it was mistaken, and that one of the groups was Amnesty.
Is nothing sacred to these destroyers of trust and public confidence?
Whilst these govt backed spy agencies may pat themselves on the back claiming all sorts of pretend victories against perceived but not credible threats we face the reality that they are undermining the publics rights and ability to have trust in the privacy of their communications, this has the effect of stifling free speech and dividing opposition to extremist govt policies that are not acceptable in the real world.
How many of you would be happy to have your traditional mail torn open and read before it arrived at your door ? Worse, not just
some mail but
all of it and then allow the govt to store all of the letters contents for some years.
Privacy is something we have to continue to fight for as it seems the alternative is to lose our rights and cede them to petty unnamed officials who seek to undermine the pillars of a free and democratic society whilst reciting some vague mantra about security, there is no security with such heavy handed tactics, only the illusion of it for those unaware of the scope of such questionable activities.
