Snowden
spy row grows as US is accused of hacking China
Whistleblower
charged with espionage reportedly claims US authorities accessed
millions of private text messages in China
22
June, 2013
Edward
Snowden, the former CIA technician who blew the whistle on global
surveillance operations, has opened a new front against the US
authorities, claiming they hacked into Chinese mobile phone companies
to access millions of private text messages.
His
latest claims came as US officials, who have filed criminal charges
against him, warned Hong Kong to comply with an extradition request
or risk complicating diplomatic relations after some of the
territory's politicians called for Snowden to be protected.
The
latest developments will raise fears that the US's action may have
pushed Snowden into the hands of the Chinese, triggering what could
be a tense and prolonged diplomatic and legal wrangle between the
world's two leading superpowers.
Snowden,
whose whereabouts have not been publicly known since he checked out
of a Hong Kong hotel on 10 June, was reported by the Chinese media on
Saturday to be in a "safe place" in the former British
colony.
The
30-year-old intelligence analyst has over the past three weeks leaked
a series of documents to the Guardian revealing how US and UK secret
services gain access to huge amounts of phone and internet data,
raising serious questions about privacy in the internet age.
On
Friday, based on documents from Snowden, the Guardian reported that
Britain's spy agency GCHQ has secretly gained access to the network
of cables carrying the world's phone calls and internet traffic,
without the authorities having made this known to the public. It was
also reported that GCHQ is processing vast streams of sensitive
information which it is sharing with its US partner, the National
Security Agency.
On
Saturday the former British foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind,
who now chairs the intelligence and security committee, said the
committee would launch an investigation into the latest revelations.
The committee will receive an official report from GCHQ about the
story within days and will then decide whether to call witnesses to
give oral evidence. If it is then thought necessary, the committee
can require GCHQ to submit relevant data.
Within
hours of news breaking that the US had filed charges against Snowden,
the South China Morning Post reported that the whistleblower had
handed over a series of documents to the paper detailing how the US
had targeted Chinese phone companies as part of a widespread attempt
to get its hands on a mass of data.
Text
messaging is the most popular form of communication in mainland China
where more than 900bn SMS messages were exchanged in 2012.Snowden
reportedly told the paper: "The NSA does all kinds of things
like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data."
The
paper said Snowden had also passed on information detailing NSA
attacks on China's prestigious Tsinghua University, the hub of a
major digital network from which data on millions of Chinese citizens
could be harvested.
As
Snowden made his latest disclosures, the US issued an extradition
request to Hong Kong and piled pressure on the territory to respond
swiftly. "If Hong Kong doesn't act soon, it will complicate our
bilateral relations and raise questions about Hong Kong's commitment
to the rule of law," a senior Obama administration official
said.
Snowden
appeared to be gaining support from politicians in Hong Kong who said
China should support him against any extradition application from the
US, which on Friday charged him under its Espionage Act. One
legislator, Leung Kwok-hung, said Beijing should issue instructions
to protect Snowden from extradition before his case was dragged
through the courts. Leung urged the Hong Kong people to "take to
the streets to protect Snowden". Another politician, Cyd Ho,
vice-chairwoman of the pro-democracy Labour party, said China "should
now make its stance clear to the Hong Kong SAR [Special
Administrative Region] government" before the case goes before a
court.
China
has urged Washington to provide explanations following Snowden's
disclosures that NSA programs collect millions of telephone records
and track foreign internet activity on US networks. In a press
conference Hong Kong's police commissioner, Andy Tsang, indicated
that the normal legal process would be followed after the US filed
criminal charges. "All foreign citizens must comply with Hong
Kong's law," he said, adding that the police would act on the
request once it was received.
He
declined to comment on reports in one Hong Kong newspaper that
Snowden is already in a police safe house.
In
response to the Guardian's latest revelations regarding the
surveillance activities of GCHQ, politicians and freedom of
information campaigners raised concerns about the lack of oversight
and up-to-date laws with which to monitor and regulate the activities
of the secret services. Former Foreign Office minister David Davis MP
said documents containing an admission by GCHQ lawyers that UK
oversight was "light" compared with that in the US were
particularly worrying.
"This
reinforces the view that the oversight structure is wholly
inadequate. Really what is needed is a full-scale independent
judicial oversight that reports to parliament."
Shami
Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "It's possible to be
shocked but not surprised at this blanket surveillance on a
breathtaking scale. The authorities appear to be kidding themselves
with a very generous interpretation of the law that cannot stand with
article 8 of the European convention on human rights.
"To
argue this isn't snooping because they haven't got time to read all
this private information is like arguing we'd all be comfortable with
our homes being raided and our private papers copied – as long as
the authorities stored them in sealed plastic bags."
Carl
Miller, director for social media at the thinktank Demos, said: "Just
like the rest of us, terrorists and criminals are increasingly using
social media and other forms of online communication. So it's clear
that the intelligence services should be able to access this where it
is necessary and proportionate. But this is the crucial point. What
these latest stories reveal is that much of this surveillance is
happening already, but without the security services having made the
public argument for these powers. There is a clear need for a legal
grounding or oversight structure that commands public confidence."
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