{"id":141459,"date":"2014-11-05T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=141459"},"modified":"2014-11-05T20:54:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T20:54:13","slug":"bt-accused-complicity-intelligence-sharing-us-drone-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/bt-accused-complicity-intelligence-sharing-us-drone-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"BT accused of complicity in intelligence sharing for US drone strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Human rights charity Reprieve has submitted a complaint <\/a>to the UK government asking that BT be investigated for violating international guidelines through its involvement in the US\u2019 covert drone programme.<\/p>\n

Identified as a top GCHQ collaborator under the codename REMEDY, BT is paid \u201ctens of millions pounds annually\u201d to provide an array of cables and wiretaps that allow intelligence agencies to monitor 90% of the telecommunication traffic crossing the UK.<\/p>\n

With BT as a key partner, the joint US-UK mass surveillance programme results in extensive collections of metadata, which is information on how and with whom we communicate, as opposed to what is actually said. Metadata has been acknowledged as the basis for target selection in the US drone programme. Ex-NSA head, General Michael Hayden, was quoted as saying \u201cWe kill people based on metadata\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

The company\u2019s complicity in wiretapping is so extensive that they have embedded groups of employees inside GCHQ<\/a> \u2014 known as \u201cSensitive Relationship Teams\u201d (SRTs) \u2014 who install the software that stores customer data and funnels it into the processing centres run by intelligence agencies. The SRTs also install optical fibre probes into the equipment of other companies without their knowledge.<\/p>\n

Reprieve’s complaint, submitted to the National Contact Point (NCP),\u00a0argues that\u00a0BT\u00a0has violated\u00a0the OECD guidelines\u00a0for multinational enterprises<\/a> by facilitating the covert US\u00a0drone programme through the collection of metadata.\u00a0The complaint\u00a0also argues that BT has failed\u00a0to provide evidence of\u00a0any due diligence taken to prevent the\u00a0mass surveillance data collected from being used.<\/p>\n

The telecoms giant is also facing legal action<\/a> over its US government contract to supply key communications infrastructure between RAF Croughton<\/a> \u2014 a US military base in Northamptonshire \u2014 and Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the secret base from which armed drones reportedly carry out lethal strikes in Yemen. According to the US military, American forces stationed at RAF Croughton provide \u201cglobal strike operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Lo,\u00a0Investigator at Reprieve<\/a>, said: \u201cBT portrays itself as a soft and cuddly company, yet they are deeply involved in the US\u2019 covert drone programme that has killed thousands of civilians in Yemen and Pakistan. The NCP must investigate the company\u2019s violations of the OECD Guidelines and demand greater transparency over BT\u2019s role in illegal US drone strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

1. For further information, please contact\u00a0Clemency Wells\u00a0in Reprieve’s press office: clemency.wells@reprieve.org.uk<\/a> \/ (00 44) 207 553 8161<\/p>\n

2. The complaint can be read in full, here.<\/p>\n

3. For more information about BT’s contract, see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Michael Hayden’s quote can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human rights charity Reprieve has submitted a complaint to the UK government asking that BT be investigated for violating international guidelines through its involvement in the US\u2019 covert drone programme. Identified as a top GCHQ collaborator under the codename REMEDY, BT is paid \u201ctens of millions pounds annually\u201d to provide an array of cables and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-141459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-war-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}