NEWS
http://www.statewatch.org/news/
1. EU: PNR: Travel surveillance - leaked Commission plans
2 EU: Frontex & Europol: Work Programmes for 2015
3. EU: Money-laundering and terrorism: Draft "compromise" between the Council and the European Parliament
4. EU: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): EU as a beacon of respect
5. EU: Network Information Security: "compromise" agreement: multi-column document
6. EU: Council of the European Union: Data Protection Regulation
7. UK: Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill: STOP THE CT BILL
8. EUROPOL: Annual accounts and "person records"
9. EU: Holocaust denial and hate crime: Can the EU and Member States do more?
10. European Parliament Studies: EU governance
11. EU Transparency Register: ALTER-EU: New and improved?
12. MALTA-USA: Malta's use of US-supplied border security technology
13. EU: Schengen Code proposal
14. Europol: UK Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee: Inquiry into Counter-Terrorism in Europe
15. UK: Last minute attempt to insert surveillance clauses into anti-terror Bill
16. UK: Eric Pickles illegally discriminating against Gypsies and Travellers, High Court Rules
17. EU: "Mos Maiorum" Joint Police Operation: "A large number of migrants": over 19,000 people "apprehended"
18. SPAIN: Politicians want inqiury into Barcelona police clashes with party goers
19. EU: European Public Prosecutors Office
20. UK: Policing protest - what can we expect in 2015? (Netpol)
21. European Parliament: NGOs, media freedom and EU role at the heart of Hungary, rights debate
22. EU wants internet firms to hand over encryption keys
23. European Parliament: Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE): 27 January 2015: Terrorist financing
24. EU: Statewatch Analysis: The US Senate reveals the truth on renditions and torture, now it's Europe's turn
25. EU: Council of the European Union: Internet content: new powers to block to be given to service providers
26. GERMANY: Mass confiscation of mobile phones after spontaneous anti-racist demonstration
27. EU: Council of the European Union: Lot of detailed proposals from EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator
28. EU: Police chiefs want non-EU countries to "prevent irregular migration from happening
29. EU to increase intelligence sharing with Arab states
30. UK: JOURNALISTS UNDER SURVEILLANCE
31. EU: Drones for maritime rescue only, not to prevent migration
And see: NEWS DIGEST (140 links so far in January):http://www.statewatch.org/news/Newsinbrief.htm
EU-UK-GCHQ-USA-NSA SURVEILLANCE
1. GCHQ intercepted emails of journalists from top international media
2. FRANCE: Surveillance of SMS, phones and internet
3. MASS SURVEILLANCE IS HERE TO STAY, LIKE IT OR LUMP IT
4. USA: SURVEILLANCE: More Cowbells: new NSA leaks reveal extent of spying tactics
5. EU: Mass surveillance: Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly
NEWS
http://www.statewatch.org/news/
1. EU: Travel surveillance: Commission attempts to soothe PNR critics with "workable compromise"
A leaked European Commission note (pdf) sets out considerations on "the best way forward to respond to the different calls for a swift adoption of the EU PNR [Passenger Name Record] proposal," which would introduce blanket law enforcement surveillance and profiling of all passengers arriving in the EU by air.
The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) voted against the proposed PNR Directive in April 2013, but EU officials and national politicians have repeatedly demanded agreement on the legislation.
These calls reached a crescendo following the terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month, with politicians and officials claiming the attacks made clear the necessity of an EU PNR system. As Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, said to the LIBE committee yesterday (27 January) during a session on counter-terrorism: "Never let a serious crisis go to waste."
2 EU: FRONTEX: Work Programme for 2015 (138 pages, pdf) and EUROPOL: Work Programme for 2015 (65 pages, pdf)
3. EU: Money-laundering and terrorism: Draft "compromise" between the Council and the European Parliament: Proposal for a Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (pdf)
Does not seem to take into account criticisms made by the Meijers Committee regarding the potential the text provides for discrimination: Note Meijers Committee on the proposal for a Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (COM(2013) 45 final) (pdf)
4. EU: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Press release): The EU as a beacon of respect for data protection and privacy (pdf):
"Giovanni Buttarelli, EDPS, said, "It is high time that we in Europe think about our response to rapid change and challenges, including threats to our security. That response will have ramifications for us and for the next generation that is growing up online today. We must not forget that we cannot have security without privacy so that wepreserve the rights and freedoms that Europe holds dear. Our solutions for security must also treat individuals with dignity and respect - and not suspicion or surveillance. The goal for my mandate is for the EU to speak with one voice on data protection, a voice which is credible, informed and relevant." [emphasis in original]
5. EU: NIS: Council of the European Union: Proposal for a Directive concerning measures to ensure a high common level of network and information security across the Union - State of play and work ahead (LIMITE doc no: 5257-15, 145 pages, pdf): Multi-column document showing the Commission proposal, and the Council and European Parliament positions.
6. EU: Council of the European Union: Data Protection Regulation:
• General Data Protection Regulation - The one-stop-shop mechanism (LIMITE doc no: 5315-15, pdf) From German and French delegations
• Pseudonymisation (LIMITE doc no: 14705-rev1-14, pdf) German delegation: "The German delegation proposes taking the idea of pseudonymisation of data another step further, in order to encourage the use of pseudonymisation and make it more attractive to controllers while further improving the protection of data subjects."
7. UK: Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill: STOP THE CTS BILL (link) and Petition (link)
8. EUROPOL: Report on the annual accounts of the European Police Office for the financial year 2013 together with the Office's replies (16471-14, pdf) including on page 14:
"The EIS contained 245,142 (186,896 last year) records at the end of 2013 with anincreasing proportion of person records (the most important and valuable variety of records from a law enforcement point of view)." [emphasis added]
9. EU: Holocaust denial and hate crime: Can the EU and its Member States do more?(EU Law Analysis, link): "The European Commission has chosen today, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to release its first report on Member States' implementation of the EU Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law....The Commission cannot be criticised for holding off on bringing infringement proceedings, since it cannot do so until the end of this year. After that point, this legislation will be another EU measure which the Commission ought to enforce vigorously by means of infringement proceedings if it is, as it claims, committed to ensuring the full implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in practice."
See also: European Commission: Report on the implementation of Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law (pdf)
10. European Parliament Studies: The European Council and the Council: perspectives on new dynamics in EU governance (pdf): "The study identifies the institutional dynamics associated with the new intergovernmentalism and traces the consequences for institutional design and inter-institutional relations". and Looking ahead: pathways of future constitutional evolution of the EU (pdf)
11. EU Transparency Register: ALTER-EU: New and Improved? Why the EU Lobby Register still fails to deliver (link) and Link to Report: "This new research, published by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), shows how the voluntary approach to EU lobby transparency regulation fails to provide citizens with an accurate picture of the lobby scene in Brussels. Some of the main groups that are actively lobbying the EU institutions have still not registered in the EU's Transparency Register. These include:
• Financial lobbyists such as Standard & Poors, City of London Corporation and Credit Suisse;
• Lobby consultancies, such as Whyte Corporate Affairs;
• Law firms such as Covington & Burling and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer;
• Major corporations such as Electrabel, Anglo American and Generral Motors."
12. MALTA-USA: MEP questions Malta's use of US-supplied border security technology
"German MEP Cornelia Ernst has taken issue over Malta's use of the PISCES border control software, which was donated to the country by the American government in 2004, claiming that Malta's use of the software could constitute a security risk for other EU member states."
"TIP/PISCES is currently operational in the following countries: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Kosovo, Macedonia, Malta, Nepal, Pakistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Yemen, and Zambia."
EU police agency Europol reportedly receives information from PISCES systems around the globe.
13. EU: Schengen Code: Proposal for on a Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) (codification) (20.1.15, COM 8, pdf) and Annex (pdf)
14. Europol: UK Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee: Inquiry into Counter-Terrorism in Europe: Evidence from Rob Wainwright, Europol Director-General (13 January 2015, pdf)
15. UK: Last-minute attempt to insert surveillance clauses into anti-terror bill
"It is one of the oldest tricks in the book, you cannot get something enshrined in law and so you hide it amongst the reams of lawyer speak as an amendment. This is what appears to be happening with 17 pages of amendments that have just been put forward as amendments to the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill by four members of The House of Lords."
16. UK: Eric Pickles illegally discriminating against Gypsies and Travellers, the High Court rules (The Indepdent, link): "Eric Pickles has been illegally discriminating against Gypsies and Travellers by using his ministerial powers to personally decide whether they should be allowed to settle on green belt land, the High Court has ruled." See: Judgment(British and Irish Legal Information Institute, link)
See also, from November 2014: Abandoning Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities … the UK way (Institute of Race Relations, link)
17. EU: "A huge number of migrants": over 19,000 people apprehended during joint police operation Mos Maiorum
More than 19,000 people were apprehended during 'Mos Maiorum', the Europe-wide joint police and border guard operation that took place over two weeks in October 2014. More than a quarter of the people who encountered the authorities were Syrian, according to a leaked copy of the final report.
"Syrian nationals (5088 people) were the most detected irregular migrants, followed by Afghans (1466 people), K-Serbians [Kosovars] (1196), Eritreans (1116), Somalis (641) and Albanians (587)," says the report, authored by Italian officials. 11,046 people requested asylum "during or after their interception".
And see: Mos Maiorum: MEPs "deplore" Council's "buck passing of responsibilities": Two MEPs from the GUE/NGL group of MEPs have written an open letter to critcise the "buck passing of responsibilities" over Joint Operation Mos Maiorum, after being told by the Council of the EU that they should submit questions to the Italian government.
18. Politicians want inquiry into Barcelona police clashes with party goers (The Guardian, link): "Several opposition parties in Catalonia are pushing for an inquiry into a 2006 clash between police and party-goers, after Catalan public television aired a documentary alleging police torture and a cover-up of the facts in the aftermath of the event."
The "clashes" referred to include allegations of false arrest, false imprisonment, torture and racism, and ultimately the suicide of one of those imprisoned. The documentary is available to view online: English subtitles, Spanish subtitles (links to YouTube). See also:'Ciutat morta' desata una ola de indignación y la petición de la reapertura del 'caso 4F'(El Periodico, link) and Las afectadas del 4F piden la reapertura del caso al considerar que nunca se investigó (Diagonal, link)
19. EU: European Public Prosecutor's Office: latest Council and Parliament documents
Includes the European Parliament LIBE Committee's draft interim report and Council documents from December and November on the state of play, outstanding issues and orientation debate.
20. Policing protest – what we can expect in 2015 (Netpol, link): "Prophecy is always risky, but looking back at the policing of protest over the last few years offers some hints about what we can expect in the coming year. Here are seven educated guesses from Netpol for 2015: 2015 – The UK’s Year of the Protest?... The increasing privatisation of protest policing... But no cuts in the ‘domestic extremism’ intelligence gatherers... Increased targeting of anti-fracking campaigners... A continuing use of mass arrests... The new social media battle ground... Unlocking the secret files police hold on protesters"
21. European Parliament: NGOs, media freedom and EU role at the heart of Hungary human rights debate (press release, link)
"The recent clampdown on an NGO, media freedom and the potential for the EU to monitor the fundamental rights situation in member states were among the main issues raised at a public hearing on human rights in Hungary. The hearing took place on 22 January in the Parliament's justice committee with representatives of NGOs, international organisations and the Hungarian government in attendance."
And see: Hungary Wants Strict EU Policy on Immigration (ABC News, link)
22. EU wants internet firms to hand over encryption keys (euobserver, link): "A top EU official wants internet and telecommunication companies to hand over encryption keys to police and spy agencies as part of a wider crackdown on terrorism. The EU’s counter-terrorism co-ordinator Gilles de Kerchove, in a document leaked by London-based civil liberties group Statewatch, says the European Commission should come up with rules that require the firms to help national governments snoop on possible suspects."
23. European Parliament: Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE): 27 January 2015: Terrorist financing: Agenda (pdf), Proposal for a Regulation on information accompanying transfers of funds (pdf) and Proposal for a Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (91 pages, pdf)
24. EU: Statewatch Analysis: The US Senate reveals the truth on renditions and torture, now it’s Europe’s turn (pdf) by Armando Spataro is the Prosecutor of the Republic in Turin, an expert in internal and international terrorism:
"There is a need for a decisive political turn to holistically direct all the governments’ antiterrorist activity, none of which may claim leadership or impose modes of action that stray from the bounds of the law and respect for people’s fundamental freedoms upon its allies."
25. EU: Council of the European Union: Internet content: new powers to block to be given to service providers: Examination of the Presidency compromise text on net neutrality (EU doc 5439-14, pdf)
"With respect to the provision of internet access services, the draft stipulates equal treatment of all traffic. However, reasonable traffic management measures are allowed, and the draft sets out the characteristics of such measures. The list of exceptional situations where internet access service providers can implement measures which block or discriminate has been limited to four."
And note the comment in: EU CTC input for the preparation of the informal meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Riga on 29 January 2015 (LIMITE, DS doc no: 1035-13, 14 pages, 17 January 2015, pdf): The power of service providers in "flagging of content which breaches the platform's own terms and conditions...often go further than national legislation.."
26. GERMANY: Mass confiscation of mobile phones by police after spontaneous anti-racist demonstration
"On Thursday 16 January around 600 people in Leipzig took part in a spontaneous demonstration against racism focused on the murder of Khaled Idris Bahray, a 20-year-old Ertirean refugee who was found stabbed to death two days earlier in Dresden, the capital of the federal state Saxony....
Protesters at the demonstration in Leipzig, which is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Dresden, allegedly pelted police with stones. According the Saxony police the group smashed shop windows and display cases as well. A large number of the protesters escaped when the police attempted to close in. Local journal MOPO24 reported that about 150 protesters had been surrounded. They were searched by the police, stripped of their jackets and photographed. According to MOPO24 all 150 people also had their mobile phones confiscated."
27. EU: Council of the European Union: Lot of detailed proposals from EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator for: EU CTC input for the preparation of the informal meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Riga on 29 January 2015 (LIMITE, DS doc no: 1035-13, 14 pages, 17 January 2015, pdf), includes "closer alignment of Europol and INTCEN, to make a genuine EU CT threat assessment centre", on Europol's European Information System " less than 2% of current records are terrorism related" , Europol should have a "resident CT task force...acting as a fusion centre for law enforcement and intelligence service data", "flagging of content which breaches the platform's own terms and conditions. These often go further than national legislation.."
See: EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator seeks mandatory disclosure of encryption keys by EU internet companies & telcos (link)
28. EU: Police chiefs want non-EU countries to "prevent irregular migration from happening"
Europol and police forces from EU Member States and beyond have called for "more funds [for] enhanced border control, preventive measures in countries of origin, and joint investigative and analysis teams" to deal with irregular migration, according to a leaked Europol report summarising the proceedings of the 2014 European Police Chiefs Convention. The Convention took place at the end of September 2014, and the report puts particular emphasis on the need for 'buffer states' that take on border control roles for the EU:
"Above all, pre-entry measures such as effective bilateral agreements are key to reducing illegal/irregular migration because once third-country nationals are in an irregular situation in the EU, it becomes more difficult and costly to locate them and address the irregularity. Therefore, it is a policy priority to invest in the country of origin to prevent the irregular migration from happening."
29. EU to increase intelligence sharing with Arab states (euobserver, link): "The EU wants to step up security and intelligence co-operation with neighbouring countries to counter terrorist threats.The plan is part of a broader effort discussed on Monday (19 January) by EU foreign ministers to reduce the risk of militant attacks by getting national intelligence and law enforcement agencies to share data and to communicate better with each other and their counterparts in Turkey, north Africa, and Asia." and see:
See also: Press release: High Representative after Foreign Affairs Council (pdf) and background on the role of: EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (Wikipedia, link) CFSP does not come under EU competence. The Council makes its own decisions - which are not subject to shared decision making power with the EU Parliament. In the Council decisions require unanimity.
30. UK: JOURNALISTS UNDER SURVEILLANCE: Alan Rusbridger: Home Office must not remove right to protect sources - In a speech to members of the defence and intelligence community, the Guardian editor expressed concern over threats to privacy and freedom of speech (Guardian, link):
"Journalism will be changed forever if the Home Office goes ahead with a proposal to remove the right to protect anonymous sources, the Guardian’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, warned in a speech on Monday. He also expressed concern that the right to confidentiality that lawyers, doctors, MPs, priests and others in the church are supposed to enjoy is also under threat. His comments came the day before the deadline for responses to the Home Office consultation paper on extending police powers.
“Journalism, which relies on unauthorised sources for much that is good and valuable, would be changed forever in this country,” Rusbridger said. “That’s not something to sneak in in a few paragraphs of an obscure Home Office consultation document."
See also: Draft Code of Practice: Acquisition and Disclosure of Communications Data: Code of Practice Pursuant to section 71 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 Draft for public consultation, 9 December 2014 (55 pages, pdf) which says:
"3.73 However the degree of interference with privacy may be higher where the communications data being sought relates to a person who is a member of a profession that handles privileged or otherwise confidential information (such as a medical doctor, lawyer, journalist, Member of Parliament, or minister of religion). It may also be possible to infer an issue of sensitivity from the fact someone has regular contact with, for example, a lawyer or journalist
3.74 Such situations do not preclude an application being made.." [emphasis added, p31]
31. EU: Drones for maritime rescue only, not to prevent migration (Pressemitteilungen von Andrej Hunko, link): "“31 million euros is the cost of new research into the use of drones in the Mediterranean to ward off unwanted migration. The EU Commission is contributing around two-thirds of this. Instead of making risky crossings even more difficult for refugees, the money could be used to simplify entry procedures.....”, said Member of the Bundestag Andrej Hunko, in reaction to the European Commission’s two replies to a question on this subject.
Hunko had enquired about EU projects SUNNY, CLOSEYE and AEROCEPTOR. These involve drone tests in three regions of the Mediterranean Sea deemed hot spots for refugee crossings, with AEROCEPTOR using aerial police weaponry for the first time."
.See Hunko Press Release (pdf) and European Commission answers: Project “SUNNY”(link) and Projects “Closeye”, “DeSIRE” and “Aeroceptor” (link)
EU-UK-GCHQ-USA-NSA SURVEILLANCE
http://www.statewatch.org/eu-usa-data-surveillance.htm
1. GCHQ intercepted emails of journalists from top international media (Guardian, link):
• Snowden files reveal emails of BBC, NY Times and more
• Agency includes investigative journalists on ‘threat’ list
• Editors call on Cameron to act against snooping on media
"GCHQ’s bulk surveillance of electronic communications has scooped up emails to and from journalists working for some of the US and UK’s largest media organisations, analysis of documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.
Emails from the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, the Sun, NBC and the Washington Post were saved by GCHQ and shared on the agency’s intranet as part of a test exercise by the signals intelligence agency."
2. FRANCE: Surveillance of SMS, phones and Internet
The French Military Programming Law, including its very controversial article on telecommunications surveillance (SMS, phone conversations, Internet), entered into force on 1 January 2015. The law was adopted and published in the Official Journal on 19 December 2013, despite the strong criticism by civil liberties and digitial rights organisations, was left unamended in the legislation. A year later, the French government has given the green light to the implementation of this law through a decree on 24 December 2014.
3. MASS SURVEILLANCE IS HERE TO STAY, LIKE IT OR LUMP IT: Ex-MI6 chief calls for new compact between internet firms and spy agencies - Sir John Sawers says Snowden revelations shattered informal relationship but cooperation is necessary to prevent attacks (Guardian, link) He says:
"“There is a dilemma because the public, politicians and technology companies, to some extent, want us to be able to monitor the activities of terrorists and evil-doers but don’t want their electronic activities to be open to such monitoring. The benefit of the debate is that people now understand that is not possible,” he said. “There has to be some form of ability to cover communications that are made through modern technology.”
4. USA: SURVEILLANCE: More Cowbells: new NSA leaks reveal extent of spying tactics(ROARMAG, link): "New leaks from the NSA archive, seen exclusively by ROAR, reveal that even the Internet’s most basic architecture - the DNS database - is compromised."and MoreCowBell Nouvelles révélations sur les pratiques de la NSAE (Le Monde fr, link)
And see: NSA documents (pdf)
5. EU: Mass surveillance: Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly: Mass surveillance is counter-productive and ‘endangers human rights (Press release, link) and Report(pdf): It calls for
• "the collection of personal data without consent only following “a court order granted on the basis of reasonable suspicion”
• “credible, effective protection” for whistle-blowers exposing unlawful surveillance
• better judicial and parliamentary control of intelligence services
• an “intelligence codex” defining mutual obligations that secret services could opt into
• an inquiry into member states’ use of mass surveillance using powers under the European Convention on Human Rights"
See also: Mass surveillance is fundamental threat to human rights, says European report - Europe’s top rights body says scale of NSA spying is ‘stunning’ and suggests UK powers may be at odds with rights convention (Guardian, link)
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