Publish date18 Sep 2015 - 12:21
Story Code : 205578

Head of UK’s domestic spy agency calls for greater surveillance powers

The head of the United Kingdom's domestic spy agency, MI5, calls for more surveillance powers to security service agents to monitor electronic communications and thwart possible terror plots.
Head of UK’s domestic spy agency calls for greater surveillance powers
Andrew Parker says new powers are needed as terrorist plotting against the country is at its highest for nearly four decades.

"Because of the threat we face and the way the terrorists operate and the way we all live our lives today, it is necessary that if we are to find and stop the people who mean us harm, MI5 and others need to be able to navigate the internet to find terrorist communication”, Parker said during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
Parker said that the fast growing phone and internet technologies making the job of security services difficult to deal with troublesome people. "We need to be able to use data sets so we can join the dots, to be able to find and stop the terrorists who mean us harm before they are able to bring the plots to fruition”.
But not all who agree with Parker. Some analysts say the call by the MI5 chief has nothing to do with the safety and security of the general people but are only aimed at well-being of commercial enterprises.
“All measures adopted in reaction to terror attacks basically designed to curtail people’s freedom and snoop on people’s individual activities regardless of what they may be. They haven’t prove in any way effective particularly when you look at Britain for instance, Lee Rigby killing that in fact followed and actually screened by the British intelligence agency and yet crimes were not averted. So, I think these measures are mainly adopted in order to free different scaremongering industries that live through the totalitarianism industry”, Hafsa Kara-Mustapha, a London-based journalist told Press TV.
“Most of these measures are nothing to do with terrorism but to aiding companies to in fact look into the pattern of shopping of customers. These are basically designed to aid commercial enterprises but not the security and safety of the people”, Hafsa added.
In October, British lawmakers would debate on the Communications Data Bill that is expected to include powers to require the internet and phone companies to collect and store details of their customers along with records of voice calls, messaging and text services. On Tuesday, the home secretary, Theresa May convened a meeting between the biggest US internet providers and British phone companies for their views on how to make the new legislation work in practice.
“It is completely for ministers to propose, and parliament to decide. It’s a fundamental point about what MI5 is. It’s for us to follow what’s set by parliament, and that’s what we do.” Parker said. “It’s important that MI5 should work within a transparent legal framework."

The intelligence agencies' surveillance powers have been under scrutiny ever since US whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked details and the scale of snooping by America’s National Security Agency and its British equivalent, GCHQ. According to the revelations, GCHQ received private communications intercepted by the NSA through its Prism and Upstream programs.
Snooping revelations forced some of the internet companies to make messaging and chart-room encrypted, which the intelligence agencies say is making their work more difficult. Some companies also avoided sharing their data with spy networks because of a backlash by customers concerned about their privacy.

Parker says online data encryption was creating a situation where the police and intelligence agencies “can no longer obtain under proper legal warrant the communication of people they believe to be terrorists”.
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