Voutenay sur Cure, France.
As a soldier I wore the uniform of Her Majesty the Queen for 36 years and was proud of the fact that I displayed the insignia of the monarch’s Crown. But when the crown appears on official papers of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) — the organization which illegally records conversations of such people as the Secretary General of the United Nations — I reflect with sorrow on defilement of that symbol of integrity.
When I saw the crown’s image at the top of a GCHQ document stating with boasting satisfaction that Britain spies on representatives of countries supposedly its friends and allies I felt contempt for those involved — and anger that they dare use that honorable emblem on their squalid material. In their crown-crested briefing papers these people brag that they “exploited” intercept of BlackBerry phones of leaders of such countries as Turkey, a fellow NATO member. They have defiled Her Majesty’s insignia, and their violation is disgusting. They selected the Turkish finance minister, Mehmet Simsek, as a particular target for their hi-tech gutter antics, and it is ironical that Simsek, who attended a British university and worked in London for seven years, is an admirer of the UK and actually has British citizenship. But that means nothing to the grubby little creeps of GCHQ and other spook organizations. Their idea of loyalty — if that word ever crosses their twisted minds — does not rest with such trivia as morality and decency. They are disloyal to their fellow-citizens, to the Crown and to themselves.
The bugging of Mr Simsek’s telephone — including calls with his wife — was despicable. This man worked hard and ethically to be what he is today. He is a pillar of morality and decency. And the filthy little jerks of various spook organizations were intent on listening to everything said by him — and by very many similar people all round the world.
There are countless thousands of people whose thoughts, values, intentions, aspirations and personal dramas have been recorded by the state-of-the-art vermin of GCHQ and similar agencies. The Wall Street Journal reported on August 24 that some officials of the US National Security Agency (which is entwined with GCHQ and joins it in spying on the European Union and the UN and probably everyone else), “have channeled their agency’s enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests” of an unknown number of unfortunate victims. This is squalid stuff, and if it happens in the NSA, can GCHQ be far behind? But even if they don’t snigger at the personal and private things on which they eavesdrop it is unsettling and alarming that the creeps listening to Mr Simsek imagined they were acting with approval of the Crown.
Here’s what Mr Simsek records about his background: “I come from a family where my parents were illiterate — literally illiterate . . . However, one generation onward, all of my nieces and nephews are now university graduates or at least high school graduates . . . If we [in Turkey] are going to compete successfully . . . then we need to do all we can to invest in . . . enabling people to realize their own full potential.”
But this good man was the target of British techno-spies who aren’t fit to lick his boots. He presented not the slightest threat to Britain but his every conversation was listened to in order, as the GCHQ briefing boasts — beneath the image of the Crown — “to establish Turkey’s position on agreements from the April London [G20] summit” at which the overall objective was “to start the process of reform so as to manage globalization as a force for good in the medium term.” Just how GCHQ represented “a force for good” by listening to Mr Simsek’s private exchanges with his wife (or anyone else) is not stated. And conversations of all other delegates were subject to the ear-flapping attentions of the repulsive dweebs who boasted in a Power Point presentation (showing the Crown insignia) that “Diplomatic targets from all nations have an MO [method of operations] of using smartphones. [We] Exploited this use at G20 meetings last year.”
Do you remember the warnings of George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four? They should be borne in mind by us all:
“How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug into your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard.”
What seemed fantasy in 1949 has become astounding and terrifying reality, courtesy of technology only dreamed of by Orwell — and at the specific orders of governments which have been elected in the sham of modern democracy.
Documents made available by Edward Snowden reveal that in addition to spying on its Turkish ally Britain targeted South Africa, a fellow Commonwealth country and “investigated phone lines used by [its] High Commission in London.” GCHQ crows that it “retrieved documents including briefings for South African delegates to G20 and G8 meetings.” Not by the furthest stretch of imagination could South Africa be called a threat to Britain ; but that doesn’t matter, nowadays. In the name of the Crown the British government authorizes listening in to everybody, because it’s always so interesting. Make no mistake : GCHQ and other agencies are not acting on their own ; they are not out of control : they are acting with the full knowledge, approval and encouragement of the government. Just like the NSA.
Nobody should be surprised that Mr Snowden and his associates are being targeted in the most spiteful and vindictive fashion by the British and Americans, because although his revelations do not threaten the security of either country he has shown the world that the governments of these standard-bearers of democracy are composed of cheap little dorks whose weasel-words would excite the admiration of the founder of modern double-speak — the Nazi propaganda master Goebbels, who spawned generations of amoral spin doctors. And in the unlikely event of any of them reading these words they would undoubtedly have a giggling snigger about someone who is so naive as to have the notion that the Crown means anything. Anyone who believes that for them the Crown represents all that Britain should stand for — honor, decency, respect for morality, belief in law, and conviction that one’s own country is essentially Good — is regarded by modernists as unworldly and ingenuous to the point of irrationality.
In answer to the undeniable disclosures that Britain is behaving disgustingly, its foreign minister, a man by name of Hague, the most pathetic holder of that office in living memory, declared that “if you are a law-abiding citizen of this country going about your business and personal life, you have nothing to fear about the British state or intelligence agencies listening to the content of your phone calls or anything like that.”
But if you are a member of a delegation of a Commonwealth country (or Nato or the G20 or any other grouping, in fact) attending a meeting with the Brits, then you had better be on your guard. The grubby techno-dweebs of GCHQ, defiling and dishonoring the Crown — and boasting about their repugnant antics in their next Power Point presentations — will be listening to you saying goodnight to your family. And can ordinary British citizens really believe they “have nothing to fear” from the British State “listening to the content of your phone calls or anything like that” ? Fat chance. Remember the prophetic words of Orwell:
“Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed — no escape.”
Reflect on what your government is capable of doing — and think of what they are actually doing at this moment to restrict your freedom, allegedly in the cause of freedom. Doublethink and dishonour are alive and well and thriving in the capitals of what used to be called ‘The Free World.’
Brian Cloughley’s website is www.beecluff.com