I
SPY
WITH MY LITTLE ROCK? I DOUBT IT
JANUARY
23
2006
I
doubt
very much whether setting up a secure email system via private
servers in rocks in Moscow parks has anything to do with spying. What
seems likely is either UK or US Intelligence employees have lent some
of their technology to some Russian NGOs to allow them to communicate
privately. Russia is not used to NGOs, and to find they are getting
help to communicate without their email being intercepted would no
doubt upset some of the old school. Jeremy Paxman (BBC TV
Newsnight) did not appear to appreciate that emails are not
private, and ecrypting messages draws attention to the correspondents,
so he could not see the point of a secure email system. Looked at from
the other end, there is no doubt that the Russian security services
were doing their job properly by detecting the activity. We should not
forget that they, just like all other countries, have to be on alert to
terrrorist planning by some 'bunch of guys'. So don't let's get in a
bother over this. If the users are innocent, the Russian government may
have some responsibility for forcing them to be so secretive by its
rather oppressive policies. On the other hand we don't need to tell
people how to run their own countries unless they ask. In Iraq and
Afghanistan we are asked to do certain things, of that there is no
doubt. In due course we will be asked to leave.
Of course this affairt could all be much more exotic than I have
supposed and be the start of a diplomatic crisis - but somehow I doubt
it.
JANUARY 28th I can't wait to
hear what they have to talk about.
Saturday January 28,
05:51 PM Yahoo News
Russian security services have
claimed that they have arrested two spies working for British
intelligence.
Nikolai
Kovalyov, the former head of the Russian security service (FSB) said:
"Two British spies have been arrested. Of
course
they are not silent
they are talking."
A spokesman for the FSB said he
could neither formerly deny nor confirm the report.
Russia
this week accused Britain of running a James Bond-style spying
operation in Moscow using a receiver hidden in a fake rock to gather
secret information and said it had caught British spies funding
pressure groups.
Four British diplomats were named
as spies in
a programme shown on state television last Sunday. The programme said
one Russian, who had been turned by British agents while abroad, had
been arrested for treason.
President Vladimir Putin, himself
a former KGB spy has yet to decided whether to expel the diplomats who
were named.
JANUARY 19th 2012
It
has taken 6 years for the truth to emerge. Jonanthan Powell has
revealed that Russia had the UK 'Bang to rights'
However,
the operation was as I guessed at the time (see above) nothing to do
with serious spying. The NGOs in question were publicly documented on
websites as was the funding which they received which the Putin
administration objected to. There was nothing secret other than the
communications because these were not allowed in public. I suppose the
only reason the private communications system was not admitted to at
the time when exposed was embarrassment.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16614209
nnnn