French PRISM-like massive spying

This video says about itself:

Bolivian President Evo Morales touched down in La Paz to a hero’s welcome – after his plane from Russia was diverted to Vienna on suspicion that US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board.

Outraged Morales told supporters who gathered at the airport to greet him: “I regret this, but I want to say that some European countries should free themselves from American imperialism. I can’t understand why some countries are faithful servants to this US imperialism.”

The French government is one of the allies of the United States government, spied upon by the United States National “Security” Agency.

Then, why was the French government so slavish in stopping the plane of the president of Bolivia, basing themselves on the false rumour that spying scandal whistleblower Edward Snowden was supposedly on that plane (French President Hollande has by now apologized for that bullying)?

Maybe this has something to do with that.

From Associated Press:

July 4, 2013

Report says France operates PRISM-like spy network

2 hours ago

A leading French newspaper says France’s intelligence services have put in place a giant electronic surveillance gathering network.

Citing no sources, the Le Monde daily says France’s Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, the country’s foreign intelligence agency, systematically collects information about all electronic data sent by computers and telephones in France, as well as communications between France and abroad.

According to Le Monde, data on “all emails, SMSs, telephone calls, Facebook and Twitter posts” are collected and stored in a massive three-floor underground bunker at the DGSE’s headquarters in Paris. The paper specified that it is the communications’ metadata—such as when [a] call was made and where an author was when (s)he sent an email—that is being archived, not their content.

Officials at the DGSE did not answer phone calls or emails seeking comment Thursday.

The vast archive, which Le Monde says amounts to tens of millions of gigabytes, is accessible to France’s other spy agencies, including military intelligence, domestic intelligence, Paris police and a special financial crimes task force.

Le Monde compared the French digital dragnet to PRISM, the U.S. National Security Agency program which has most caught the imagination of Internet users. But PRISM appears aimed at allowing U.S. spies to peel data off the servers of Silicon Valley firms—whereas the program described in Le Monde appears to be fed through the mass interception of electronic data bouncing across the world.

Also, PRISM can apparently be used to collect content, not just metadata.

Le Monde said the French surveillance program relies on spy satellites, listening stations in French overseas territories or former colonies such as Mayotte or Djibouti, and information harvested from undersea cables—all three of which are methods long familiar to the NSA.

See also here.

The National Assembly is currently debating a digital surveillance bill, scheduled for a vote on May 5, which would legalize mass spying and data retention practices by French intelligence agencies: here.

USA: Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash: here.

In yet another revelation of illegal spying on Americans by the US government, reports last week detailed the use by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of hacker techniques, including spyware, to gain access to information protected by encryption tools and other communications technologies. In law enforcement terminology, use of such technology to secure communications against interception is known as “going dark”: here.

Australia: Documents prove former Labor government knew about PRISM: here.

Related articles

• France ‘has vast data surveillance’ (bbc.co.uk)
• France ‘runs vast electronic spying operation using NSA-style methods’ (guardian.co.uk)
• France runs PRISM-like spy network: Le Monde (japantimes.co.jp)
• France is collecting massive amounts of web and phone data – similar to NSA’s PRISM, according to report (dottech.org)
• France Agency Spies on Phone, Online Communications: Le Monde Report (hngn.com)
• After US, France has vast data surveillance (realisticbird.wordpress.com)
• NSA spying causes French smartphone ban (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• British government, media attack whistleblower Edward Snowden (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• NSA spying scandal, new revelations (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)