The U.K. has reportedly been operating a secret data gathering base in the Middle East – part of a $1.5 billion investment in global surveillance.
Britain’s Independent newspaper claims it obtained this information from U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks. But the NSA whistle-blower says he has not released any information linked to these allegations.
Source mystery
According to alarabiya.net:
“How the Independent revealed the information remains unclear. It is the first time that the newspaper is reporting material allegedly from the NSA documents obtained by Snowden.
“The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald has thus far been one of the main sources of Snowden’s leaks. Greenwald wrote in a blog on the Guardian today that Snowden denies being the source of the Independent’s report.
‘I have never spoken with, worked with, or provided any journalistic materials to the Independent,’ Snowden said, according to Greenwald.”
Snowden accused the U.K. government of intentionally leaking information deemed harmful to the Independent and attributing it to others, alarabiya.net reports.
“It appears that the U.K. government is now seeking to create an appearance that the Guardian and Washington Post’s disclosures are harmful, and they are doing so by intentionally leaking harmful information to The Independent and attributing it to others. The U.K. government should explain the reasoning behind this decision to disclose information that, were it released by a private citizen, they would argue is a criminal act,” Snowden stated, according to Greenwald.
Greenwald wrote a series of reports exposing United States and British mass surveillance programs based on documents obtained by Snowden.
