Intelligence: Britain Is Listening

Archives

December 26,2008:  Britain has revealed that it has deployed members of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters, their equivalent of the NSA)  to Afghanistan. The GCHQ personnel are "signals intelligence" (SIGINT) experts, and work closely with the British forces in Afghanistan to obtain information about enemy electronic communications. GCHQ also has the capability of tapping into the Internet and satellite phones. The British SIGINT experts have long worked with the American NSA on many projects, and constantly share information. The Taliban and al Qaeda are often forced to use electronic communications, because couriers are too slow and vulnerable, and when they do go on the air, there is a good chance that GCHQ or NSA will be listening in. The GCHQ personnel with the front line units in Afghanistan are also there to make sure the troops get useful information as soon as possible. Such data often does not age well, and is more valuable the sooner it is used.

 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close