Invisible Eyes -Gov't Surveillance in Europe

With the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the rise of the terror threat in the sands of the Middle East, governments across Europe are under pressure to help their security services fight terrorism.

The increased intensity of global USA and British electronic and satellite surveillance of al Qaeda has forced the leadership of the global terrorist groups to go "dark," an unintended consequence of successful surveillance by USA's National Security Agency and other intelligence sources. Terrorists have switched from using satellite phones and email to employing centuries-old hand-delivered courier networks and cutouts at Internet cafes.

In Great Britain, the USA's National Security Agency's Echelon Network surveillance “towers,” known to the world’s intelligence elite as “radomes”—secret interception facilities, function like a giant celestial net, capturing billions of telephone conversations, e-mails, Internet downloads, satellite transmissions, and faxes.

The messages culled each day are searched by supercomputers housed at the Fort Meade Army compound near Chesapeake Bay, where they are scanned by electronic “dictionaries” that capture key words that have been programmed for top-secret review and action. These millions of messages are read in real time as they pour into the station, hour after hour, day after day, the computers searching for intelligence needles in the electronic haystack.

Across the Atlantic the BBC has provided give a snapshot of the extent of surveillance across Europe.

"The threat of terrorism has forced the German government to take stricter measures"

"Privacy campaigners say the UK has some of the world's leading surveillance systems

"On the whole, the French are not big fans of surveillance equipment."

"Italians are among the most spied upon people in the world, says the Max Planck Institute"

"Greece has such strong constitutional protection against state sponsored spying

The BBC reports that the Germans have an historic fear of state intrusion, dating back to the Stasi secret police in the East and the Nazi-era Gestapo. But the threat of terrorism has forced the German government to take stricter measures.

During the 1970s, the West German authorities tightened legislation after a series of attacks by the left-wing Red Army Faction. The German government went further following revelations about Mohammed Atta, the head of the Hamburg cell involved in the 9/11 attacks on New York.

The most controversial changes have come since 2006, when police found explosives in a pair of suitcases left on two passenger trains in Koblenz and Dortmund in western Germany. The bombs did not go off and, after surveillance camera video was posted on the internet, arrests were made.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said the use of video surveillance was clearly important and rail operator Deutsche Bahn stepped up its use of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras. When a laptop was found apparently containing plans, sketches and maps, the authorities then considered how to monitor suspects' computers so that plots could be prevented at an earlier stage. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) already had the ability to monitor suspects' emails and the websites and chat rooms they visited.

Poplice now want to send emails that would infect a recipient's computer with spy software and relay information to police computers.The threat was compounded by the discovery of 12 vats of hydrogen peroxide in September 2007 and an alleged plot to bomb US civil and military targets.

Three hundred police had been involved in a nine-month surveillance operation but had not been able to access the suspects' computers. Germany's Constitutional Court has now decided that the practice of cyber spying violates the right to privacy but would be acceptable in exceptional cases, under the auspices of a judge.

Faced with warnings from Germany's privacy commissioner of ever more sweeping surveillance - and protesters' T-shirts bearing the slogan "Stasi 2.0" - the BBC says that the government will have to move forward with tact.

Complete BBC Europe Surveillance Report.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

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