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[FYI] HOW BRITAIN EAVESDROPPED ON DUBLIN



http://jya.com/gchq-etf.htm

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16 July 1999. Thanks to RC, PP, AR. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/atp/INDEPENDENT/NEWS/P4S3.html 

July 16, 1999 

HOW BRITAIN EAVESDROPPED ON DUBLIN 

THE MINISTRY of Defence "Electronic Test Facility", a rather
mysterious 150-ft high tower stands isolated in a British Nuclear
Fuels Limited site at Capenhurst, Cheshire. 

Locals knew that the tower housed a dark secret but did not know what
it was. That secret is now out. 

The tower was craftily erected between two BT microwave radio towers
carrying telephone traffic. The ETF was the ideal place to discreetly
intercept international telephone calls of the Irish government,
businessmen and those of suspected of involvement with IRA terrorism. 

Channel 4 filmed extensive BT equipment inside the building, including
optical fibre cables linking the tower to the MoD's communication
system. 

The hi-tech white ETF tower included eight floors of advanced
electronic equipment and three floors of aerial galleries. 

These were used to extract and sort the thousands of communications
passing through every hour. Fax messages, e-mails, telexes and data
communications were automatically sorted by computers scanning their
contents for key words and subjects of interest. Telephone calls could
be targeted according to the numbers dialled or by identifying the
voice of the speaker. 

At the time the tower first came into operation the IRA campaigns were
raging. 

[...]

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