24C3 - 1.01

24th Chaos Communication Congress
Volldampf voraus!

Speakers
Annie Machon
Schedule
Day Day 3 (2007-12-29)
Room Saal 1
Start time 11:30
Duration 01:00
Info
ID 2293
Event type lecture
Track Society
Language en
Feedback

What can we do to counter the spies?

A presentation about the role of intelligence agencies in the current era of the unending “war on terror”, how they monitor us, the implications for our democracies, and what we can do to fight back.

In the name of protecting national security, spy agencies are being given sweeping new powers and resources. Their intelligence has been politicised to build a case for the disastrous war in Iraq, they are failing to stop terrorist attacks, and they continue to collude in illegal acts of internment and torture, euphemistically called “extraordinary rendition”. Most western democracies have already given so many new powers to the spies that we are effectively living in police states. As an informed community, what can we do about this?

  1. What it was like to be recruited and work for MI5?

  2. The crimes of MI5 and MI6. These include: MI5 files held on government ministers, IRA bombs that could and should have been prevented, Illegal MI5 phone taps, Lying to go government, The 1994 bombing of the Israeli embassy in London by Mossad, and the subsequent wrongful imprisonment of two innocent people, The illegal MI6 assassination attempt against Colonel Gaddafi of Libya.

  3. How to go “on the run”, what it’s like to cross the secret state, and how to survive.

  4. The lack of accountability and oversight. The spies literally get away with murder.

  5. The current situation. Despite glaring intelligences failures, both in the run-up to the Iraq war and in a number of recent terrorist attacks on the UK, our government still continues to grant more resources and powers to the spies. Why?

  6. The implications of these new laws for our democracy.

  7. The interception of our communications – ECHELON and beyond.

  8. On a lighter and more hopeful note – examples of the spies’ technological ineptitude.

  9. The failure of the mainstream media to effectively hold the spies to account.

What can we do? We have a (probably limited) window of opportunity to halt this slide towards totalitarianism. It’s time for our fight back.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke, MP

Archived page - Impressum/Datenschutz