Daily Times

The promulgation of new surveillance law in Britain is a sign of deteriorating security, and law and order situation that has become a permanent torment for the UK Home Office and law enforcement infrastructure. The UK is under threat from internal and external forces and needs a professional approach to national security to tackle the exponentially growing Talibanisation, radicalisation, extremism, and international terrorism. The new surveillance law gives the country’s secret agencies the most sweeping powers. The Investigatory Powers Act legalised the whole range of tools for snooping and hacking business of our intelligence agencies, which generated a countrywide debate in print and electronic media. The report of Intelligence Services Commissioner for 2015 has already elucidated the role of intelligence agencies in retention of Bulk Personal Dataset by any means. Section 2(2)(a) of the Security Service Act 1989, section 2(2)(a) and 4(2)(a) of the Intelligence Services Act 1994, also known as the “information gateway provisions”, and section 19 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 allow for the agencies to acquire and retain Bulk Personal Datasets (BPDs) overtly or covertly.

With GCHQ becoming more powerful, we need to know more about agency function and its spectre of surveillance mechanism. We also need to know how powerful GCHQ is and what range of its surveillance accesses. We need to know about agency operations through the recent, complicated and strong surveillance law promulgated in Britain. The agency has legal powers to hack, intercept and block our emails, messages, phone calls, and computer communications networks. GCHQ today is quite different from the NSA, and to some extent a powerful, accurate and reliable agency, but one thing is clear that the lawmakers mostly consider that the agency is a security umbrella of Britain that counters every destabilising element inside the country.

The new surveillance law gives more unchallengeable power to secret agencies, while the Investigatory Power Bill wants websites to keep customer’s browsing history for up to one year and allow agencies the right of access to data while investigating a case. Edward Snowden already mentioned these apprehensions in his recent tweeted message: “The UK has just legalised the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes further than many autocracies.” However, on 17 October 2016, the Investigatory Power Tribunal, the court that hears complaints against MI6, MI5 and GCHQ, ruled that these agencies had been unlawfully collecting massive volumes of confidential personal data without proper oversight for 17 years. Now, as the cat is out of the bag, and the 17 years’ practices have become legalised, the TEMPORA will continue to watch us by all means.

Human rights and privacy groups challenged the law in the EU Court of Justice. “The passage of the Snoopers’ Charter through parliament is a sad day for British liberty. Under the guise of counterterrorism, the state has achieved totalitarian-style surveillance powers the most intrusive system of any democracy in human history,” said a human rights activist. Open Rights Director, Jim Killock said, “The UK has now a surveillance law that is more suited to a dictatorship than a democracy. The state has unprecedented powers to monitor and analyses UK citizens communications regardless of whether we are suspected of any criminal activity.” Chief Executive of Big Brother Watch group, Renate Samson warned, “The passing of the investigatory power bill has fundamentally changed the face of surveillance in this country. None of us online are now guaranteed the right to communicate privately, and most importantly, securely.”

The revelations of Edward Snowden about the UK mass surveillance system transformed our understanding of how our most advanced and professional electronic intelligence agency (GCHQ) monitor us through its surveillance system day and night. Mr Snowden unveiled a range of different tactics by which our security agencies collect and analyse internet communication metadata. Perceptions of technicalities in law enforcement mechanism must be clear when dealing with national security issues by electronic means. If we ultimately depend on surveillance or electronic means of controlling the persistent unspecified population and its evolving perceptions of a peaceful society, we would not be able to counter the looming national security threats. In this globalised world, CCTV camera, helicopter, car, drone and many other means of electronic surveillance cannot paint a positive picture of law and order management, nor can we through them truly perceive a peaceful society. It is our fundamental right to know how Regulations of Investigatory Power Act-2000 (RIPA) and law enforcement agencies implement laws and what mechanism is adopted. Mr Snowden in his recent revelations elucidated the scope of surveillance through TEMPORA and the use of warrants for the interception of communications under section 8 (4) of RIPA.

Conventional wisdom asks whether this new trail of surveillance measures will ensure our peace of mind, physical security of our children and business, or will it further embroil our society in a multi-faceted crisis? The answer is not clear, but it is an irrevocable fact that at present, we are living in a climate of fear due to the arrival of newly trained terror and criminal elements in our streets and markets that make things worse, with their activities ranging from drug to human trafficking, and from espionage to terror-related businesses. Criminal gangs are making millions and terror elements receiving money from the UK based radicalised groups before carrying out attacks against government installations and public businesses, and this can be seen in the high graph of target killings.

Every year, we experience a new bunch surveillance and immigration laws, policing security measures, and new terror-related acts and ordinances, but this compact of legal measures never occur as a long-term panacea of our mental suffering. Every month, the police department issues new guidance to the communities for the safety and security of their children and houses, but criminal and radicalised elements do not bother with this instruction; they are free to harass and terrorise communities with impunity. The ooze remains, and we are still in a state of the fear of lone wolves, and the fear of the return of ISIS recruited elements from Iraq and Syria. We want UK intelligence agencies to improve their operational mechanism and counter terrorism capacity to prevent radicalised elements from entering the country.

The writer is author of Fixing the EU Intelligence Crisis, can be reached at zai.musakhan222@gmail.com