US spends £200 million on new "intelligence hub" in the UK

[David Guyatt]

For Africa.

Washington spends £200m creating intelligence hub in Britain



RAF Croughton, near Milton Keynes, is to have 1,250 staff and will cover US operations in Africa

CAHAL MILMO

Sunday 18 May 2014

Washington is to spend almost £200m to turn one of its British military bases already implicated in mass surveillance and drone strikes into one of its largest intelligence hubs outside the mainland United States.

RAF Croughton, a US Air Force (USAF) base near Milton Keynes, which has a direct cable link to Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) at Cheltenham, is to be the site for an ultra-secure intelligence centre staffed by up to 1,250 personnel and covering operations in Africa, a current focus for US counterterrorism activities.
The $317m (£189m) project, which includes an installation for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's main military espionage service, underlines RAF Croughton's position as a centre for clandestine and classified US communications in Britain.
Once complete in 2017, the facility will be comparable in number of personnel and operational importance to RAF Menwith Hill, the National Security Agency (NSA) listening station in North Yorkshire. Like Menwith Hill, it is likely to be co-staffed with representatives of British intelligence, including GCHQ.
The Independent, the sister title of The Independent on Sunday, revealed last year that RAF Croughton was used to funnel back to Washington data from a global network of spy bases inside US embassies, including the secret Berlin facility alleged to have been used by the NSA to listen in on the mobile phone of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
The British base, which currently serves as a relay station for CIA agent communications, is also at the centre of claims that it is used as a support site for US drone strikes operated from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti against al-Qa'ida targets inside Yemen.
Campaigners and senior politicians yesterday said the massive investment in RAF Croughton raised fresh questions about the oversight of US bases in Britain, which are governed by a 1950s agreement with Washington drawn up in a different age of surveillance technologies.
Labour MP Tom Watson, a former defence minister, said: "The new spend of $317m on facilities at RAF Croughton is a shocking revelation. There can be no doubt now that communications activities there must be thoroughly reviewed, and arrangements governing use of the base updated."
Details of the RAF Croughton project obtained by this newspaper show that the upgrade will involve the "consolidation" of six existing US intelligence groups, currently based at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, into a single facility at RAF Croughton.
The Pentagon said the project was required to move intelligence staff out of outmoded and unsuitable accommodation at Molesworth, saving at least $75m a year. The move will lead to "divestiture", or closure, of the Cambridgeshire base and its neighbour RAF Alconbury, which are estimated to contribute £40m a year to the local economy.
The result will be a substantial further concentration of US intelligence firepower at RAF Croughton, whose stated purpose is to provide "world-class combat support" for activities including "global strike operations" and has recently had its security arrangements tightened.
A USAF briefing document makes it clear that the facility at RAF Croughton will be at the front line of intelligence activities and will include personnel from unnamed British agencies. The facility will be the principle intelligence centre for the USafricom or Africa command.
It emerged last year that British Telecom provided a high-speed fibre-optic line between RAF Croughton and Camp Lemonnier, the counterterrorism operations base used for drone strikes in Yemen and the Horn of Africa.
The existence of the communications link has caused concern that RAF Croughton is used to relay command and control data from drone operators, possibly based in the US, to Djibouti. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated that US personnel at the base "neither fly nor control any manned or remotely piloted aircraft anywhere in the world".
Lindis Percy, co-ordinator of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Airbases, said: "This massive new development at Croughton is clearly of great importance to the American military and government, but what say has the British Parliament or the Ministry of Defence had? It is high time that the issue of what goes on on US bases is debated in Parliament so there is a meaningful and credible debate and oversight on behalf of the British people."
The MoD yesterday insisted that all activities on US bases were subject to British approval. A spokesman said: "There are no circumstances under which UK military assets, including those bases made available to the US, could be used operationally by the US without the agreement of Her Majesty's Government."

[Magda Hassan]

Ha! And those paranoid types used to say that Britain was just a floating military base for the US. Guess they were right.

[David Guyatt]

And to go alongside the new UK intelligence hub...

The globalization of special forces

by Manlio Dinucci

The Special Forces of the U.S. army were created to use their military skills with a focus on conducting unconventional warfare operations, mainly by fomenting riots or assassinating political opponents. Washington secretly deploys them in 78 countries, while denying their existence, even though the budget for their missions exceeds 10 billion dollars annually. The proliferation of these forces should enable Washington to extend its invisible dictatorship around the globe.

VOLTAIRE NETWORK | 18 MAY 2014

A single accident can sometimes uncover a whole "secret war". This is what happened in Yemen, where in Sana'a a member of the U.S. Special Forces and a CIA agent shot at two men and killed them. According to the official version, they were two Al Qaeda terrorists who had attempted to kidnap them. The incident, as clear as day, sparked a wave of protests against the government, already accused of allowing CIA drones launched from a Saudi base to operate in Yemen.The Pentagon - asserted the New York Times - has intensified the operations of its special forces in Yemen. A country of great importance for its geostrategic position on the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb which straddles the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and is a transit chokepoint for major oil and trade routes linking Asia and Europe. Situated across from Yemen, 30 kms away along the African coast, Djibouti is home to the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, with approximately 4,000 men attached to the U.S. Special Forces. Using helicopters and special aircraft, they carry out night-time raids, particularly in neighboring Somalia and Yemen, flanked by contractors such as sharpshooters and experts in assassination techniques. Special Forces seconded to the Africa Command (AFRICOM) are operating in Nigeria and in many other African countries. They are part of the Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), which was used by Republican George W. Bush, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has assumed a new importance under Democratic President Obama.In this cult book, Admiral McRaven describes some of the wildest commando operations in history, including the fake killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.The Obama administration - wrote the Washington Post - " prefers covert action rather than the use of conventional force." USSOCOM commander Admiral William McRaven attested one month ago before a Senate committee that U.S. special operations forces are active in 78 countries worldwide, either through direct involvement or by training local units.The admiral failed to specify which countries, merely indicating that a new Special Forces Command, also encompassing NATO forces, was set up in Afghanistan. Hence, Washington's war in Afghanistan will not stop, but simply switch into "covert" mode.Other official sources report that Special Forces were deployed in Jordan and Turkey to train and oversee armed groups for the "secret war" in Syria (as had been done in Libya).Special Forces are increasingly used in Eastern Europe. Especially when it came to training the neo-Nazis that served to bring about the coup in Kiev, as confirmed by photographic documentation proving that Ukrainian neo-Nazi UNA-UNSO members were receiving training in Estonia since 2006 [1].But USSOCOM is setting its sights far beyond: in its "2020 Vision", it plans for the "building of a global network of special operations forces," including those of allied countries, including Italy, to be placed under U.S. command. In this way, the decision to go to war is increasingly concentrated in the hands of those at the apex of power, depriving parliaments of the little decision-making power they still have left. And war will become more and more invisible to the eyes of public opinion, already widely conditioned to believe only in what they see, or rather, the distortion and falsification of reality that we are shown by the mainstream media.As in the case of the White House campaign for the release of the abducted Nigerian girls, when in Yemen where U.S. special forces call the shots thousands of girls and young women from Africa are forced each year into sex slavery for the pleasure of the wealthy Yemeni and Saudi friends of Washington.

Manlio Dinucci

Source
Il Manifesto (Italy)

From VoltaireNet

[Peter Lemkin]

Ha! And those paranoid types used to say that Britain was just a floating military base for the US. Guess they were right.

Floating?...I thought it was sinking...

[Magda Hassan]

No, it is kept afloat by a lot of hot air emanating from Westminster and Babylon on Thames.

[Albert Doyle]

This type of Cold War is preferrable because it justifies the intel police state they always wanted instead of the two giant nuclear states of the previous Cold War. It justifies an infiltration and monitoring of the civilian population under the guise of fighting terror where the previous individual rights and privacy paradigm is destroyed. The definition of fighting "terror" in Africa will be open access to Africa's resources for corporations.

[Keith Millea]

The globalization of special forces

by Manlio Dinucci

The Special Forces of the U.S. army were created to use their military skills with a focus on conducting unconventional warfare operations, mainly by fomenting riots or assassinating political opponents. Washington secretly deploys them in 78 countries, while denying their existence, even though the budget for their missions exceeds 10 billion dollars annually. The proliferation of these forces should enable Washington to extend its invisible dictatorship around the globe.

Yep,We're masters of the world.Check out the Navy's new motto....

Poll: Public rejects Global force for good'

Feb. 5, 2013 - 12:22PM | Last Updated: Feb. 5, 2013 - 12:22PM |
Comments



Navy jets fly in formation above the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln last year. Respondents to a new national poll panned the Navy's "Global Force for Good" mottol. (Navy)

By Sam Fellmam

Tell us:

Do you like the Navy's slogan of "A Global Force for Good." Why or why not? Do you have a better one? Email your comments to navylet@navytimes.com. Please include your name, rank or rating, quals, and duty station. Your comments could be used in an upcoming story.

The Navy's recruitment slogan may not be sitting well with its target audience the American public.

Only 20 percent of Americans support the Navy's message of, "America's Navy: A Global Force for Good," a new national poll reports.

It's only the latest controversy for the service's feel-good slogan used to attract new recruits.

The Rasmussen Reports http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/february_2013/70_want_navy_to_protect_u_s_not_be_global_force_for_good">poll, released Tuesday, asked likely voters this question: "The U.S. Navy now claims it is a global force for good. Is the Navy's mission primarily to be a global force for good or primarily to protect and defend the United States?"

Seventy percent of the 1,000 respondents said the Navy's responsibility was primarily to defend the nation, while 20 percent said it was to be a global force for good, according to the polling company's data. Ten percent said they were unsure.


The motto has turned off many. Sailors have seen it as preachy. Many citizens believe that the service's emphasis should be on defending America, not helping the world. And a Navy one-star publicly http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/09/navy-rear-admiral-seeks-new-broader-navy-slogan-090212/">critiqued the motto last August, saying that the motto doesn't reach a wide-enough audience, namely the taxpayers.


But the way the poll asked the question is sure to stoke debate. Navy leaders and many defense analysts believe that the Navy's humanitarian aid and disaster relief are vital missions that strengthen American security by building goodwill and that also happen to entice new recruits, eager to serve.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert begins most of his speeches by stressing that America's security is maintained in the far-flung maritime crossroads of the Earth, a message underscored by his chosen backdrop: a map that shows the fleet's global position.


A Navy spokesman called the slogan a recruiting message and not one aimed at the general public, adding that they've heard these criticisms from the fleet as well.


"Broadly, the findings in the survey match what Navy leadership has heard from sailors and the public at large when conducting either all hands calls or community outreach around the country," said Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello. "There are groups that like the slogan and there are groups that think it misses the true mission of our Navy and that it may be time for a change."


Navy Recruiting Command, which is responsible for the motto, has said that the slogan has been successful since it was adopted in 2009. It has boosted the public's recognition more than two-fold and garnered talented recruits from the so-called Millennial Generation.


Indeed, the poll found the slogan resonated most with the youngest voters. Twenty-three percent of respondents aged 18 to 39 favored the slogan, compared to 19 percent for those 40 to 64 and 15 percent of those 65 and older. The responses also had a partisan skew. Thirty-one percent of self-identified Democrats liked it compared to only 12 percent of Republicans. (It didn't do well among those who affiliate with other parties, getting only 14 percent of those respondents.)


Rasmussen has been accused by some critics of skewing conservative.


In a statement, Navy Recruiting Command spokesman Cmdr. Alvin Plexico said, "Both external and internal surveys show overwhelmingly positive support for Navy Recruiting advertising by those we recruit as well as those who may influence someone considering service."

Navy Times

[David Guyatt]

"Global Force for Good". Goodness, Goebbels would've been choking with jealousy.

[Albert Doyle]

They left the "Profits" off the end...

[David Guyatt]

They left the "Profits" off the end...

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