Call to open RAF base for investigation into NSA tapping of Merkel's phone

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Britain should grant Germany's federal prosecutor access to an RAF base which is alleged to have acted as a relay station for data intercepted from Angela Merkel's mobile phone by the US National Security Agency (NSA), the Labour MP Tom Watson has said.

In a letter to the prime minister Watson said that full British co-operation with Harald Range, the German federal prosecutor who has announced an investigation into the alleged tapping of Merkel's mobile phone, would ensure that Anglo-German relations are not damaged...

... Watson said that the German federal prosecutor should be given access to RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire after the Independent reported {see below} that information captured by the "stateroom" system of US listening stations in diplomatic missions is sent back to Washington via the base near Milton Keynes...

... In his letter to the prime minister Watson wrote: "There will be no better moment to announce that Britain acknowledges the seriousness of the German criminal investigation; and we will do everything possible to support the work of the prosecutor. Our role in the investigation may be important, given the key role of RAF Croughton in the Defence Information Systems Network (DISN) backbone of the US global information grid. I'm sure you are well versed in the specific allegations [about] RAF Croughton."...

/... http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/18/labour-merkel-nsa-phone-tapping-raf-croughton

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Data from the global network of US embassy spy posts implicated in the eavesdropping on Angela Merkel’s mobile phone is funnelled back to Washington through a secret hub in Northamptonshire, The Independent can reveal.

Vast quantities of information captured by America’s “Stateroom” system of listening stations in diplomatic missions – including phone calls and data sent over wi-fi links – are routed back to spy chiefs via a communications hub within the US Air Force base in Croughton, near Milton Keynes.

The facility at RAF Croughton has been identified as a relay centre for CIA clandestine and agent communications. It has also now been named in documents leaked by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden as playing a key support role in embassy-based spying.

Documents seen by The Independent name the base as one of two centres for “tech support activity” by the Special Collection Service (SCS) – the joint CIA/NSA unit which runs the network of about 100 listening posts operated in parallel with an identical British scheme overseen by GCHQ...

/... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-raf-croughton-base-sent-secrets-from-merkels-phone-straight-to-the-cia-8923401.html