Big Brother spy plan sparks revolt

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Jacqui Smith

LONDON – British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the political master of the MI5 intelligence agency, Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorism Command and GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping center, is facing an unprecedented clash with her own senior officials over plans to boost the level of spying on British citizens, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

There now are more than 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the country – making it, per capita, the most watched nation in the West.

London's subway system has 8,500 cameras and a further 1,550 are fitted on trains. The capital's buses have 60,000 cameras, and the country's motorway systems have over 2,000 car recognition cameras. All are linked to monitoring stations, which are themselves linked to the Security Services.

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Last year, police and other entities obtained 519,260 orders for access to phone and e-mail records – a record. In most cases, the orders were granted on the grounds of "national security."

But now Smith wants to increase the spying even further, with plans for a central database where every phone call, e-mail and Internet contact made in and out of Britain will be stored.

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