SPY FILES

The most salient leak in the WikiLeaks cache so far appears to be one discovered by WikiLeaks’ French media partner OWNI, which uncovered a screenshot from a manual created by the French surveillance firm Amesys that shows the e-mail addresses and online pseudonyms of at least 40 people — poets, journalists, writers, historians and intellectuals — who played key roles among Libya’s opposition groups and were evidently being spied on with Amesys technology.

Until recently, seven of them were still living in exile: four in the UK, two in the US, one in Helsinki. Last August, one of them was appointed the Libyan ambassador in London. Another was one of 15 founding members of the National Transitional Council (NTC), created in March 2011 to coordinate the insurgency in Libya. He has since been appointed Minister for Culture.

While they were living in Britain and the United States, the electronic correspondence of all these figures was spied on by the extensive monitoring systems of Amesys, a French electronic warfare arms dealer which forms part of the Bull group.

Asked about their surveillance assistance to the dictatorial regime, Amesys told OWNI, “Amesys is a manufacturer of equipment. The use of the equipment it sells is exclusively the responsibility of its clients. Amesys has never had access to the use made of the equipment it sold to Libya.”

"Owni, a, a French media group that partnered with The Hindu in the WikiLeaks-Spy Files investigation, succeeded in using electronic means to recover the data."

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange launched the website's new project on Thursday, the publication of files it claims shows a global industry that gives dictatorships tools to spy on their citizens.

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If you're a wealthy, militant despot of a nation and your sovereignty is slipping away, Wikileaks has discovered that you can attempt to prevent an uprising by hiring a network of spies who operate in the private sector and will keep tabs...

I documenti rilasciati, nello stile di WikiLeaks, sono disponibili a tutti ed è facile orientarsi grazie a una mappa interattiva, che individua i paesi presi in esame e il tipo di sorveglianza cui sono sottoposti, con un'operazione in collaborazione con Working with Bugged Planet and Privacy International e media di sei paesi – ARD in Germania, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism nel Regno Unito, The Hindu in India, L’Espresso in Italia, OWNI in Francia e il Washington Post negli Usa.

"Today we release over 287 files documenting the reality of the international mass surveillance industry -- an industry which now sells equipment to dictators and democracies alike in order to intercept entire populations," Assange told reporters in London.

"Les courriels de sept opposants libyens en exil, résidant au Royaume-Uni ou aux États-Unis, ont été espionnés dans ces pays, par un système d'interception et de surveillance vendus à la Libye de Kadhafi par une société française, révèle jeudi le site Owni.fr."

The latest round of documents published by Wikileaks offers a rare glimpse into the world of surveillance products. The collection—which Wikileaks calls the Spy Files—includes confidential brochures and slide presentations that companies use to market intrusive surveillance tools to governments and law enforcement agencies.

Rondsluipen of afluisterapparatuur plaatsen? Dat hebben spionnen al lang niet meer nodig. Volgens WikiLeaks zijn programma's voor de controle van gsm's of e-mails al wijdverbreid en worden ze door het Westen op grote schaal ook aan dictaturen verkocht. "Heb je een smartphone? Gebruik je e-mail? OK, dan heb je een probleem".

Wikileaks has released the first swathe of 'spyfiles' documents from security companies around the world, in an effort to “shine a light" on a "secret industry worth billions".