Britain’s GCHQ runs secret internet surveillance site in the Middle East

Britain is acting as a proxy for American spy agencies, running a covert internet spying site in the Middle East to eavesdrop on a huge bulk of emails, telephone calls and web traffic in the region.

The scheme is part of the vast global eavesdropping operations of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) on behalf of its American counterpart the National Security Agency (NSA), The Independent reported.

The GCHQ’s Middle East station can monitor and extract data from underwater fiber-optic cables in the region.

The paper quoted documents leaked by NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden as saying that the site is considered a major part of the so-called “war on terror” by the British government and its western allies.

The paper, however, has avoided revealing the precise location of the spying station.

The disclosure by the paper comes as The Guardian was leading the reporting on the Snowden leaks and GCHQ’s global internet espionage in cooperation with NSA.

Back on Wednesday, GCHQ ensured the reporting does not continue visiting the The Guardian office and destroying all files containing Snowden material.

David Miranda, the Brazilian partner of The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, is also facing a terrorism investigation by the London Metropolitan Police over material found on his computer.

Greenwald has been at the center of the Snowden controversy.

After the GCHQ raid on the paper’s offices, its editor Alan Rusbridger has reportedly agreed to limit reporting on Snowden files.

However, Greenwald has pledged to publish “many more documents” on “England’s spy system” sending shivers down the government’s spine that sensitive details including the location of GCHQ’s Middle East site could be made public.