In the news: CSE, whistle-blowers, legislation

A flurry of recent CSE-related news reports and a break in my current workload have prompted me to rise out of the torpor of the past couple of months and jolt some life back into this blog.

The Edmonton Sun has just run a series on CSE and signals intelligence:

• Jeremy Loome, "Nothing is secret: Your cellphone calls may have many listeners", Edmonton Sun, 29 October 2006
  
• Jeremy Loome, "They're watching you—Some tapping necessary: experts", Edmonton Sun, 30 October 2006
  
• Jeremy Loome, "Secret agencies are accountable", Edmonton Sun, 30 October 2006

The articles contain no new revelations as far as I can see (except for the claim that the owner of this blog is "an expert on Sigints") and they do contain a few questionable statements (such as the suggestion, perhaps unintended, that SIGINT activities began in 1947), but overall they're worth a read.

Also in the news:

• Bill Curry, "Bill amendment would protect spy-service whistle-blowers", Globe and Mail, 28 October 2006

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee is recommending that legal protection be extended to whistle-blowing employees of CSIS and CSE. "In the post-9/11 world," the senators say, "particularly in light of the significant additional expenditures on defence and security, we want assurance that our counter-terrorism agencies are operating scrupulously within the law. We want members of CSIS and CSE to feel confident in coming forward to report any wrongdoing."

I'm not always a fan of Senate reports, but this seems like a sensible recommendation. And they also got CSE's name right. The Globe and Mail report calls the agency the Canadian Security Establishment and describes it as "an Ottawa-based organization that intercepts phone calls and computer messages as part of national security exercises". Mm.

Other items:

• Michael Geist, "Net surveillance: divide and conquer", p2pnet.net. A commentary on the Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act (blogged about here), which died on the Order Paper last fall and may or may not be revived.
  
• CSE is now up to at least 1,597 employees. The webpage is dated 2 February 2006, which is the same as the date given for the last update, so unfortunately it is not clear exactly what period this number is supposed to apply to.