Six former and current employees of the Food and Drug Administration say the federal agency spied on their private e-mail correspondence after they attempted to blow the whistle on agency practices of approving medical devices that posed a risk to patients.
The employees, all of them scientists or doctors, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking an injunction to halt the surveillance, according to the Washington Post.
The plaintiffs say the agency spied on correspondence they sent through personal Gmail accounts that they accessed from government computers and took screenshots of their computer desktops after they began corresponding with congressional staffers about their concerns.
Six intelligence agencies have been independently reviewed for the first time since 2004. Above, Robert Cornall, one of the review’s leaders and a former senior public servant. Photo: Andrew Taylor
AUSTRALIA’S spies now cost more than $1 billion a year to run – and they are increasingly involved in frontline operations, according to a landmark review of the country’s intelligence community.
Not only is the report the first time Australia has provided a headline figure for expenditure on its six intelligence agencies, the inquiry – the Independent Review of the Intelligence Community – is the first time since 2004 that the agencies have been independently scrutinised.
”Australia has seen the dramatic expansion of … intelligence in the last 10 years,” the review’s leaders, a former senior public servant, Robert Cornall, and a management consultant, Rufus Black, state in their report, issued yesterday.
“Australia has seen the dramatic expansion of … intelligence in the last 10 years” … the Independent Review of the Intelligence Community.
The six agencies are the domestic security agency ASIO, the foreign intelligence service ASIS, the electronic intelligence agency DSD, the analytical Office of National Assessments, and the Defence Intelligence Organisation and its geospatial partner DIGO.
A political scandal is brewing in Germany over revelations that a state security agency has been spying on members of the Die Linke leftist party, which has roots in East German communism.
It has emerged that almost a third of its 76 MPs are being monitored legally for evidence of anti-democratic activities. Die Linke is crying foul, but the ruling CDU is less critical.
Senior party member Hans-Petr Uhl said: “The problem with the Left Party is they don’t clearly distance themselves from groups who are ready to resort to violence and who are against the constitution.”
The extent of the spying by the Constitutional Protection Office was revealed by Der Spiegal magazine. The body’s role is to uphold democratic institutions such as an independent judiciary and free elections. But Die Linke says it has gone too far.
Its parliamentary party leader, Gregor Gysi, said: “The Constitutional Protection Office hasn’t picked up on the fact the world has changed. They haven’t learned that there were eight murders by right-wing terrorists. They haven’t figured out that the Cold War is over.”
The affair has sparked a fierce debate on the Constitutional Protection Office’s role, legality and relevance in the modern Germany.
Six former and current employees of the Food and Drug Administration say the federal agency spied on their private e-mail correspondence after they attempted to blow the whistle on agency practices of approving medical devices that posed a risk to patients.
The employees, all of them scientists or doctors, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking an injunction to halt the surveillance, according to the Washington Post.
The plaintiffs say the agency spied on correspondence they sent through personal Gmail accounts that they accessed from government computers and took screenshots of their computer desktops after they began corresponding with congressional staffers about their concerns.
Although employee computers displayed a warning at startup that they have “no reasonable expectation of privacy” over any data passing through or stored on the computer, and that the government can intercept data at any time for any lawful government purpose, the employees say the feds violated their constitutional rights by monitoring their personal accounts and that their correspondence with Congress was legally protected.
The plaintiffs were all working for the agency’s Office of Device Evaluation when they voiced concerns to Congress and the media about radiological devices the agency was about to approve, despite evidence that the devices had missed signs of breast cancer during testing. They also expressed concern about an ultrasound device that they said could malfunction while monitoring pregnant women in labor, risking harm to the fetus, and about several devices for colon cancer screening that they feared could give healthy patients cancer because they used excessive doses of radiation.
According to the Post, in the case of at least one device — a digital device for breast cancer screening — a team of experts had recommended against approving the device three times. Yet a senior manager approved it in 2008.
Of the six plaintiffs, two were fired, two did not have their contracts renewed, and two suffered harassment and were passed over for promotions after they began warning Congress and the media about the agency’s approval process.
Two Russian Embassy staff in Ottawa have left Canada in the wake of spying allegations against a Canadian naval officer in Halifax, but there’s little else that’s clear about the murky espionage case.
Intelligence experts and those in close contact with the embassy disagree on whether any Russian diplomats engage in spying, leaving Canadians to try to piece together what bits are public.
Initial media reports said up to four Russian Embassy staff had been removed from a list of embassy and diplomatic staff recognized by Canada. CBC News has confirmed that two have had their credentials revoked since news broke of the naval officer’s arrest, while two diplomats left the country a month or more before the arrest this week of Canadian Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle.
Another report pointed to two other staff who are no longer accredited to be in Canada. It’s not clear which of the staff have been expelled over the spying allegations.
Konstantin Kolpakov, a former aide to the ambassador, was scheduled to leave Canada on Dec. 25 because his posting was over, and had a send-off attended by diplomats in Ottawa mid-month.
Six former and current employees of the Food and Drug Administration say the federal agency spied on their private e-mail correspondence after they attempted to blow the whistle on agency practices of approving medical devices that posed a risk to patients.