It’s emerged that Britain has an ultra-secret spy base in the Middle East which taps undersea cables running through the region.
The Register reports that the base and its operations are”above-top-secret” and, despite being leaked by Edward Snowden, have until now remained under wraps. Apparently some media organizations have been subject to government pressure not to print the details, but The Register, well, ignored that.
The spy base is apparently part of a programme called CIRCUIT and is sometimes referred to as Overseas Processing Centre 1 (OPC-1). Located at Seeb, which lies on the northern coast of Oman, it taps undersea cables which pass through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf. There are other sites in Oman, too, explains The Register, called TIMPANI, GUITAR and CLARINET. TIMPANI apparently monitors Iraqi communications while CLARINET listens in on Yemen.
All of this information is reported to have been “classified 3 levels above Top Secret.” Not anymore. [The Register]
