The CIA has recruited British defence and hi-tech
companies in an attempt to acquire the latest
technology for its spying missions and
intelligence-gathering.
The British firms, including the mobile-phone company
Hutchison 3G and aerospace contractor BAE Systems, are
helping the CIA to develop sophisticated map reading,
3-D mapping and computer communications techniques.
In conflicts such as the war in Afghanistan, these
projects would potentially allow CIA agents in the war
zone to translate an obscure reference to a building,
village or cave into a 3-D photo-realistic map of the
area via laptops and satellite phones.
One project funded by the CIA uses raw data provided
by the Ordnance Survey based on its digital maps of
the UK, sparking criticism from MPs.
One Labour MP said the projects raised major questions
about whether these relationships were in Britain's
interests. Alan Simpson, a senior member of the
left-wing Campaign group of backbenchers, said: "Where
does this take the CIA? If we're giving them the
ability to plot grid references to any house in
Britain, it raises fundamental questions about whether
this is in the national interest."
The CIA, the world's largest and most powerful
intelligence agency, has been under immense pressure
to catch up with the rapid developments and spread of
computer and internet technology over the past decade.
Its directors admit that the size and reach of the
internet has left it struggling to catch up. In 1999,
it set up a unique private company called In-Q-Tel to
invest about $30m a year in hi-tech companies and
research projects.
"We make investments in companies where we have a
strategic interest in the technology," a spokeswoman
said.
Five British firms have become collaborators or
contractors for In-Q-Tel through a US-dominated
alliance of more than 220 private companies,
government agencies and universities called the Open
GIS Consortium (OGC) to develop common technological
standards for computers.
In one project overseen by OGC, Hutchison 3G is a
partner with In-Q-Tel and five US firms to design a
system which allows wireless links between computers.
The mobile-phone company Vodaphone is a contractor and
the British companies Laser-Scan and its owner, Yeoman
Group, have become observers in the project.
In another project, In-Q-Tel has hired a division of
BAE Systems and Laser-Scan, which makes digital and
internet maps, to develop ways of linking geographical
data from separate sources – a technique known as
inter-operability. This project uses Ordnance Survey
data.
Laser-Scan is also involved with the Military Mapping
Project, where the CIA and US Army is developing
further sophisticated 3-D mapping techniques, such as
sending them via the internet, in a restricted project
also overseen by OGC.
British companies appear to have avoided the most
controversial projects funded by In-Q-Tel. One US firm
called SafeWeb had been paid to give the CIA the
ability to snoop on internet web sites without being
detected.
All the companies and agencies involved insisted the
projects were above board, and Ordnance Survey
stressed that its data was used simply for research
purposes.
In-Q-Tel denied that it required its contractors to
sign secrecy deals with the CIA, or expected to
control the results of its projects with OGC.