British Base in Cyprus Used to Spy

A Turkish checkpoint is within distance of the Dhekelia Sovereign Base of British Forces in the southeast of Cyprus, a country divided since 1974.

British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) used to spy on foreign governments and individuals in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, including trade organisations, foreign embassies, and UN agencies. Special engineers used 14 undersea cables or “passive optical splitters,” which pass through Cyprus from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

The listening station, which consists of satellite dishes, antennas and operational buildings and can especially be seen on Google Earth satellite images, is located at Ayios Nikolaos on the British sovereign military base.

According to sources, they have access to tens of millions of emails, telephone calls, instant messages and other web-based traffic. The revelations are connected to the information from documents which are leaked by the American whistleblower and former NSA employee Edward Snowden.

American spies are also in the British base, according to a document leaked by Snowden that was seen by Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The Italian weekly also revealed “The document says the American intelligence staff is required to dress as tourists because the UK has promised the Cyprus government that only British staff will work there.”