Signs
Long ago, the CIA's main facility was marked as The Bureau of Roads, which fooled essentially no one. For a long time, though, it has been prominently marked as what it is.
The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) has a giant banner hanging outside declaring its purpose to the world. The hush-hush blueprint inspection facility is part-staffed by GCHQ spies, and probes the Chinese giant's networking products for vulnerabilities and any backdoors. Its location is only ever given as " …
You are so wrong. When a relative worked at GCHQ he was not even supposed to tell his family where he was working and his cover address was in Stevenage.
The comic opera nature of the whole thing was revealed when he mentioned Cheltenham and I said "Oh, you must be listening in on the Russians." "You're not supposed to know that." "Then why do they advertise in Wireless World for radio engineers willing to learn Russian and based in the Cheltenham area?"
Also, the horsepower of the ancient submarine currently on display at Chatham is still an Official Secret.
You are so wrong. When a relative worked at GCHQ he was not even supposed to tell his family where he was working and his cover address was in Stevenage.
A friend had been stationed at Camp David (during the Reagan years) and was required to list his posting as Washington DC. Only difference was if an officer or judge *directly* asked if he was at Camp David he would then acknowledge it.
Bit perhaps the Huawei centre is pulling a double-bluff. Obviously, if the place is clearly marked as a security centre, it obviously wouldn't really be located there. But since everyone will assume it's a feint to cover up it's actual location, it's safe to put it there.
I grew up in Cheltenham, and various of my friends' parents worked at GCHQ. Obviously they didn't talk about it, but they referred to their job as "I work for the civil service in Cheltenham".
Of course, back then there wasn't a Doughnut, and GCHQ was split between two sites on either side of town. There's still rumours that there is/was tunnels connecting them both.
The administration doesn't care about security compromises, they just care that government funds might not end up funneled into the pockets of rich American shareholders (AKA their campaign financiers). US Policy makes a lot more sense when you frame it as "How will this affect the people that fund the campaigns of the politicos?"
It seems like the UK wants to become the favoured "regime change launch platform" (and dodgy tax haven) for the US - judging from the latest shenanigans envisioned by such "elites" as the UK defence minster.
Lesser thinkers would think that It is maybe not a good idea with "a brisk show of force" in front of the natives that one might want to trade some whiskey and glass beads with; here, in the 21'st century when those pesky natives are on an entirely different level altogether!?
the article in the Sun yesterday about Philip Hammond's failed trade talks with China, due to Gavin's spear-rattling at RUSI on Monday, make your point fajensen.
Confirmation appeaed in the FT today, there was supposed to be a high level declaration this Sunday, which now might not happen because of ourempt gun-boat threats?
who needs trade deals with billions of ppl?
And here I thought this was a building housing Huawei's UK operations.
But even though the GCHQ has intelligence-gathering activities as part of its mandate, evaluating the trustworthiness of products sold in the UK is not "spying" in any sense of the term, it's a perfectly normal and legitimate law-enforcement and consumer-protection activity of government, even if the required expertise had to come from a "spooky" source.
One could still be concerned about the safety of the people working in the building, as they are still targets even if they're not currently engaged in spying, so this is primarily a quibble about wording.
I wonder if they have Huawei's permission to use their trademark on that banner?
Did you read the part of the article that says that HCSEC is administratively part of Huawei?