Re: GCHQ on Radio 4, Tue 30 March

On Sat, 27 Mar 2010, Mark Baldwin wrote :
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> There is a programme about GCHQ scheduled for
> 20.00 to 20.40 on BBC Radio 4, Tuesday 30 March.= 
> In 'GCHQ: cracking the code', Gordon Corera goes inside
> Britain's secret listening station.
> Mark Baldwin


see :
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THE SUNDAY TIMES
March 28, 2010

GCHQ : Spooks in socks and sandals
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Forget the glamour of 007. We get inside GCHQ and find it is geeks with 
mathematical minds and a bad dress sense who keep us safe
Government Communication Headquarters ( GCHQ ) in the west of Cheltenham

Gordon Carrera

Tucked away on the outskirts of Cheltenham is a vast circular structure 
wrapped in razor wire. Getting inside requires passing through layer after 
layer of ever-tightening security. Everyone in the town knows what it is 
"Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ) - but few secrets of 
its work emerge.

With about 5,500 employees, GCHQ is Britain's largest but least 
well-known intelligence agency. Its mission is to eavesdrop on global 
communications, hunting for the terrorist phone call, Taliban radio 
traffic or a telling email from a foreign government.

GCHQ operates in a hermetically sealed bubble of security. But the 
building - known as the doughnut because it is round with a hole in the 
middle - is open and airy. Casually dressed people stroll down the main 
thoroughfare, "the street", chat in coffee bars or work in open-plan 
offices. Signs for "serious crime" and "Asia-Pacific team" hint at 
the breadth of their work.

Intruders are unusual in this closed world. As I am escorted around, a 
voice comes across the PA system : "Blinds facing "the street" in 
blocks A and B should be closed immediately." A glance through a window 
might reveal something secret...../snip/


....The dangers of this work are evident from a walk through the grassy 
open-air space in the middle of the building. There, in one corner, is a 
memorial to the small number of staff who have died in service. The names 
show that more fatalities have come in Afghanistan in recent years than 
anywhere else.

- GCHQ : Cracking the Code is on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday at 8pm


http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article7078644.ece