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THE GARDA OMBUDSMAN Commission (GSOC) has said that its database was not compromised as a result of communications being tapped, and that there was no evidence of Garda misconduct.
GSOC also said that it now “regrets” the decision to not report the matter “to other parties”.
“We did not wish to point fingers unnecessarily and we did not believe that widespread reporting would be conducive to public confidence,” a statement released this evening read.
“We regret that now and this was communicated to the Minister for Justice and Equality [Alan Shatter] by Simon O’Brien, Chairman of the Commission, this afternoon.”
Ahead of this meeting, Minister Shatter had requested a “full report” into the hacking.
The Office confirmed that “three technical and electronic anomalies” that could not be “conclusively explained” were found following an investigation which concluded the 17 December last year, although there was no evidence of “Garda misconduct”.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday that the WiFi network and a phone used for conference calls in GSOC’s office had been tapped.
The statement in full:
In the course of our operations the Commission has always been conscious of the need for appropriate confidentiality and proper levels of security. The Commission has brought this to the attention of staff from time to time. On two occasions, since commencing operations, security experts have been consulted. A sweep of the building, and tests on the integrity of our telecommunications security, have been undertaken.
A security sweep of GSOC’s offices was conducted on the evenings of 23 to 27 September, 2013. This was conducted by a specialist UK security firm that had been recommended. The overall cost of the security checks undertaken was just under €18,000.
As well as the general check of our building, the Commission also sought expert advice on the sorts of capabilities that exist in relation to the interception of communications, including telephones.
The investigation was completed on 17 December, 2013. It confirmed the existence of three technical and electronic anomalies. These could not be conclusively explained and raised concerns among the investigation team in terms of the integrity of GSOC’s communications security. However GSOC is satisfied that its databases were not compromised. Since the investigation concluded, we have been working to review and enhance our security systems in the light of what the investigation revealed.
There was no evidence of Garda misconduct. The Commission decided to discontinue the investigation on the basis that no further action was necessary or reasonably practicable.
Given the outcome of the investigation, GSOC recognised the need to reinforce the security of our telecommunications systems in the light of the specialist’s advice. We took the difficult decision not to report this matter to other parties. We did not wish to point fingers unnecessarily and we did not believe that widespread reporting would be conducive to public confidence. We took the decision not to report in good faith. We regret that now and this was communicated to the Minister for Justice and Equality by Simon O’Brien, Chairman of the Commission, this afternoon.
Garda Commissioner response
This evening, while speaking at Garda HQ, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said that he has read “very carefully” GSOC’s statement.
He said he has noted in particular the assertion that there was no evidence of Garda misconduct:
It is a cause of grave concern that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission’s statement contains a clear indication that An Garda Síochána was in some way suspected of complicity in this matter despite GSOC’s overall finding that the existence of technical and electronic anomalies could not be conclusively explained.
The Commissioner is now seeking clarification from the GSOC about what he described as the below “issues resulting from its statement”:
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Surely a criminal investigation must be launched now, I for one is interested in finding out who is behind this.
This statement gives me the impression there won’t be one. Sad times
Seems the ombudsman made that decision makes me wonder why
Suspect known to the garda
Who would investigate it, the Gadai, Shatter or PAC? First two are potential suspects and the third was recently castrated. How long before we have our very own Kristallnacht? Ahhh, imagine the splendor as the Blue Shirt march down O’Connells Street to save the Republic.
Suspect are the Garda
GSOC…. Great Spy Our Commissioner….
What has not changed is that the GSOC was still being spied upon.
Instead we are being deflected with who should have said what to whom. Even though the law is clear that their is no legal onus for the GSOC to report this to anyone. So we are being distracted with a moot point.
If the Cabinet believed that this was done by a dissident terror group or bank robbers or traffickers of some kind then it would have a different approach.
As usual in Ireland, instead of a dark sinister conspiracy by an unnamed top secret organisation ( mission impossible Ireland?), it’s looking increasingly like incompetence… In this case GSOC’s, who can’t even state for certain if they were hacked..I can hear the back pedalling from here. Suck on it conspiracy nerds. :).
Can’t believe their WIFI password was 999
There is no doubt that a spying operation was being conducted against the GSOC.
The company behind the investigation has said that clearly.
Why pretend otherwise?
SeanieRyan, that is the point, there is doubt that there was spying, just watched the head of the GSOC on the news tonight and he referred to the situation as anomalies, said that the Gardai were not suspected…
The whole manner in which GSOC handled this looks like a cock up. I wonder, after looking at all the wild allegations and dark mutterings on this thread tonight, if the conspiracy theorists/ Garda bashers are proven to be wrong, will there be apologies?
There is no doubt that there was spying, if you were watching Prime Time you’d see that.
You might doubt it Stephen but I have to presume that you have an agenda in doing so.
Pretend away.
“We have been bugged. You might be the one’s that did it and your leader is disgusted that tells the truth to the public or betrays the force in so doing. SO, please investigate yourselves.” Hum maybe they wanted to feed red herrings so as to entrap. Until the Minister gives GSOC access to pulse and ranks it higher than commissioner Ireland will continue to suffer at the hands of corruption and anti-democracy (now what was that called in the 1930′s?)..
FFS face the elephant in the room , people , Its verily obvious who’s behind it!, but nobody wants to face up to the fact, or probably scared & i cant really blame them considering the way some voices were stifled and characters of the outspoken ,muddied,
There”s something rotten to the core in this country as every tribunal, and ‘allowable’ enquiry shows. Penalty points are just a sidetrack laughable sham,
If only we’d a free press and an electorate who cred enough to express a sense of outrage!!!
Should an external agency be hired to carry out an investigation or should police from another EU member state be brought in to investigate the matter?
the con goes on
we will never ever know anything if we don’t stand up for ourselves, why would the government suddenly start giving a shit without a push
No agenda Seanie, I just wait for evidence to go along with the headlines to draw any conclusions, according to prime time last night the hacking originated in the uk?GSOC have had no qualms in the past about lambasting the Gardai..if they suspected the Gardai were involved there’d be a lot more noise about it.
If it turns out this story is either bunkum, or that a party other than the Gardai are involved will you come on the journal and say as much?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s enjoyable to have theories, and biases.. But you have to admit GSOC’s handling of this seems a bit tentative compared to their often bullish statements? Hmmmmm?
They should have reported it to the Gardai when they were satisfied there was no misconduct. It’s possible a crime has been committed and they are negligent in not reporting it.
They are not whiter than white.
They obviously don’t trust the gardai or the minister, and who could blame them.
The reason why Shatter or the top level Gardai were not told is crystal clear the ombudsman suspected them of being behind the bugging. Everybody is thinking this but no journalist has come out and said it yet, such is Shatters power in this country.
They couldn’t PROVE misconduct. That’s a lot different from believing that untoward was being done.
It sounds to me like the problem might be within GSOC and nothing to do with the guards or the Minister. That’s why they hushed it up…. it’s their F-up.
Maybe lax IT procedures within leading to an Internet intrusion caused this security breach. All it takes is one staff member to download from a dodgy website and malware/phishing software can infect an entire network.
Sounds more likely to be the case to me but of course that won’t inspire the conspiracy theorists.
John, the report from the Sunday Times stated that “government level” technology was used, including GSM cell tower spoofing, equipment for this level of espionage is not commercially available. It is sold by defence companies in Europe and North America via permits to intelligence agencies, military, police and law enforcement only. It can cost half a million dollars to buy.
“Sounds more likely to be the case to me but of course that won’t inspire the conspiracy theorists.”
Ha ha “conspiracy theorists” This term and the people who use it need to laughed at every time sorry John Clarke but your just silly for using it.
Those bugs could have been placed years ago Martin, potentially well before the current government. (the fact that they were even discovered could indicate that they were antiquated devices)
Fionán, that couldn’t be correct. The “bugs” discovered were not physical devices as such, they were hacked remotely (via Britain), according to John Mooney, Sunday Times. A security sweep was conducted in 2011, with nothing found, and another last year where 3 security breaches were discovered. This means that between 2011 and 2013, the spying operation began, using “government level” equipment.
@Fionán Lynch ….Dave saved me a comment and has proved your point has no validity.
Why did the Ombudsman suspect something not right in the first place and who went to The Sunday Times ?
Kate, according to the GSOC chief on six one news tonight, there was no specific concern, just a general security sweep. Another one was carried out in 2011 (they were obviously taking their cyber security for granted if they only swept for bugs once a year!). However, in the Irish Times yesterday they did say the GSOC was concerned about the level of leakage of their cases in the media, and thus carried out a sweep. So, who knows the real truth!
Who went to the Sunday Times? Good question!
Thanks Dave ….
TOSH!!! go to Israel,China Russia and Serbia and pick this up for appx 20 k these days.
The Security company behind the check have confirmed that there was a spying operation being conducted.
Why pretend that this was not the case?
Dermot you are a fool.
You think Gardai spent money on the likes of that?, possibly slight exaggeration on that point, the organisation has always been 10 years behind in IT mostly down to penny pinching. I don’t actually think the Gardai would give that much of a toss really. There’s spoofing going on alright.
What ye say now boys is..”nothing to see here folks,move along”………ha!ha!
Not good enough for GSOC to say there was electronic anomalies – what were these anomalies? Is there conclusive evidence that the place was even bugged?
GSOC’s current complaint made by Claire Daly TD about Gardai leaking stuff to media should be more interesting now that they leaked stuff to the Times.
Ok if they were to tell the GP it was a highly technical jargon related report going into the intricies of computor programming and such that few if anyone outside a electronic counter surveillance would understand.Would thh doubters be happy then??
more like the reason GSOC wont say anything is possibly the KNOW the Who it was when they did it how they did it and knowing some oafs here in this line of work proably left the shop price tags still on the equipment.
dragnet
the tag on the equipment stated that; this equipment shoul be back in the phoenix park no later than…………….
It appears that GSOCS propensity for running to their friends in the media in order to promote their own public standing has finally blown up in their face.
Judging by the language used in their press release ” technical and electrical anomalies, that could not be conclusively explained” it appears to be a case of much ado about nothing. Perhaps they would be better contacting an IT company instead of a foreign security company and there friends in the media.
Think you’ve nailed it there willie. A political power play by the ombudsman that got everyone rushing blame the guards. Looks like it’s blown up in their face.
Sorry lads this is not going away yet !! much as the two of you would like it to…. for whatever reasons. Three credible threats were discovered by a highly rated security company who also have worked for the UN. GSOC when they suspected it, thought they could not trust the Gardaí to investigate it or inform the minister for Justice. Stands to reason they considered them as possible suspects.
Who was bugging the GSOC office and why? Why is no one asking that question or proposing who could gain from bugging the GSOC office? Why mention the Garda at all in their statement if they were not suspected for good reason.
No this is not going away……its the beginning of the end for someone’s career. Hopefully not a scapegoat but the real culprit.
Don’t agree the way the GSOC commissioner crawled so publicly as that man did in his press release, refused to answer questions and apologises speaks volumes for me. These guys are normally first in line for the press when it suits them. They got it wrong and he knows it. It was another GSOC publicity attempt except this time their bluff was called. Also convincing me is the way Callinan is publicly calling them out and demanding answers and explanations. I’ve never seen him do that and doubt he would if there was Garda involvement.
@Wille…….GSOC Chairman refused to answer questions….The only question I want him to answer is who does he think bugged his office…the only group he mentioned was the Gardaí saying that he found no evidence of Garda misconduct. That is a carefully chosen statement. That’s him saying It was them but there is no evidence otherwise why mention them at all.
I haven’t heard Shatter answer any questions yet or seen him since this broke.
Look GSOC Chairman was probably threatened by Shatter that’s why he looked shell shocked, Wille nobody is pointing the finger at ordinary Gardaí like yourself but why is Callinan so angry at the GSOC something stinks and we need to get to the bottom of it for the sake of our democracy.
Yea you got me there Martin. I’m off to count my Garda bugs, it appears I may be missing a few.
I hope it doesn’t go away. I’d love to know what’s going on here too. But gsoc and the guards are really going at it lately. And this recent episode drew a lot of criticism towards the guards. The way gsoc handled things fed that theory. But now that they’re been pushed for answers, gsoc seems to be clammimg up. They better explain this to the public. I really don’t think the guards are sophisticated enough to have thought this one up. If they did then there should be hell to pay. But so many on here already convinced themselves it was the guards based only on tabloid journalism. I’m gonna reserve judgement.
@Willie …….Hire the same UK security experts they will find them for ye.
@colm greene…I agree with most of what you said Colm…. but I don’t think there were any tabloids involved in breaking this story. They are still hung up on the big issues like Garth brooks and the Xfactor.
Have the Garda Ombudsman ever heard of Firefox????
Would have saved them 18K….
I agree
Do you use Firefox to run your speaker phone?
So they went with white wash option. This country is like a real life episode of father ted.
I give up
If a speaker phone is run off an Internet based connection and therefore part of your internal network then yes, you would use firewall software to protect that network.
Time to circle the wagons.
Nothing to see here folks. Move along.
No wheels,So no interest
Go back to bed Ireland
Once again they display incompadence in handling information! Oh and they also have a leak dripping into a uk based newspaper other than the bug infection in abbey st!!…
Is no one else seeing the sinister attempt to new manage this story? Whether the GSOC told the Minister or not is totally secondary (and Enda Kenny was lying when he said they were obliged to, the wording is they MAY do so) the only issue is who was bugging the office at the time he Gardai were being investigated for removing penalty points for the rich, powerful and well-connected. That’s the story here folks, everything else is a distraction.
From what I can read from the story above is that no one was bugging the office.
And just so there’s no dispute, the article Enda Kenny was qouting is this. “(5) The Ombudsman Commission may make any other reports that it considers appropriate for drawing to the Minister’s attention matters that have come to its notice and that, in its opinion, should, because of their gravity or other exceptional circumstances, be the subject of a special report to the Minister.”
The word MAY is key here. There is no obligation on the GSOC to tell the minister.
Now who bugged the office and why?
If it was being bugged. A few analomies in their systems does is not evidence that anything was going on here.
The Gardai we’re not being investigated by GSOC in relation to the penalty points issue when this security sweep was done.
Bugging the state or its legal forces seems to be fine long as they do not report it in a set manner.
Apparently the company running the security sweep are clear that the office was bugged and bugged at a level which would mean that only a nations intelligence agencies would have the means to do it in this way. All the security experts seem clear that it was bugged and they also seem clear who was doing the bugging.
Its what the implied with their statement:
“We did not wish to point fingers unnecessarily and we did not believe that widespread reporting would be conducive to public confidence,”
Why would GSOC worry that the peoples confidence would be affected if they had found as you say there was nothing going on Reg??
This bugging was done last summer. The points scandal broke in May. http://claredaly.ie/issues-of-credibility-regarding-the-penalty-points-reports/
Really Patrick? You seem to know a lot.
Jim Butler …..The penalty points issue has been around since early last year and the whistle blower were known about shortly after that. So the potential for an inquiry was on the cards ever since Mick Wallace and Clare Daly brought it up in the Dail.
Sorry Patrick
Would you point out where exactly in the Ombudsman’s statement the say that. Especially the part regarding only a national intelligence agency having the means to do it.
The statement says very clearly that their systems weren’t breached. They seem very clear on that. The only ambiguous part is the form of the so called bugging. WTF are electrical anomalies. I bet you’ll find electrical anomalies in most networks.
Sounds like the English security company sold these plonkers a pup and they paid €18k for it. They must have laughed themselves all the way back to Dublin airport. Next time buy a surge protector.
Willie, you totally underestimate the magnitude of this. The equipment used to carry this spying/eavesdropping out was “government level” technology, according to the Sunday Times who broke the story and will have more next weekend. The technology includes a 3G cell network tower spoofing, technology which is only available to military and law enforcement, and costs up to €500k. The British security company that carried out the counterintelligence sweep is regarded as one of Europe’s premier agencies in anti-bugging operations, and €18k is a reasonable figure for a 7-day security sweep coming over from the UK with an enormous amount of TSCM equipment (http://www.iiiweb.net/images/eqpbig/swp_big_1.jpg)
Reg, no I don’t know a lot about it, just what I heard on several news sites today. It’s just my opinion. I’m sure you know a lot more about it than I do.
Willie, I never said my opinion was anything other than that with a few bits of information from other news sites today. Could you show me in the statement where it says that their system wasn’t breached? It says that their databases were not breached. It doesn’t say that their systems were not breached. Two different things.
What you heard today was speculation Patrick based on very limited information as nothing from the parties involved was released until this evening
Hey Willie! You’re so hung up on that statement… which by the way does not confirm or deny the means of bugging. The way I see it is this story is extremely hot to handle and the security guys lifted the lid of what is possibly a massive Pandora’s box. From what I heard on the radio there is more info still to be published about this so i’ll wipe my a#se with all the statements for now…
What I enjoyed most so far is dame Edna’s spectacular foot in mouth with his never ending “knowledge” on everything. Keep it coming!
Spot on Dave!
Fair enough Dave, however if the tech allegedly used was so hi tech and advanced, then tell me why could it not breach the GSOC databases. Seems slightly contradictory don’t you think. I seriously doubt that their systems are so well protected that they would be able to withstand such state of the art equipment.
If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. This turn of phrase about the hi tech government kit been used comes only from a journalist. One who if you look at his articles clearly spends a lot of time talking to his friends in GSOC and has an anti Garda agenda.
To me sounds like someone in GSOC leaked this story knowing full well it was rubbish, now it’d backfired and they are apologising whilst running for cover.
To quote the head of GSOC “3 credible threats were identified ” Who placed them there?? RTE, Callinan, Shatter and the Taoiseach are only asking why they were not informed. They seem not to care who instigated the bugging… if not the Garda. This needs to be picked at and picked at until we know who was behind this.
@ Reg. Did you not hear the reporter who broke the story on Matt Cooper earlier?
@Martin Byrne…all of what you say is true, but it doesn’t contradict what I said. GSOC were not investigating the penalty points issue last summer. They began investigating it in the last few weeks when they received a complaint/it was referred to them. That is a pretty simple fact.
Willie, I can’t say why their database wasn’t breached (probably the only bit of good news in all of this). But just because their database was not compromised, that still leaves the alleged eavesdropping on mobile phones, e-mail hacking and the conference phone being listened in on. Whoever carried this out could still have listened in and spied on their computers without accessing the GSOC database (which is probably secure, and would cause an alarm if breached). More to come next weekend in the Sunday Times apparently, we should know more about this in the coming days.
The Kieran Boylan case is of more radical proportions that the Penalty points saga will ever be.
Reg, put on yer uniform and go out to hassle a few motorists like a good boy..!
Jim Butler ……..You mean to say that you think that with the extent of the information and conversation on TV after Wallace and Daly and Flanagan spoke in the Dail, the top ranking Garda didn’t sit up and take note ….particularly when Shatter abused his office with the help of the Garda by getting private information on a political rival, that this might get to a stage when we are forced to send this to GSOC and then all the skeletons will come out. He did not get where he is today by not thinking ahead. (I’m not saying he did bug the office but he has got some questions to answer)
Easily the most uninformed comment here today and that is some achievement. Please provide a link to your assertions.
It’s a long time since I wore a uniform Tom, and it wasn’t a Garda one! No I didn’t hear the interview in Matt Cooper WJ.
Mike Brennan ..is that directed at me Mike?…….If so what in my comment makes you say its uniformed, if not directed at me my apologies.
uninformed …rather
What have the anti garda ranters on this to say about this ? Bubble burst lads !
Classic deflection.
This “scoup” sounded a bit wishy-washy when I heard it being discussed on the radio this morning.
Sickening to see this play out, and worse seeing people gobbling up the bullshit they’re being fed. What an absolute rotten-to-the-core, corrupt little cesspit this place is.
Yep, at every level and each profession..!
It is almost as if the criminal bugging of the Garda Ombudsman Office is a side show to not talking about it.
A massive security breach and the GSOC say nothing to see here folks.
So what if your database wasn’t touched. That doesn’t answer the questions on the listening in on emails or monitoring communications. It sounds like equivocation.
I call shenanigans.
Feck it Seanie, I hate when I have to agree with you.
This is above party politics.
The fact remains that one of Europe’s leading counter surveillance firms, a company that does work for the UN, the Olympics and Govt’s found evidence that a very sophisticated spying operation was carried out against the Ombudsman.
This is being neglected and people are trying to bury this.
This is a major national scandal and outrage that is being white washed over who should have told who what.
Does anyone in Govt. or the media or wider populace actually care that a major criminal act against a State body was uncovered.
Watch Vinnie Brown tonight if he doesn’t dig up the real story here all is lost regarding journalism in this country.
Was there even any bugging at all? It all sounds very tentative and inconclusive.
False alarm?
The company that investigated this were under no doubt that there was bugging and that it was very sophisticated.
How this story is being pr managed is gas. GSOC offices being bugged is becoming secondary. Then there are the cringeable remarks about their own morality and protocols to try and undermine them. This smell to high heaven and there a few spin doctors writing on this thread.
What this statement does mean is that the GSOC board have to resign their positions.
There is more being published next Sunday about this and I expect it to reignite then.
Scandal after scandal after scandal, cover up after cover up after cover up, all aided and abetted by a compliant news media and national broadcaster. Anyone who dissents is decried as a fool, a whinger, a moaner, unintelligent, uninformed. The whole incompetent lot of them in Leinster House should resign, new elections held forthwith. We are being fed a diet of lies and spin on a continuing basis, day in day out. Enough is enough.
All the members of the guards that have posted on this story have used the same line, anyone who says that anything untoward happened is a conspiracy theorist, they never offer a reason why the guards couldn’t do this, they just attack the character of any poster who is critical of them.
If they really didn’t feel they or their superiors had anything to do with this and it was just a stunt by GSOC, why so much opposition to an independent investigation?
As they are so oft to say when looking for new powers, the innocent have nothing to fear.
The reporter who broke the story clearly stated on the radio earlier that the type of epionage and equipment involved was government level in nature.
Whitewash. Our country is truly rotten to the core.
There is only 1 word for this….whitewash, the government thinks we’re all fuhkin idiots who’ll swallow anything.
Unfortunately, Golden, most of us are.
Brushed under the carpet. very vague statement.
Technical and electronic anomalies . In other words . Sorry Mr Shatter game over
Never a dull moment in the Banana Republic of Ireland!
They regret it but they are not stupid and would not tell the Guards of the Dept. of Justice again if it happened in the morning.
Judging by this story they sound a bit stupid in fairness….
How do they sound stupid? They had reason to believe that their communications systems were not secure, pro-actively & independently hired a firm which has a proven track record in the area, found anomalies, and secured their networks accordingly.
Then why was there a phone tap and email hack?
And then failed to report or tell anybody about it! Surely they have some protocol to follow or should they not be answerable to anybody?
Possible “premature ejaculation” of sorts by GSOC….now left with a little bit of egg on their face. Wonder what do the conspiracy theorists think now?
“Wonder what do the conspiracy theorists think now?”
You mean the professional journalists working for a major respected newspaper? the people who broke this now proved factual story. In your big kids eyes they are now conspiracy theorists. no wonder people laugh at people that use that term. This idiotic term is only ever used to stifle debate in an attempt to falsely discredit people who rightly question authority.
http://rense.com/general61/dwe.htm
“conspiracy theorists” two words which are uttered whenever anyone is getting too close to the truth
@KKK you should be ashamed of yourself for such infantile tactics.
There is no such thing as Independent investigation in this state ….. too many vested interests ….. The GSOC were absolutely correct to bring in an outside agency to assist in their investigations, however they probably should have released their findings sooner notwithstanding the fact that these findings were only concluded around mid December last.
I believe that it says more about the integrity of the GSOC than it does about the Irish Government or any government department or agency who have consistently failed to act on behalf of the Irish people since the foundation of the state.
I actually believe that the Garda commissioner is acting like a ‘deer caught in the headlights’ (Penalty points etc??) he is now running scared and it has more to do with his past than about anything else ….. why doesn’t he do the decent thing and resign.
“we did not believe that widespread reporting would be conducive to public confidence”
If that is the Ombudsman’s attitude, can we expect they will also shelter the public from information regarding Garda misconduct?
Should Gardai be up to any wrongdoing, best sweep it under the carpet lest the public be disappointed?
Guards caught bugging the ombudsman. Got to be a father ted sketch in there. Yeah I know no proof. Widely reported they weren’t getting on though. Naturally enough. Can’t wait to hear Callinan comment on this. Again no proof but man that embarrassing for the guards. Not having their greatest PR spell (Penalty points) at the moment.
The misapprehension springs from the fact that the learned jurists, deceiving themselves as well as others, depict in their books an ideal of government — not as it really is, an assembly of men who oppress their fellow-citizens, but in accordance with the scientific postulate, as a body of men who act as the representatives of the rest of the nation. They have gone on repeating this to others so long that they have ended by believing it themselves, and they really seem to think that justice is one of the duties of governments. History, however, shows us that governments, as seen from the reign of Caesar to those of the two Napoleons and Prince Bismarck, are in their very essence a violation of justice; a man or a body of men having at command an army of trained soldiers, deluded creatures who are ready for any violence, and through whose agency they govern the State, will have no keen sense of the obligation of justice.
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi
So the phone tap and email hack ? No mention of that in statement
There is of email hack actually but the phone tap isn’t database related it’s board meeting listening in carry on. No statement on that
Exactly.
Talk about Databases is just a nice word that people will assume means their complete IT systems.
Who cares that your Databases were not touched, that resolved cases that are of no interest were not looked at.
Sounds like the press to me. Kinda like what happened in England. If it was not a leak then did someone do this while making a complaint?
The phone hacking scandal in England took no technical skill or knowledge. It was just going on the fact that most people leave 0000 as their Voice mail password.
The difference Seanie people were held to account not like dear old Ireland.
“Regrets not disclosing it” = “regrets getting caught”
Anomalies ? If there’s been three anomalies there’s been at least three attempts on security If Joe Bloggin’ Hijack is behind it the government hounds would be out now. We need a proper investigation now. If the ombudsman is denied full-time access to the ‘PULSE’ system something is being hidden. Mr Shatter should be screeching for blood in the form of answers. He is not .Only 3 suspects : The American NSA, An Garda Siochana , The Dept of Justice. Mr Shatter appointed 3 guards shortly before the security “anomalies” He’s got the birthday cake all over his face
So now we are no wiser as to who actually did the bugging of GSOC. It still doesn’t say a lot for the image of the Gardai that most people assumed that they were the ones behind it. I am a bit bothered why it was decided that no further action was to be taken – on whose direction?
The Fix is In
If there was covert surveillance carried out by the gardai…how far up would that have had to have been authorised…Callinan…Shatter??? In its statement, the GSOC stated there was no evidence of Garda misconduct…if the surveillance was authorised by the minister then the gardai would have been acting legally, am I completely wrong in thinking this?
Time to rev up those FOIA requests, boys and girls.
Download the form here:
http://www.garda.ie/Documents/User/Data%20Protection%20F20%20-%20Nov%2012.pdf
Serious questions need to be answered here!
What if the spy is/was from within the GSOC organisation itself?
That would give them clear opportunity to try bury the story and would be motive not to report same to the Minister.
Anyone exploring that possibility?
have your say