The GCHQ, NSA and Edward Snowden.

Revelations by whistle blower Edward Snowden have awakened the population of several countries to not only the scope of intelligence gathering by the National Intelligence Agency (NSA) but also the extent of cooperation between the NSA and similar intelligence agencies across the world. In the United Kingdom it has been revealed that GSHQ are fully fledged partners of the NSA, utilising them spy on close allies and to disrupt the efforts of privacy activists and journalists that are actively working to expose these intelligence networks.

A healthy stream of newspaper articles and television segments initially led to a large-scale public backlash against intelligence agencies but in recent months the intelligence services have been fighting back in order to maintain as much control of these programs despite the large public backing against such efforts. One method commonly used is to falsely create an illusion that these leaks are are goldmine to terrorist groups or that national security has been damaged in some fashion, a rather ludicrous claim that has been proven to be the opposite of the truth. Journalists and activists covering this story have also been attacked, either directly through the legal system, indirectly via a smear campaign (often attacking the targets patriotism) or through intimidation of loved ones.

So how can we fight against this colossus intelligence agency and its collaborators inside government, media and the apathetic population? Contact your local representative and tell them how concerned you are about the lack of accountability surrounding the intelligence agencies, contact media outlets and share your frustrations or write them down and share them to anyone who will listen and if the politicians you contact won't listen to you campaign for local and national representatives that will fight for reform or if you have the funds and confidence you could run for office yourself. At the moment the challenge of facing a large organisation like the NSA and GCHQ might seem impossible but at the moment multiple paths are available and several organisations are already leading the efforts against these agencies, as long as people work together then we can achieve real change and not the whitewash reform recently offered by President Obama.