I vaguely remember that I think. Would make complete sense in relation to this story. "What a shame, they will need to fire up those microwave dishes again"
1:29 "Given free Fencing & Double Glazing" I had to chuckle. Free Fencing & Double Glazing back in the day.... People, open your Souls to exposure...... Nice! lol
I wonder if they did that to 1) Install glazing with RF shielding characteristics, 2) fencing to keep the locals from wandering close by, 3) gain access to residents homes to snoop around.
I feel I'm likely to become annoying by repeating myself in the video comments but the content is fantastic. Really fascinating stuff. You really are on of my favourite channels. 🙂
went on a training course close to Menwith in the 90s. met a local guy who said it's bigger underground than it is above ground, there's streets and traffic lights down there, not to mention a golf course. still haven't decided if I believe him!
RAF Sealand had something to do with this place. I remember chaps used to turn up and put stuff in secure storage and found out a lot later on post it’s closedown it was the RAF signals guys from Capenhurst.
A company i used to work for were invited to bid for this tower. I don't recall it being anything close to £20 million though. I think my boss might have gone out to have a look at it but it wasn't something we could use.
@@jplacido9999 but telcos are obliged to make the facility to tap available on receipt of the appropriate authorization, they dont NEED to do it covertly, it does not make sense to built this costly facility when they, as the OP says, just access the landlines. I not doubting its some secure comms/monitoring facility, just that its unlike for those few microwave circuits to Ireland.
@@bazzaar1869 you are absolutly right. Anyone bypassing the current laws should be banned from public service for life. And that goes for everybody at any public service office, including government...
There was intelligence to suggest a tap was in place in the early 90s, but the site was mis-identified and a radio tower in Delamere Forest was attacked. It had to be surveyed as someone tried to blow it up and left structural damage, there were cracks in it. The structure was quite strong, so survived. This was not featured on any news channels at the time. Capenhurst has a no-fly zone, so in the 80s it was possible to detect anyone flying over to take pictures. Some equipment was inside the houses in the close and people stationed in them.
I'm convinced that you're working for the government drip feeding us information so it's no big surprise when you tell us the matrix exists 🤠😂🤠. As always great content keep it up 👍
@@Mike-H_UK The original research and reporting on this story was by Channel 4 News and investigative journalist Duncan Campbell (the man in the glasses examining the panel at 6:20) and full details are on his website. I remember when it first broke, fascinating case.
Who'd have thought, SERCO would be involved............hmmm, even back then it was a shadowy government Quango, its closer to a shadow government in itself now.
Lewis, I once heard that there was something called Eschelon that was alleged to monitor phone and internet use and was supposed to be operating out of Menwith Hill near Harrogate. Don't know if you've heard anything similar.
On the map on this vid Goosnargh North of Preston was shown, I'd be very interested in what happened there as its about 5 miles south of Barton where the North ATC HQ was.
freddielaker2 the Goosnargh site was originally an RAF Rotor bunker, later extended and modernised to become one of the two United Kingdom Warning & Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) HQ bunkers, now sold off. It was the fallback site for issuing the UK (4?) minute warning
I live right next to Menwith Hill. We’ve always been kept very much in the dark about it’s full purpose, though in the last ten years, more info has come to light similar to what you mentioned in this video. Prior to that though, we had no clue and some very funny theories were around! There’s always Greenpeace protestors hanging around the gate. They even had their own little camp next to the base at one point! ☮️
Would love to know what the map is meant to show at 1.03 as it shows Ditton priors which is just down the road from me. Anyone know why it would be mentioned on this map?
Just reminding another brit that the Republic of Ireland is *NOT* in the “rest of the UK”, it is in fact a sovereign nation which escaped the disgusting oppression of the British empire which was imposed for over 800 years. Words matter.
Interesting how the secret squirrels avoided having to obtain warrants to intercept calls by building their own facility using a pile of taxpayer money. Makes you wonder why they bother with needing warrants in the first place if they can simply circumvent the law like this. Very interesting subject Lewis! Hope you don't get a warrant executed at your place at 3am!
I guess a couple of reasons. One, opportunism - I imagine there was a lot of luck involved in happening upon a patch of land with suitably "friendly" ownership at the right elevation to pull this off, not exactly an everyday thing. And two, parallel construction and obfuscation to keep such underhand methods secret for as long as possible.
Fascinating video. I wonder why BT couldn't just give GCHQ a direct connection to the existing relay radio towers to intercept the signal and send it to a more discrete building to listen in remotely?
because it would have been against the law. as he said, an order from the home secretary would be required to make BT give up the info but GCHQ can do what they like.
@@sandycheeks7865 it's kind of funny how nationalisation made it _harder_ for one part of government to listen on another one. When telecoms are private companies they just make a priavte deal with intelligence agencies.
It often surprises people why HMGov did all this and its all about dirt and insider knowledge, today daily digests are distributed to the 5/10/14 eyes networks depending on exclusivity which have information detailing major business intelligence, individual businessman intelligence and even individuals who are having affairs marked for exploitation. It is all mired in semi-legality where the US spies on the UK via its bases here and the UK spies on America to get around legality issues as its criminal for the UK to carte blanche mass surveil the British and same for the Americans so this tit for tat arrangement exists. Australia does the same for America, America surveils Australia and in return Australia does the same for American interests in the pacific zone. Australia is part of the 5 eyes so gets access to top tier intelligence digests as does Canada, New Zealand who all have reciprocal agreements to circumvent the laws of that land. Huawei of course threatened this mightily with its unbreakable 5g technology and its definite refusal to give the CIA and NSA access to encryption protocols or back doors, this would have blinded and deafened GCHQ and the NSA here in the UK with the added extra that while the US and UK governments would have been kicked out of the lucrative loop, Huawei may well have been opening back doors for China and Russia hence the furore by Trump over Huawei. Another thing too most people are unaware of is the very secret supercomputer run by the fed and big US banks near New York, its role is to maintain a 15 second lead on every external financial market and people think 15 secs is not very much but with the speed of computers and communications the US banks can buy, sell, short and long many many times in that 15 secs making vast fortunes. This is going to again upset by Huawei as some financial markets are going to be switching to the new technology and eradicating that 15 sec headstart enjoyed in those countries by the big US banks, of course it may well have the turn about effect where Chinese markets may well end up gaining the same sort of advantage over those using Huawei technology lol
This doesn't make sense. Why would they need that amount of power just for a listening post? This sounds much more like a civil defence site, that maybe got repurposed. The power was for microwave transmitters. Those radio transparent panels are the right size for the throats of microwave horns, a familiar sight on the GPO Tower in the day. Look on Google Maps and zoom right out, this is a perfect site to also go North-South, as part of the post-apocalypse network. The entire network, including the Post Office Tower itself, was an official secret. So there's nothing strange about using government owned land. If it was built in '88, it was planned in the 70s. Civil Defence exercises went on well into the 90s, and maybe still do. If all GCHQ wanted to do was listen, you said yourself, the signal is on the ground, all you'd need would be a house and a garden shed... and a cover story for the neighbours perhaps.
@@pqrstzxerty1296 intercepting and storing or sifting 4000 calls at the same time in 1990....... hmmmmm that'd take some power. The modern PC was a 16Mhz 286 with 2Mb RAM.
I can guarantee you that living and working in the area. The 'top secret' status and its use (quite detailed) was well known by many many people in the area...🤣
Need to pick you up on terminology, you said it was used to monitor "data traffic". That's not quite accurate. We make a distinction between voice calls and data calls. The voice data is coded and ultimately data is transmitted, but there's an important distinction between data calls , which involve internet data, and voice calls which is a digitised voice call made by dialling a phone number.
Agent Cheng, the Ian Butler is spouting again, listen. He's complaining about overhanging branches and not enough wind to dry his duvet. Yes, comrade Ping. We must be vigilant. Keep on listening.
Dude just search "capenhurst tower" bunch of different articles from different sources... Did you honestly think the UK government didn't spy on people 🤦♂️
