The leaked NSA documents have brought forth another key element to the US' mega 'snoop-op' suggesting that UK's spy agency runs a secret internet monitoring station in the Middle East and passes the surveillance data through its channel and shares it with the US.
Middle East serves as a crucial location for both the UK and the US especially after the 9/11 attacks as the station in the region is able to track and extract data from the underwater fibre-optic cables passing through the region.
According to the Independent, the Government has claimed that the Middle Eastern station is a key element in the West's 'war on terror' and provides a vital 'early warning' system for potential attacks around the world.
This region is also critical because it can access submarine cables passing through the region and all of the messages and data passed back and forth on the cables is copied into giant computer storage 'buffers' and then sifted for data of special interest.
The report said that the Middle East station was set up under a warrant signed by the then Foreign Secretary David Miliband, authorising GCHQ to monitor and store for analysis data passing through the network of fibre-optic cables that link up the internet around the world.