The Big Brother on Menwith Hill

The Quadripartite Agreement of 1947

In 1947, four English-speaking countries - the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada - signed a secret treaty (some sources suggest that even Prime Ministers were kept unaware) about sharing intelligence data. As such, it was beneficial for the two smaller (in terms of intelligence resources) partners who did not have comparable intelligence systems with the UK and the US. While the details of the treaty remain largely unknown to the public, it has been suggested that the infamous bypass system for the gentlemanly ban on domestic spying (a state would not spy after its own subjects at home) was born already with this treaty. A former employee of Canadian CSE (Communication Security Establishment) Mike Frost wrote a book titled Spyworld in 1994 which also has an account of Canadian agents snooping after Brits (see a review of the book by Bob Leonard.