Not wanting to leave anyone out of the spy game, a Guardian exclusive revealed Monday that private firms are peddling the latest in surveillance technologies to smaller governments and regimes interested in conducting NSA-level operations on their own citizenry.

Research watchdog Privacy International has compiled an online database entitled the Surveillance Industry Index (SII) which documents how private firms offer governments a “range of systems that allow them to secretly hack into internet cables carrying email and phone traffic.”

According to the report, hawking these technologies with brochures and sales pitches at “private trade fairs,” the largely-Western firms specifically target “repressive regimes” from nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East offering them the same “powerful capabilities” as the NSA and GCHQ as a means of “political control.”

“What we found, and what we are publishing, is downright scary,” writes Matthew Rice, research consultant with Privacy International.

He adds that a number of the products revealed in the SII have been used to target pro-democracy activists, journalists and political opposition. Further, he notes that the firms frequently maintain “relationships” with the regimes by “upgrading their systems” and making customer service representatives available “for dictators and their cronies should anything go awry with their products.”

“By its very nature, mass surveillance is neither necessary nor proportionate, meaning that these technologies enable the violation of human rights, particularly the right to privacy and freedom of expression,” continues Rice. “With the opportunity of mass interception and mass retention at its fingertips, governments are being outfitted with enormous powers, meaning that the technologies are ripe for abuse.”

The firms boast capabilities as varied as social network monitoring, voice analysis, mass communication interception and other “James Bond-style” spy gear.

The Guardian reports:

The research was done as part of Privacy International’s Big Brother Incorporated project, which is an ongoing investigation into the international surveillance trade. They are hoping the Index brings to light the complicity of private surveillance firms in this form of repression.

“There is a culture of impunity permeating across the private surveillance market, given that there are no strict export controls on the sale of this technology, as there on the sale of conventional weapons,” said Rice. “This market profits off the suffering of people around the world, yet it lacks any sort of effective oversight or accountability.”

Reporting on a number of the firms in question, the Guardian writes:

Privacy International analysts reportedly went undercover, posing as potential buyers, to gain access to the spy conventions which were held in Dubai, Prague, Brasilia, Washington, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, and London.

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Offshore hydraulic fracturing operations off the coast of California use highly toxic chemicals that are often released directly into water along the state’s coast, the Center for Biological Diversity revealed today, calling on the state’s Coastal Commission to halt fracking for oil and gas in state waters.

In an analysis sent by letter to the Commission ahead of a meeting this week in Newport Beach, The Center for Biological diversity pulls from data disclosed by oil companies and obtained from government documents that highlights seven risky chemicals used in “hundreds of recently revealed frack jobs in state waters” that directly violate the Coastal Act.

Multiple oil platforms, according to the research, are discharging wastewater directly into the Santa Barbara Channel, according to a government document, and other areas along the California Coast.

The letter states:

A full and complete U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan—known as the “zero option”—has now been floated by U.S. officials at the highest levels.

The plan, however, has not been offered as a responsible solution to the plague of war and occupation that has ravaged the country since 2001, but delivered as an ultimatum in order to pressure the Afghan government to agree to U.S. terms over a pending security agreement.

Following the surprise refusal by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a security agreement outlining the terms of a prolonged U.S. occupation, U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice issued the “zero option” threat after the Afghan president, citing a “lack of trust,” announced his desire to wait to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement until after the next presidential elections in April.

“Ambassador Rice reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the US would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no US or Nato troop presence in Afghanistan,” said a White House spokesman.

“Deferring the signature of the agreement until after next year’s elections is not viable, as it would not provide the United States and Nato allies the clarity necessary to plan for a potential post-2014 military presence.”

At the behest of the U.S. National Security Agency, Canada engaged in global spying operations, including setting up spy posts, CBC News reports.

The collaborative efforts of the two nations’ spy agencies covered surveillance in “approximately 20 high-priority countries.”

The NSA’s Canadian counterpart, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), “offers resources for advanced collection, processing and analysis, and has opened covert sites at the request of NSA,” CBC reports the NSA document as stating.

The newest surveillance revelation made possible by Edward Snowden shows “co-operative efforts” between the CSEC and NSA that go beyond those of the “Five Eyes” (Canada, the U.S,, the UK, Australia and New Zealnd) partnership.

NSA and CSEC operatives not only shared information but worked inside each other’s agency. “Co-operative efforts include the exchange of liaison officers and integrees,” the document states.

Uruguay has chosen to “bravely break with the failed prohibitionist model” in becoming the first country to legalize and regulate the production, distribution, sale and use of marijuana in a landmark bill passed by the country’s parliament Tuesday.

The bill, which will be signed by leftist President José Mujica, was designed as an “experiment aimed at finding an alternative to the deadly and unsuccessful war on drugs,” as the Guardian reports. While other countries have legalized possession of marijuana, Uruguay’s new law is the first in the world to legalize and regulate all aspects of the trade.

Mujica said that the controversial bill is a deliberate move away from the “war on drugs,” which has only helped fill the pockets of criminals in the illegal drug trade and has failed to discourage drug use.

“We’ve given this market as a gift to the drug traffickers,” said Mujica, “and that is more destructive socially than the drug itself, because it rots the whole of society.” He added that legalization allows for regulation and taxation and moves “the drug’s use out of the shadows” and helps “social and health professionals better observe and respond to those who develop addictions,” as the L.A. Times reports.

“We are asking the world to help us with this experience,” Mujica said earlier this month, “which will allow the adoption of a social and political experiment to face a serious problem – drug trafficking.”

“The effects of drug trafficking are worse than those of the drugs themselves,” he stated.