Perilous Times and Life With Big Brother
Project Echelon: How The World's Security agencies intercept and read
all your E-mails or fax's and listen to all your voice communications
via cell phone and landlines
From The Golem
Dear Pastor Morgan
I've been gathering some of this information from other sources which
I will be posting to the appropriate message boards. This recognition
technology is not unlike what was shown to me as far back as the late
60s, though much more sophisticated today. Watch for more about Echelon
in the future. Post your knowledge and views to PNEWS
<http://pnews.org/boards/pnewsboard>
Q - What is Project ECHELON?
ECHELON is a code word for an automated global interception and relay
system operated by the intelligence agencies in five nations - the
United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
(it is rumored that different nations have different code words for the
project). While the United States National Security Agency (NSA) takes
the lead, ECHELON works in conjunction with other intelligence
agencies, including the Australian Defence Signals Directorate (DSD).
It is believed that ECHELON also works with Britain's Government
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the agencies of other allies of
the United States, pursuant to various treaties.(1)
These countries coordinate their activities pursuant to the UKUSA
agreement, which dates back to 1947. The original ECHELON dates back to
1971. However, its capabilities and priorities have expanded greatly
since its formation. According to reports, it is capable of
intercepting and processing many types of transmissions, throughout the
globe. In fact, it has been suggested that ECHELON may intercept as
many as 5 billion communications everyday, including phone calls,
e-mail messages, Internet downloads, satellite transmissions, and so
on.(2) The ECHELON system gathers all of these transmissions
indiscriminately, then distills the information that is most heavily
desired through artificial intelligence programs. Some sources have
claimed that ECHELON sifts through an estimated 90 percent of all
traffic that flows through the Internet.(3)
However, the exact capabilities and goals of ECHELON remain unclear.
For example, it is unknown whether ECHELON actually targets domestic
communications. Also, it is apparently very difficult for ECHELON to
intercept certain types of transmissions, particularly fiber
communications.
Q - How does ECHELON work?
ECHELON apparently collects data in several ways. Reports suggest it
has massive ground based radio antennae to intercept satellite
transmissions. In addition, some sites reputedly are tasked with
tapping surface traffic. These antennae reportedly are in the United
States, Italy, England, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and
several other places.(4)
Similarly, it is believed that ECHELON uses numerous satellites to
catch "spillover" data from transmissions between cities. These
satellites then beam the information down to processing centers on the
ground. The main centers are in the United States (near Denver),
England (Menwith Hill), Australia, and Germany.(5)
According to various sources, ECHELON also routinely intercepts
Internet transmissions. The organization allegedly has installed
numerous "sniffer" devices. These "sniffers" collect information from
data packets as they traverse the Internet via several key junctions.
It also uses search software to scan for web sites that may be of
interest.(6)
Furthermore, it is believed that ECHELON has even used special
underwater devices which tap into cables that carry phone calls across
the seas. According to published reports, American divers, were able to
install surveillance devices on to the underwater cables. One of these
taps was discovered in 1982, but other devices apparently continued to
function undetected.(7)
It is not known at this point whether ECHELON has been able to tap
fiber optic phone cables.
Finally, if the aforementioned methods fail to garner the desired
information, there is another alternative. Apparently, the nations that
are involved with ECHELON also train special agents to install a
variety of special data collection devices. One of these devices is
reputed to be an information processing kit that is the size of a
suitcase. Another such item is a sophisticated radio receiver that is
as small as a credit card.(8)
After capturing this raw data, ECHELON sifts through them using
DICTIONARY. DICTIONARY is actually a special system of computers which
find pertinent information by searching for key words, addresses, etc.
These search programs help pare down the voluminous quantity of
transmissions which pass through the ECHELON network every day. These
programs also seem to enable users to focus on any specific subject
upon which information is desired.(9)
Q - If ECHELON is so powerful, why haven't I heard about it before?
The United States government has gone to extreme lengths to keep
ECHELON a secret. To this day, U.S. government refuses to admit that
ECHELON even exists. We know it exists because the Australian
government (through its Defence Signals Directorate) has admitted to
this fact.(10) However, even with this revelation, U.S. officials have
refused to comment.
This "wall of silence" is beginning to erode. The first report on
ECHELON was published in 1988.(11) In addition, besides the revelations
from Australia, the Scientific and Technical Options Assessment program
office (STOA) of the European Parliament commissioned two reports which
describe ECHELON's activities. These reports unearthed a startling
amount of evidence, which suggests that ECHELON's powers may have been
underestimated. The first report, entitled "An Appraisal of
Technologies of Political Control", suggested that ECHELON primarily
targeted civilians.
This report found that:
"The ECHELON system forms part of the UKUSA system but unlike many of
the electronic spy systems developed during the cold war, ECHELON is
designed for primarily non-military targets: governments, organisations
and businesses in virtually every country. The ECHELON system works by
indiscriminately intercepting very large quantities of communications
and then siphoning out what is valuable using artificial intelligence
aids like Memex to find key words. Five nations share the results with
the US as the senior partner under the UKUSA agreement of 1948,
Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are very much acting as
subordinate information servicers.
"Each of the five centres supply "dictionaries" to the other four of
keywords, phrases, people and places to "tag" and the tagged intercept
is forwarded straight to the requesting country. Whilst there is much
information gathered about potential terrorists, there is a lot of
economic intelligence, notably intensive monitoring of all the
countries participating in the GATT negotiations. But Hager found that
by far the main priorities of this system continued to be military and
political intelligence applicable to their wider interests. Hager
quotes from a "highly placed intelligence operatives" who spoke to the
Observer in London. "We feel we can no longer remain silent regarding
that which we regard to be gross malpractice and negligence within the
establishment in which we operate." They gave as examples. GCHQ
interception of three charities, including Amnesty International and
Christian Aid. "At any time GCHQ is able to home in on their
communications for a routine target request," the GCHQ source said. In
the case of phone taps the procedure is known as Mantis. With telexes
its called Mayfly. By keying in a code relating to third world aid, the
source was able to demonstrate telex "fixes" on the three
organisations. With no system of accountability, it is difficult to
discover what criteria determine who is not a target." (12)
The most recent report, known as "Interception Capabilities 2000",
describes ECHELON capabilities in even more elaborate detail.(13)
In addition, an Italian government official has begun to investigate
Echelon's intelligence-gathering efforts, based on the belief that the
organization may be spying on European citizens in violation of Italian
or international law.(14)
The Danish Parliament also has begun an inquiry.
Events in the United States have also indicated that the "wall of
silence" might not last much longer. Exercising their Constitutionally
created oversight authority, members of the House Select Committee on
Intelligence recently started asking questions about the legal basis
for NSA2s ECHELON activities. In particular, the Committee wanted to
know if the communications of Americans were being intercepted and
under what authority, since US law severely limits the ability of the
intelligence agencies to engage in domestic surveillance. When asked
about its legal authority, NSA invoked the attorney-client privilege
and refused to disclose the legal standards by which ECHELON might have
conducted its activities.(15)
A funding bill is now making its way through the Congress which would,
at a minimum, require the NSA to report on the legal basis for ECHELON
and similar activities.(16)
In addition, Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), who has taken the lead in
Congressional efforts to ferret out the truth about ECHELON has
arranged for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee to
hold oversight hearings.(17)
Q - What is being done with the information that ECHELON collects?
The original purpose of ECHELON was to protect national security. That
purpose continues today. For example, we know that ECHELON is gathering
information on North Korea. Sources from Australia2s DSD have disclosed
this much because Australian officials help operate the facilities
there which scan through transmissions, looking for pertinent
material.(18)
However, national security is not ECHELON2s only concern. Reports have
indicated that industrial espionage has become a part of ECHELON2s
activities. While present information seems to suggest that only high-
ranking government officials have direct control over ECHELON2s tasks,
the information that is gained may be passed along at the discretion of
these very same officials. As a result, much of this information has
been given to American companies, in apparent attempts to give these
companies an edge over their less knowledgeable counterparts.(19)
In addition, there are concerns that ECHELON2s actions may be used to
stifle political dissent. Many of these concerns were voiced in a
report commissioned by the European Parliament. What is more, there are
no known safeguards to prevent such abuses of power.(20)
Q - Is there any evidence that ECHELON is doing anything improper or
illegal with the spying resources at its disposal?
ECHELON is a highly classified operation, which is conducted with
little or not oversight by national parliaments or court. Most of what
is known comes from whistleblowers and classified documents. The simple
truth is that there is no way to know precisely what ECHELON is being
used for.
But there is evidence, much of which is circumstantial, that ECHELON
(along with its British counterpart) has been engaged in significant
invasions of privacy. These alleged violations include secret
surveillance of political organizations, such as Amnesty
International.(21) It has also been reported that ECHELON has engaged
in industrial espionage on various private companies such as Airbus
Industries and Panavia, then has passed along the information to their
American competitors.(22) It is unclear just how far ECHELON's
activities have harmed private individuals.
However, the most sensational revelation was that Diana, Princess of
Wales may have come under ECHELON surveillance before she died. As
reported in the Washington Post, the NSA admitted that they possessed
files on the Princess, partly composed of intercepted phone
conversations. While one official from the NSA claimed that the
Princess was never a direct target, this disclosure seems to indicates
the intrusive, yet surreptitious manner by which ECHELON operates.(23)
What is even more disquieting about these allegations is that if
proven, may have circumvented countless laws in numerous countries.
Many nations have laws in place to prevent such invasions of privacy.
However, there are suspicions that ECHELON has engaged in subterfuge to
avoid these legal restrictions. For example, it is rumored that nations
would not use their own agents to spy on their own citizens, but assign
the task to agents from other countries.(24) In addition, as mentioned
earlier, it is unclear just what legal standards ECHELON follows, if
any actually exist. Thus, it is difficult to say what could prevent
ECHELON from abusing its remarkable capabilities.
Q - Is everyone else doing what ECHELON does?
Maybe not everyone else, but there are plenty of other countries that
engage in the type of intelligence gathering that ECHELON performs.
These countries apparently include Russia, France, Israel, India,
Pakistan and many others.(25) Indeed, the excesses of these
ECHELON-like operations are rumored to be similar in form to their
American equivalents, including digging up information for private
companies to give them a commercial advantage.
However, it is also known that ECHELON system is the largest of its
kind. What is more, its considerable powers are enhanced through the
efforts of America's allies, including the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand. Other countries don't have the resources to
engage in the massive garnering of information that the United States
is carrying out.
Notes
1. Development of Surveillance Technology and Risk of Abuse of Economic
Information (An appraisal of technologies for political control), Part
4/4: The state of the art in Communications Intelligence (COMINT) of
automated processing for intelligence purposes of intercepted broadband
multi-language leased or common carrier systems, and its applicability
to COMINT targeting and selection, including speech recognition, Ch. 1,
para. 5, PE 168.184 / Part 4/4 (April 1999). See Duncan Campbell,
Interception Capabilities 2000 (April 1999)
(
http://www.iptvreports.mcmail.com/stoa_cover.htm).
2. Kevin Poulsen, Echelon Revealed, ZDTV (June 9, 1999)
(
http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/cybercrime/chaostheory/story/0,3700,2120457,00.html).
3. Greg Lindsay, The Government Is Reading Your E-Mail, TIME DIGITAL
DAILY (June 24, 1999)
(
http://www.pathfinder.com/time/digital/daily/0,2822,27293,00.html).
4. PE 168.184 / Part 4/4, supra note 1, Ch. 2, para. 32-34, 45-46.
5. Id. Ch. 2, para. 42.
6. Id. Ch. 2, para. 60.
7. Id. Ch. 2, para. 50.
8. Id. Ch. 2, para. 62-63.
9. An Appraisal of Technologies for Political Control, at 20, PE
166.499 (January 6, 1998). See Steve Wright, An Appraisal of
Technologies for Political Control (January 6, 1998)
(
http://cryptome.org/stoa-atpc.htm).
10. Letter from Martin Brady, Director, Defence Signals Directorate, to
Ross Coulhart, Reporter, Nine Network Australia 2 (Mar. 16, 1999) (on
file at
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday_images/cover/DSD_page1.gif
and
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday_images/cover/DSD_page2.gif ).
11. Duncan Campbell, Somebody's listening, NEW STATESMAN, 12 August
1988, Cover, pages 10-12. See Duncan Campbell, ECHELON: NSA's Global
Electronic Interception, (last visited October 12, 1999)
(
http://jya.com/echelon-dc.htm).
12. PE 166.499, supra note 9, at 19-20.
13. PE 168.184 / Part 4/4, supra note 1.
14. Nicholas Rufford, Spy Station F83, SUNDAY TIMES (London), May 31,
1998. See Nicholas Rufford, Spy Station F83 (May 31, 1998)
(
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/98/05/31/stifocnws01003.html?999).
15. H. Rep. No. 106-130 (1999). See Intelligence Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2000, Additional Views of Chairman Porter J. Goss, (last
visited August 24) (
http://www.echelonwatch.org/goss.htm).
16. H.R. 1555, 106th Cong., Section 312 (1999). See H.R. 1555
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Engrossed Senate
Amendment), (last visited Aug. 24, 1999)
(
http://www.echelonwatch.org/hr1555s.htm).
17. House Committee to Hold Privacy Hearings, (August 16, 1999)
(
http://www.house.gov/barr/p_081699.html).
18. Ross Coulhart, Echelon System: FAQs and website links, (May 23,
1999) (
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sun_bg2.asp?id�7).
19. PE 168.184 / Part 4/4, supra note 1, Ch. 5, para. 101-103.
20. PE 166.499, supra note 9, at 20.
21. Id.
22. PE 168.184 / Part 4/4, supra note 1, Ch. 5, para. 101-102.
23. Vernon Loeb, NSA Admits to Spying on Princess Diana, WASHINGTON
POST, December 12, 1998, at A13. See Vernon Loeb, NSA Admits to Spying
on Princess Diana, WASHINGTON POST, A13 (December 12, 1998)
(
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/dec98/diana12.htm).
24. Ross Coulhart, Big Brother is listening, (May 23, 1999)
(
http://sunday.ninemsn.com;sun_cover2.asp?id�8).
Also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_%28signals_intelligence%29