world spy system

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

------- Forwarded Message

Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 10:47:17
To: believer@telepath.com
From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: NSA Spy Network confirmed by EU

Forwarded from the London Telegraph:
- ----------------------------------------------------------

>Daily Telegraph  Connected Supplement 16th December 1997
>
>A European Commission report warns that the United States has developed an
>extensive spying network on European Citizens and we should all be worried,
>reports Simon Davies.
>
>A global electronic spy network that can eavesdrop on every telephone,email
>and telex communication around the world will be officially acknowledged
>for the first time in a European Commission report to be delivered this
>week.
>
>The report - Assessing the Technologies of Political Control -- was com-
>missioned last year by the Civil Liberties Committee of the European
>Parliament. It contains details of a network of American-controlled spy
>stations on British soil and around the world. that "routinely and
>indiscriminately" monitors countless phone, fax and email messages.
>
>It states: "Within Europe all email telephone and fax communications are
>routinely intercepted bv the United States Natiomnal Security Agency
>transfering all target information from the European nmainland via the
>strategic hub of London then by satellite to Fort Meade in Maryland via
>the crucial hub at Menwith Hill" in Yorkshire.
>
>The report confirms for the first time the existence of a the secretive
>Echelon system.
>
>Until now evidence of such astounding technology has been patchy and
>anecdotal. But the report - to be discussed on Thursday by the committee
>of the office of Science and Technology Assessment in Luxembourg - confirms
>that the citizens of Britain and other European states are subject to an
>intensity of surveillance far in excess of that imagined by most parlia-
>ments. Its findings arc certain to excite the concern of MEPS.
>
>"The Echelon system forms part of the UKUSA system but unlike many of the
>electronic spy sysfems developed during the Cold War, Echelon is designed
>primarily for non- military targets: governments, organizations  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".
>
>According to the report, Echelon uses a number of national dictionaries
>containing key words of interest to each country.
>
>For more than a decade, former agents of US, British. Canadian and New
>Zealand national security agencies have claimed that the monitoring of
>electronic communications has become endemic throughout the world. Rumours
>have circulated that new technologies have been developed which have the
>capability to search most of the world's telex, fax and enaail networks
>for "keywords". Phone calls. they claim. can be automatically analysed for
>key words.
>
>Former signals intelligence operatives have claimed that spy bases control
>led by America have the ability to search nearly all data communications
>for kev words. They claim that Echelon automatically analyses most email
>messaging for "precursor". data which assists intelligence agencies to
>determine targets. According to former Canadian Security Establishment
>agent Mike Frost. a voice recognition system called Oratory has been used
>for some years to intercept diplomatic calls.
>
>The driving force behind the report is Glyn Ford. Labour MEP for Greater
>Manchester East. He believes the report is crucial to the future of civil
>liberties in Europe.
>
>"In the civil liberties committee we spend a great deal of time debating
>issues such as free movement, immigration and drugs. Technology always
>sits at the centre of these discussions.
>
>"There are times in history when technology helps democratise, and times
>when it helps centralise. This is a time of centralisation. The justice
>and home affairs pillar of Europe has become more powerful without a
>corresponding strengthening of civil liberties."
>
>The report recommnends a variety of measure for dealing with the increas-
>ing power of the the technologies of surveilance being used at Menwith
>Hill and other centres. It bluntlyy advises: "The European Parliament
>should reject proposals from the United States for making private messages
>via the global communications network Internet) accessible to US intelli-
>gence agencies.
>
>The report also urges a fundamental review of the involvement of the
>American NSA (National Security Agency in Europe, suggestng that the
>activities be either scaled down, or become more open and accountable.
>
>Such concerns have been privately expressed by governments and MEPS since
>the Cold War, but surveillance has continued to expand. US intelligence
>activity in Britain has enjoyed a steady growth throughout the past two
>decades. The principal motivation for this rush of development is the US
>interest in commercial espionage. In the Fifties. during the development
>of the 'special relationship'. between America and Britain, one US insti-
>tution was singled out for special attention.
>
>The NSA, the world's biggest and most powerful signals intelligence organ-
>isation. received approval to set up a network of spy stations throughout
>Britain. "Their role was to provide military, diplomatic and economic
>intelligelince by intercepting communications from throughout the Northern
>Hemisphere.
>
>The NSA is one of the shadowiest of the shadowy US intelligence agencies.
>Until a few years ago, it existence was a secret and its charter and any
>mention of its duties are still classified. However, it does have a Web
>site (www.nsa.gov:8080) in which it describes itself as being responsible
>for the signals intelligence and communications security activities of
>the US government.
>
>One of its bases, Menwith Hill, was to become the biggest spy station in
>the world. Its ears - known as radomes - are capable of listening in to
>vast chunks of the communications spectrum throughout Europe and the old
>Soviet Union.
>
>In its first decade the base sucked data from cables and microwave links
>running through a nearby Post Office Tower, but the communications revolu-
>tions of the Seventies and Eighties gave the base a capability that even
>its architects could scarcely have been able to imagine. With the creation
>of Intelsat and digital telecomnunications, Menwith and other stations
>developed the capability to eavesdrop on an extensive scale on fax, telex
>and voice messages. Then. with the development of the Internet, electronic
>mail and electronic commerce, the listening posts were able to increase
>their monitoring capability to eavesdrop on an unprecedented spectrum (of
>personal and business communications.
>
>This activitv has been all but ignored by Parliament. When Labour MEPS
>raised questions about the activities of the NSA. the Government invoked
>secrecy rules. It has been the same for for 40 Years.
>
>Glyn Ford hopes his report may be the first step in a long road to more
>openness. "Some democratically elected body should surely have a right to
>know at some level. At the monment that's nowhere.
     


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