More on Global SIGINT

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 00:31:58 +0100
To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk
From: Duncan Campbell <duncan@mcmail.com>
Subject: The discovery of global sigint networks : the early years,  part 2

Ramparts in 1972 was indeed the starting point.   Sadly, many subsequent
reporters later confused what "Winslow Peck" [= Perry (not Peter) Fellwock,
which *is* his true name]  wrote about "keyword" interception of
international telephony traffic.  

The story from then on ..

Early in 1976, Winslow came to London.  I interviewed him at length and
then carried out my own research on GCHQ.  I then published an article in
Time Out, June 1976, called the Eavesdroppers which did for GCHQ and the UK
what Winslow did for NSA and the US.    My co-author was another American
journalist, a Time Out staffer called Mark Hosenball.

The Eavesdroppers was the first (and full) description of what GCHQ was and
did.   There had been no previous article, although World In Action had
attempted a programme in 1972.

GCHQ's directors were apoplectic.  The more so because the combined efforts
of the GPO (who tapped my phone from May 76 onwards), the Special Branch
and MI5 (who followed MH and me around) revealed that we had actually got
the article out *without* breaking the Official Secrets Act.   I had done
my research from open technical sources, and (!) telephone directories;
Peck, as an American wasn't covered by the British law.  

But they got even.   Hosenball, an American, was declared a threat to
national security and deported.   Philip Agee, the famous whistleblower
from the CIA, was added in to the deportation list.

Seven months later, I *was* arrested in the furore over their deportations
together with another Time Out reporter, Crispin Aubrey.   We had talked to
a former British sigint operator, John Berry.   The case became known as
"ABC" after our initials.   Over the coming two years, I was accused of
having too much information and faced two counts of espionage as well as
one of breaching section 2 of the Official Secrets Act (a law which was
repealed almost ten years ago now).   These counts totalled a potential
sentence of 30 years imprisonment.   

At Court 1 in the Old Bailey in October 1978, this disgaceful prosecution -
which marked the high water point of MI5's manic campaigns against
"internal subversion" - fell apart.   The story has just recently been told
in the delightful autobiography of Geoff Robertson QC, who was then my no 2
lawyer.  His book is called "The Justice Game".    Maybe its time for me
own autobio ...

Mrs Thatcher put GCHQ firmly on the world map with the union ban, 5 years
later.   And now ...

Philip Agree is married to a ballerina and lives in Germany.
Mark Hosenball is a reporter in Washington.
Perry Fellwock is a lobbyist in Washington.

Crispin Aubrey is an organic farmer in Somerset
John Berry is a social worker in Somerset.	
NSA and GCHQ are still listening. 
And I'm signing off for now.


At 13/04/98, John Young wrote:
>Peter Sommer noted recently that one of the earliest accounts
>of NSA global electronic interception was published in a
>1972 Ramparts magazine article, which we offer for a bit
>of history:
>
>   http://jya.com/nsa-elint.htm  (84K)
>
>James Bamford, Duncan Campbell, Nicky Hager and others
>have confirmed and extended what was at the time viewed as 
>the fanciful antiwar exaggeration of a young former NSA 
>analyst, named Peter Fellwock, first known by the pseudonym 
>Winslow Peck.
>
>Bamford says in The Puzzle Palace that NSA elected to not
>prosecute Fellwock in the hope that no one would believe his
>astonishing claims of NSA ELINT-ing friends and foes alike.
>
>Would anyone know where Peter Fellwock is now? Assuming
>that the marvelous "Fellwock" is not a NSA-pseudo for "Peck."
>