IP: Push for hearings on Echelon - Global spy system needs scrutiny, says rights group

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

From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: Push for hearings on Echelon - Global spy system needs scrutiny, says rights group
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 09:29:44 -0600
To: believer@telepath.com

Source:  WorldNetDaily
http://www.WorldNetDaily.com/bluesky_exnews/19981112_xex_push_hearing.shtml

Push for hearings on Echelon 
Global spy system needs scrutiny, says rights group 
 
By Stephan Archer 
Copyright 1998 WorldNetDaily.com 
 
In an effort to create some accountability between the
country's citizens and the National Security Agency's
top-secret global surveillance system known as
Echelon, the Free Congress Foundation is urging that
congressional hearings be held concerning the NSA's
use of the system. 

Originally, Echelon was designed to spy on the
Communist Bloc during the Cold War. However, since
the end of the Cold War, the NSA has used it for
other questionable purposes that include spying on the
citizens of U.S. allies as well as the citizens of other
countries, commercial spying, and even domestic
spying. 

In essence, Echelon works through a series of
high-tech spy facilities located primarily in five
countries: the United States, Canada, England, New
Zealand, and Australia. These countries, which are
sworn to secrecy about the project in a secret
agreement known as UKUSA, all actively take part in
this encroachment of privacy into the lives of the
people of the world by collecting virtually all fax
transmissions, e-mails, and phone calls. Not even
cellular phone calls escape the grasp of the Echelon
system. 

"Obviously, we need to have these capabilities," said
Wayne Madsen, who worked in the National
COMSEC Assessment Center at the NSA's Fort
Meade, Maryland, facility back in the 1980s and is
currently a senior fellow at the Electronic Privacy
Information Center. 

As an example of our country's need for the system,
Madsen said, "No one can argue about using the
system to counter terrorism. Where people will have a
problem is where Echelon is used for political and
business interests." 

The Echelon system gets most of its data by collecting
all transmissions handled by the Intelsat and Inmarsat
satellites, which are responsible for much of the
electronic communication that takes place between
countries. Earth-bound communication is sucked up
and absorbed by other spy satellites that the NSA has
launched into space. 

"It's a huge vacuum cleaner," said Madsen. 

Once these spy facilities collect the phone calls,
e-mails, and faxes, of virtually everyone on earth, the
Echelon system sorts them through a kind of filter
system known as the Echelon dictionary. This
dictionary looks for "flag" words in all of the
transmitted communication. While it lets a majority of
all collected material pass through its filter, it tags those
that may pose a threat and tracks all subsequent
communication coming from the source of the original
"flagged" message. 

Concerning Echelon's inherent intrusion on people's
privacy, Patrick Poole, the deputy director for the
Center of Technology Policy at the Free Congress
Foundation, said, "While we understand the need for
the intelligence power embodied by Echelon, the
indiscriminate use of Echelon presents major threats to
liberty not only to U.S. citizens but to citizens around
the world." 

And this threat is real. The foundation's report states
that U.S. leaders have, in fact, already abused this
awesome technology. For example, the report states
the following: "In September 1993, President Clinton
asked the CIA to spy on Japanese auto manufacturers
that were designing zero-emission cars and to forward
that information to the Big Three U.S. car
manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler." 

"You can assume that all major U.S. corporations are
fed items of interest (via Echelon) from time to time to
give them a leg up on international competitors," said
Madsen. 

Although this may be seen as a strategic corporate
weapon for American businesses, in reality, it's an
example of technology that can get out of hand. For
example, former Canadian spy Mike Frost stated in his
book, "Spyworld," that in 1981, there was an
"accidental" cell phone intercept of the American
ambassador to Canada that resulted in the U.S. getting
outbid by the Canadians in a grain deal with China.
The deal brought in $2.5 billion for the Canadian
Wheat Board. 

With this kind of abuse of Echelon's power, the
question as to whether or not the U.S. government has
been using this power for political purposes can be
easily raised. This question is seemingly answered in
the foundation's report. 

"The discovery of domestic surveillance targeted at
American civilians for reasons of 'unpopular' political
affiliation -- or for no probable cause at all -- in
violation of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of
the Constitution is regularly impeded by very elaborate
and complex legal arguments and privilege claims by
the intelligence agencies and the U.S. government," the
report says. 

When asked if the system has been used by the U.S.
government to spy on its citizens, Madsen told
WorldNetDaily that he was sure it has been. 

"I don't believe that the NSA or the current
Administration would hesitate to use this system on
American citizens for their own agendas," he said. 

Outraged by this flagrant abuse of power illustrated by
our country's elected officials, Poole said, "While the
U.S. is the prime mover behind the Echelon system, it's
shameful that the European Parliament is the body
holding the constitutional debate in regards to Echelon
today." 

A September 1998 report for the European Parliament
by the Omega Foundation said, "Within Europe, all
e-mail, telephone, and fax communications are
routinely intercepted by the United States National
Security Agency. 

According to the Omega Foundation report, it is this
ability of the NSA that brings major concern to the
European Parliament. In an effort to bring the issues
surrounding Echelon to the forefront of American
politics, the Free Congress Foundation plans to send
out a report about Echelon to all of the 500 policy
organizations in the U.S. as well as to select members
of Congress. These select individuals include members
from both the House and Senate intelligence
committees as well as House and Senate Constitution
subcommittees. Copies of the report will also be sent
to the congressional leadership of both parties. 

Although the foundation is hoping to get some action
out of these members of Congress, Poole said that
support at the grassroots level of our nation's political
structure will be a must if this issue isn't to end up
buried by the intelligence committees. 

"For there to be any account and oversight to the
Echelon system, the American people are going to
have to contact their elected representatives in order to
investigate the abuses that we know have occurred in
regards to the Echelon system," Poole said. 

See Free Congress Foundation's report on Echelon. 
 � 1998 Western Journalism Center
-----------------------
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