Push For Hearings On Echelon
Global spy system needs scrutiny, says rights group
By Stephan Archer
WorldNetDaily.com, Nov. 12, 1998
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.