by Patrick S. Poole
1999/2000
Executive Summary
In the greatest surveillance effort ever established, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has created a global spy system, codename ECHELON, which captures and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world.
In the greatest surveillance effort ever established, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has created a global spy system, codename ECHELON, which captures and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world.
ECHELON is controlled by the NSA and is operated in conjunction with
the Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) of
England, the
Communications Security Establishment (CSE) of
Canada, the
Australian Defense Security Directorate (DSD), and the
General
Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) of New Zealand.
These
organizations are bound together under a secret 1948 agreement,
UKUSA, whose terms and text remain under wraps even today.
The ECHELON system is fairly simple in design: position intercept stations all over the world to capture all satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications traffic, and then process this information through the massive computer capabilities of the NSA, including advanced voice recognition and optical character recognition (OCR) programs, and look for code words or phrases (known as the ECHELON “Dictionary”) that will prompt the computers to flag the message for recording and transcribing for future analysis.
The ECHELON system is fairly simple in design: position intercept stations all over the world to capture all satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications traffic, and then process this information through the massive computer capabilities of the NSA, including advanced voice recognition and optical character recognition (OCR) programs, and look for code words or phrases (known as the ECHELON “Dictionary”) that will prompt the computers to flag the message for recording and transcribing for future analysis.
Intelligence analysts at each of the respective “listening
stations” maintain separate keyword lists for them to analyze any
conversation or document flagged by the system, which is then
forwarded to the respective intelligence agency headquarters that
requested the intercept.
But apart from directing their ears towards terrorists and rogue states, ECHELON is also being used for purposes well outside its original mission. The regular 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 – are consistently impeded by very elaborate and complex legal arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and the US government.
But apart from directing their ears towards terrorists and rogue states, ECHELON is also being used for purposes well outside its original mission. The regular 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 – are consistently impeded by very elaborate and complex legal arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and the US government.
The guardians and caretakers of our liberties, our duly
elected political representatives, give scarce attention to these
activities, let alone the abuses that occur under their watch.
Among
the activities that the ECHELON targets are:
Political spying:Since the close of World War II, the US intelligence agencies have developed a consistent record of trampling the rights and liberties of the American people.Even after the investigations into the domestic and political surveillance activities of the agencies that followed in the wake of the Watergate fiasco, the NSA continues to target the political activity of “unpopular” political groups and our duly elected representatives. One whistleblower charged in a 1988 Cleveland Plain Dealer interview that, while she was stationed at the Menwith Hill facility in the 1980s, she heard real-time intercepts of South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond.A former Maryland Congressman, Michael Barnes, claimed in a 1995 Baltimore Sun article that under the Reagan Administration his phone calls were regularly intercepted, which he discovered only after reporters had been passed transcripts of his conversations by the White House. One of the most shocking revelations came to light after several GCHQ officials became concerned about the targeting of peaceful political groups and told the London Observer in 1992 that the ECHELON dictionaries targeted Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and even Christian ministries.
Commercial espionage:Since the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe, the intelligence agencies have searched for a new justification for their surveillance capability in order to protect their prominence and their bloated budgets. Their solution was to redefine the notion of national security to include economic, commercial and corporate concerns. An office was created within the Department of Commerce, the Office of Intelligence Liaison, to forward intercepted materials to major US corporations.In many cases, the beneficiaries of this commercial espionage effort are the very companies that helped the NSA develop the systems that power the ECHELON network. This incestuous relationship is so strong that sometimes this intelligence information is used to push other American manufacturers out of deals in favor of these mammoth US defense and intelligence contractors, who frequently are the source of major cash contributions to both political parties.
While signals intelligence technology
was helpful in containing and eventually defeating the Soviet Empire
during the Cold War, what was once designed to target a select list
of communist countries and terrorist states is now indiscriminately
directed against virtually every citizen in the world.
The European
Parliament is now asking whether the ECHELON communications
interceptions violate the sovereignty and privacy of citizens in
other countries. In some cases, such as the NSA’s Menwith Hill
station in England, surveillance is conducted against citizens on
their own soil and with the full knowledge and cooperation of their
government.
This report suggests that Congress pick up its long-neglected role as watchdog of the Constitutional rights and liberties of the American people, instead of its current role as lap dog to the US intelligence agencies. Congressional hearings ought to be held, similar to the Church and Rockefeller Committee hearings held in the mid-1970s, to find out to what extent the ECHELON system targets the personal, political, religious, and commercial communications of American citizens. The late Senator Frank Church warned that the technology and capability embodied in the ECHELON system represented a direct threat to the liberties of the American people.
This report suggests that Congress pick up its long-neglected role as watchdog of the Constitutional rights and liberties of the American people, instead of its current role as lap dog to the US intelligence agencies. Congressional hearings ought to be held, similar to the Church and Rockefeller Committee hearings held in the mid-1970s, to find out to what extent the ECHELON system targets the personal, political, religious, and commercial communications of American citizens. The late Senator Frank Church warned that the technology and capability embodied in the ECHELON system represented a direct threat to the liberties of the American people.
Left
unchecked, ECHELON could be used by either the political elite or
the intelligence agencies themselves as a tool to subvert the civil
protections of Constitution and to destroy representative government
in the United States.
Introduction
The culmination of the Cold War conflict brought home hard realities for many military and intelligence agencies who were dependent upon the confrontation for massive budgets and little civilian oversight. World War II Allied political and military alliances had quickly become intelligence alliances in the shadow of the Iron Curtain that descended upon Eastern Europe after the war.
But for some intelligence agencies the end of the Cold War just meant a shift in mission and focus, not a loss of manpower or financial resources. One such US governmental organization is the National Security Agency (NSA).
Despite the disintegration of
Communism in the former Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe,
the secretive NSA continues to grow at an exponential rate in terms
of budget, manpower and spying abilities. Other countries have
noticed the rapid growth of NSA resources and facilities around the
world, and have decried the extensive spying upon their citizens by
the US.
A preliminary report released by the European Parliament in January 1998 detailed research conducted by independent researchers that uncovered a massive US spy technology network that routinely monitors telephone, fax and email information on citizens all over the world, but particularly in the European Union (EU) and Japan.
A preliminary report released by the European Parliament in January 1998 detailed research conducted by independent researchers that uncovered a massive US spy technology network that routinely monitors telephone, fax and email information on citizens all over the world, but particularly in the European Union (EU) and Japan.
Titled “An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control,”<1> this
report, issued by the Scientific and Technological Options
Assessment (STOA) committee of the European Parliament, caused a
tremendous stir in the establishment press in Europe. At least one
major US media outlet, The New York Times,<2> covered the issuance
of the report as well.
The STOA report also exposed a festering sore spot between the US and our EU allies. The widespread surveillance of citizens in EU countries by the NSA has been known and discussed by European journalists since 1981. The name of the system in question is ECHELON, and it is one of the most secretive spy systems in existence.
ECHELON is actually a vast network of electronic spy stations located around the world and maintained by five countries: the US, England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These countries, bound together in a still-secret agreement called UKUSA, spy on each other’s citizens by intercepting and gathering electronic signals of almost every telephone call, fax transmission and email message transmitted around the world daily. These signals are fed through the massive supercomputers of the NSA to look for certain keywords called the ECHELON “dictionaries.”
Most of the details of this mammoth spy system and the UKUSA agreement that supports it remain a mystery. What is known of ECHELON is the result of the efforts of journalists and researchers around the world who have labored for decades to uncover the operations of our government’s most secret systems.
The STOA report also exposed a festering sore spot between the US and our EU allies. The widespread surveillance of citizens in EU countries by the NSA has been known and discussed by European journalists since 1981. The name of the system in question is ECHELON, and it is one of the most secretive spy systems in existence.
ECHELON is actually a vast network of electronic spy stations located around the world and maintained by five countries: the US, England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These countries, bound together in a still-secret agreement called UKUSA, spy on each other’s citizens by intercepting and gathering electronic signals of almost every telephone call, fax transmission and email message transmitted around the world daily. These signals are fed through the massive supercomputers of the NSA to look for certain keywords called the ECHELON “dictionaries.”
Most of the details of this mammoth spy system and the UKUSA agreement that supports it remain a mystery. What is known of ECHELON is the result of the efforts of journalists and researchers around the world who have labored for decades to uncover the operations of our government’s most secret systems.
The 1996
publication of New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager’s book, Secret
Power: New Zealand’s Role in the International Spy Network,<3>
provided the most detailed look at the system and inflamed interest
in ECHELON as well as the debate regarding its propriety.
This paper examines the expanse of the ECHELON system along with the intelligence agreements and exchanges that support it. The operation of ECHELON serves the NSA’s goal of spying on the citizens of other countries while also allowing them to circumvent the prohibition on spying on US citizens. ECHELON is not only a gross violation of our Constitution, but it violates the good will of our European allies and threatens the privacy of innocent civilians around the world.
This paper examines the expanse of the ECHELON system along with the intelligence agreements and exchanges that support it. The operation of ECHELON serves the NSA’s goal of spying on the citizens of other countries while also allowing them to circumvent the prohibition on spying on US citizens. ECHELON is not only a gross violation of our Constitution, but it violates the good will of our European allies and threatens the privacy of innocent civilians around the world.
The existence and expansion of ECHELON is a foreboding omen
regarding the future of our Constitutional liberties.
If a
government agency can willingly violate the most basic components of
the Bill of Rights without so much as Congressional oversight and
approval, we have reverted from a republican form of government to
tyranny.
The Parties
The success of the Allied military effort in World War II was due in no small part to successes in gathering enemy intelligence information and cracking those military and diplomatic messages. In addition, the Allied forces were able to create codes and encryption devices that effectively concealed sensitive information from prying Axis Power eyes. These coordinated signal intelligence (SIGINT) programs kept Allied information secure and left the enemies vulnerable.
But at the close of the conflict, a new threatening power – the Soviet Union – was beginning to provoke the Cold War by enslaving Eastern Europe. These signal intelligence agencies now had a new enemy toward which to turn their electronic eyes and ears to ensure that the balance of power could be maintained. The volleys of electronic hardware and espionage that would follow for forty years would be the breeding ground of the ECHELON spy system.
The diplomatic foundation that was the genesis of ECHELON is the UKUSA agreement. The agreement has its roots in the BRUSA COMINT (communications intelligence) alliance formed in the early days of World War II and ratified on May 17, 1943 by the United Kingdom and the United States.<4> The Commonwealth SIGINT Organization formed in 1946-47 brought together the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand post-war intelligence agencies.<5>
Forged in 1947 between the US and
UK, the still-secret UKUSA agreement defined the relations between
the SIGINT departments of those various governments. Direct
agreements between the US and these agencies also define the
intricate relationship that these organizations engage in.
Foremost among those agencies is the US National Security Agency (NSA), which represents the American interest. The NSA is designated as the “First Party to the Treaty.” The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) signed the UKUSA agreement on behalf of the UK and its Commonwealth SIGINT partners.
Foremost among those agencies is the US National Security Agency (NSA), which represents the American interest. The NSA is designated as the “First Party to the Treaty.” The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) signed the UKUSA agreement on behalf of the UK and its Commonwealth SIGINT partners.
This brought Australia’s
Defense Signals Directorate (DSD), the Canadian Communications
Security Establishment (CSE) and New Zealand’s Government
Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) into the arrangement. While
these agencies are bound by additional direct agreements with the US
and each other, these four countries are considered the “Second
Parties to the (UKUSA) Treaty.”
Third Party members include
Germany,
Japan, Norway, South Korea and
Turkey. There are sources that
indicate China may be included in this group on a limited basis as
well.<6>
National Security Agency (US)
The prime mover in the UKUSA arrangement is undeniably the National Security Agency (NSA). The majority of funds for joint projects and facilities (discussed below) as well as the direction for intelligence gathering operations are issued primarily through the NSA.
The participating agencies frequently exchange personnel,
divide up intelligence collection tasks and establish common
guidelines for classifying and protecting shared information.
However, the NSA utilizes its role as the largest spy agency in the
world to have its international intelligence partners do its
bidding.
President Harry Truman established the NSA in 1952 with a presidential directive that remains classified to this day. The US government did not acknowledge the existence of the NSA until 1957. Its original mission was to conduct the signal intelligence (SIGINT) and communications security (COMSEC) for the US. President Ronald Reagan added the tasks of information systems security and operations security training in 1984 and 1988 respectively. A 1986 law charged the NSA with supporting combat operations for the Department of Defense.<7>
Headquartered at Fort George Meade, located between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, the NSA boasts the most enviable array of intelligence equipment and personnel in the world. The NSA is the largest global employer of mathematicians, featuring the best teams of code-makers and code-breakers ever assembled. The latter’s job is to crack the encryption codes of foreign and domestic electronic communications, forwarding the revealed messages to their enormous team of skilled linguists to review and analyze the messages in over 100 languages. The NSA is also responsible for creating the encryption codes that protect the US government’s communications.
In its role as gang leader for UKUSA, the NSA is primarily involved with creating new surveillance and codebreaking technology, directing the other cooperating agencies to their targets, and providing them with training and tools to intercept, process and analyze enormous amounts of signals intelligence.
President Harry Truman established the NSA in 1952 with a presidential directive that remains classified to this day. The US government did not acknowledge the existence of the NSA until 1957. Its original mission was to conduct the signal intelligence (SIGINT) and communications security (COMSEC) for the US. President Ronald Reagan added the tasks of information systems security and operations security training in 1984 and 1988 respectively. A 1986 law charged the NSA with supporting combat operations for the Department of Defense.<7>
Headquartered at Fort George Meade, located between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, the NSA boasts the most enviable array of intelligence equipment and personnel in the world. The NSA is the largest global employer of mathematicians, featuring the best teams of code-makers and code-breakers ever assembled. The latter’s job is to crack the encryption codes of foreign and domestic electronic communications, forwarding the revealed messages to their enormous team of skilled linguists to review and analyze the messages in over 100 languages. The NSA is also responsible for creating the encryption codes that protect the US government’s communications.
In its role as gang leader for UKUSA, the NSA is primarily involved with creating new surveillance and codebreaking technology, directing the other cooperating agencies to their targets, and providing them with training and tools to intercept, process and analyze enormous amounts of signals intelligence.
By possessing what
is arguably the most technologically advanced communications,
computer and codebreaking equipment of any government agency in the
world, the NSA serves as a competent and capable taskmaster for
UKUSA.
The ECHELON Network
The vast network created by the UKUSA community stretches across the globe and into the reaches of space. Land-based intercept stations, intelligence ships sailing the seven seas and top-secret satellites whirling twenty thousand miles overhead all combine to empower the NSA and its UKUSA allies with access to the entire global communications network. Very few signals escape its electronic grasp.
Having divided the world up among the UKUSA parties, each agency directs its electronic "vacuum-cleaner" equipment towards the heavens and the ground to search for the most minute communications signals that traverse the system’s immense path.
The Facilities
The backbone of the ECHELON network is the massive listening and reception stations directed at the Intelsat and Inmarsat satellites that are responsible for the vast majority of phone and fax communications traffic within and between countries and continents. The twenty Intelsat satellites follow a geo-stationary orbit locked onto a particular point on the Equator.<9>
These satellites carry
primarily civilian traffic, but they do additionally carry
diplomatic and governmental communications that are of particular
interest to the UKUSA parties.
Originally, only two stations were responsible for Intelsat intercepts: Morwenstow in England and Yakima in the state of Washington. However, when the Intelsat 5 series was replaced with the Intelsat 701 and 703 satellites, which had much more precise transmission beams that prohibited reception of Southern Hemisphere signals from the Yakima base in the Northern Hemisphere, additional facilities were constructed in Australia and New Zealand.<10>
Today, the Morwenstow station directs its ears towards the Intelsats traversing the atmosphere above the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and transmitting to Europe, Africa and western parts of Asia. The Yakima station, located on the grounds of the Yakima Firing Station, targets Pacific Ocean communications in the Northern Hemisphere as well as the Far East.
Originally, only two stations were responsible for Intelsat intercepts: Morwenstow in England and Yakima in the state of Washington. However, when the Intelsat 5 series was replaced with the Intelsat 701 and 703 satellites, which had much more precise transmission beams that prohibited reception of Southern Hemisphere signals from the Yakima base in the Northern Hemisphere, additional facilities were constructed in Australia and New Zealand.<10>
Today, the Morwenstow station directs its ears towards the Intelsats traversing the atmosphere above the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and transmitting to Europe, Africa and western parts of Asia. The Yakima station, located on the grounds of the Yakima Firing Station, targets Pacific Ocean communications in the Northern Hemisphere as well as the Far East.
Another NSA facility at Sugar Grove, West
Virginia, covers traffic for the whole of North and South America. A
DSD station at Geraldton, Australia, and the
Waihopai, New Zealand
GCSB facility cover Asia, the South Pacific countries and the
Pacific Ocean. An additional station on Ascension Island in the
Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Angola is suspected of covering
the Atlantic Intelsat’s Southern Hemisphere communications.<11>
Non-Intelsat satellites are monitored from these same stations, as well as from bases in Menwith Hill, England; Shoal Bay, Australia; Leitrim, Canada; Bad Aibling, Germany, and Misawa, Japan. These satellites typically carry Russian and regional communications.<12> It is known that the Shoal Bay facility targets a series of Indonesian satellites and that the Leitrim station intercepts communications from Latin American satellites, including the Mexican telephone company’s Morelos satellite.<13>
Several dozen other radio listening posts operated by the UKUSA allies dot the globe as well, located at military bases on foreign soil and remote spy posts. These stations played a critical role in the time prior to the development of satellite communications because much of the world’s communications traffic was transmitted on radio frequency bands.
Non-Intelsat satellites are monitored from these same stations, as well as from bases in Menwith Hill, England; Shoal Bay, Australia; Leitrim, Canada; Bad Aibling, Germany, and Misawa, Japan. These satellites typically carry Russian and regional communications.<12> It is known that the Shoal Bay facility targets a series of Indonesian satellites and that the Leitrim station intercepts communications from Latin American satellites, including the Mexican telephone company’s Morelos satellite.<13>
Several dozen other radio listening posts operated by the UKUSA allies dot the globe as well, located at military bases on foreign soil and remote spy posts. These stations played a critical role in the time prior to the development of satellite communications because much of the world’s communications traffic was transmitted on radio frequency bands.
Particularly in the high-frequency (HF)
range, radio communications continue to serve an important purpose
despite the widespread use of satellite technology because their
signals can be transmitted to military ships and aircraft across the
globe. Shorter range very high-frequencies (VHF) and
ultra
high-frequencies (UHF) are also used for tactical military
communications within national borders.
Major radio facilities in
the UKUSA network include Tangimoana, New Zealand;
Bamaga,
Australia, and the joint NSA/GCHQ facility at the Indian Ocean atoll
of Diego Garcia.<14>
UK facilities
A separate high frequency direction finding (HFDF) network intercepts communications signals for the unique purpose of locating the position of ships and aircraft. While these stations are not actually involved in the analysis of messages, they play a critical role in monitoring the movements of mobile military targets.
The
Canadian CSE figures prominently in the HFDF UKUSA network,
codenamed CLASSIC BULLSEYE and hosting a major portion of the
Atlantic and Pacific stations that monitored Soviet ship and
submarine movements during the Cold War. Stations from Kingston and
Leitrim (Ontario) to Gander (Newfoundland) on the Atlantic side, to
Alert (Northwest Territories) located at the northernmost tip of
Canada on the Arctic Ocean that listens to the Russian submarine
bases at Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok, and finally to Masset
(British Columbia) in the Pacific -- monitor shipping and flight
lanes under the direction of the NSA.<15>.
The CSE also maintains a
small contingent at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas,
which probably monitors Latin American communications targets.
Another major support for the ECHELON system is the US spy satellite network and its corresponding reception bases scattered about the UKUSA empire. These space-based electronic communications "vacuum cleaners" pick up radio, microwave and cell phone traffic on the ground. They were launched by the NSA in cooperation with its sister spy agencies, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Another major support for the ECHELON system is the US spy satellite network and its corresponding reception bases scattered about the UKUSA empire. These space-based electronic communications "vacuum cleaners" pick up radio, microwave and cell phone traffic on the ground. They were launched by the NSA in cooperation with its sister spy agencies, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The Ferret series of satellites
in the 1960s; the Canyon, Rhyolite and Aquacade satellites in the
1970s; and the Chalet, Vortex, Magnum, Orion, and Jumpseat series of
satellites in the 1980s, have given way to the new and improved
Mercury, Mentor and Trumpet satellites during the 1990s.
Table I. US Spy Satellites in Current Use
Source: MSNBC<16>
These surveillance satellites act as giant scoops picking up electronic communications, cell phone conversations and various radio transmissions. The downlink stations that control the operations and targeting of these satellites are under the exclusive control of the United States, despite their location on foreign military bases.
The two primary downlink facilities are at Menwith
Hill, England, and
Pine Gap, Australia.
Inside Menwith Hill
The Menwith Hill facility is located in North Yorkshire near Harrogate, England.
The important role that Menwith Hill plays in
the ECHELON system was recognized by the recent European Parliament STOA report:
Within Europe, all email, telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency, transferring all target information from the European mainland via the strategic hub of London then by satellite to Fort Meade in Maryland via the crucial hub at Menwith Hill in the North York Moors of the UK.<17>
The existence and importance of the facility was first brought to
light by British journalist and researcher Duncan Campbell in
1980.<18> Today, it is the largest spy station in the world, with
over twenty-five satellite receiving stations and 1,400 American NSA
personnel working with 350 UK Ministry of Defense staff on site.
After revelations that the facility was coordinating surveillance
for the vast majority of the European continent, the base has become
a target for regular protests organized by local peace activists. It
has also become the target of intense criticism by European
government officials who are concerned about the vast network of
civilian surveillance and economic espionage conducted from the
station by the US.<19>
The beginnings of Menwith Hill go back to December 1951, when the US Air Force and British War Office signed a lease for land that had been purchased by the British government. The NSA took over the lease of the base in 1966, and they have continued to build up the facility ever since. Up until the mid-1970s, Menwith Hill was used for intercepting International Leased Carrier (ILC) and Non-Diplomatic Communications (NDC).
Having received one of the
first sophisticated IBM computers in the early 1960s, Menwith Hill
was also used to sort through the voluminous unenciphered telex
communications, which consisted of international messages, telegrams
and telephone calls from the government, business and civilian
sectors looking for anything of political, military or economic
value.<20>
The addition of the first satellite intercept station at Menwith Hill in 1974 raised the base’s prominence in intelligence gathering. Eight large satellite communications dishes were installed during that phase of construction.
The addition of the first satellite intercept station at Menwith Hill in 1974 raised the base’s prominence in intelligence gathering. Eight large satellite communications dishes were installed during that phase of construction.
Several satellite-gathering systems now
dot the facility:<21>
-
STEEPLEBUSH – Completed in 1984, this $160 million system expanded the satellite surveillance capability and mission of the spy station beyond the bounds of the installation that began in 1974.
-
RUNWAY – Running east and west across the facility, this system receives signals from the second-generation geosynchronous Vortex satellites, and gathers miscellaneous communications traffic from Europe, Asia and the former Soviet Union. The information is then forwarded to the Menwith Hill computer systems for processing. RUNWAY may have recently been replaced or complemented by another system, RUTLEY.
-
PUSHER – An HFDF system that covers the HF frequency range between 3 MHz and 30 MHz (radio transmissions from CB radios, walkie-talkies, and other radio devices). Military, embassy, maritime and air flight communications are the main target of PUSHER.
-
MOONPENNY – Uncovered by British journalist Duncan Campbell in the 1980s, this system is targeted at the communication relay satellites belonging to other countries, as well as the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Intelsat satellites.
-
KNOBSTICKS I and II – The purpose of these antennae arrays are unknown, but they probably target military and diplomatic traffic throughout Europe.
-
GT-6 – A new system installed at the end of 1996, GT-6 is believed to be the receiver for the third generation of geosynchronous satellites termed Advanced Orion or Advanced Vortex. A new polar orbit satellite called Advanced Jumpseat may be monitored from here as well.
-
STEEPLEBUSH II – An expansion of the 1984 STEEPLEBUSH system, this computer system processes information collected from the RUNWAY receivers gathering traffic from the Vortex satellites.
-
SILKWORTH – Constructed by Lockheed Corporation, the main computer system for Menwith Hill processes most of the information received by the various reception systems.
One shocking revelation about Menwith
Hill came to light in 1997 during the trial of two women peace
campaigners appealing their convictions for trespassing at the
facility. In documents and testimony submitted by British Telecomm
in the case, R.G. Morris, head of Emergency Planning for British
Telecomm, revealed that at least three major domestic fiber-optic
telephone trunk lines – each capable of carrying 100,000 calls
simultaneously – were wired through Menwith Hill.<22>
This allows
the NSA to tap into the very heart of the British Telecomm network.
Judge Jonathan Crabtree rebuked British Telecomm for his revelations
and prohibited Mr. Morris from giving any further testimony in the
case for “national security” reasons. According to Duncan Campbell,
the secret spying alliance between Menwith Hill and
British Telecomm
began in 1975 with a coaxial connection to the British Telecomm
microwave facility at Hunter’s Stone, four miles away from Menwith
Hill – a connection maintained even today.<23>
Additional systems (TROUTMAN, ULTRAPURE, TOTALISER, SILVERWEED, RUCKUS, et. al.) complete the monumental SIGINT collection efforts at Menwith Hill.
Additional systems (TROUTMAN, ULTRAPURE, TOTALISER, SILVERWEED, RUCKUS, et. al.) complete the monumental SIGINT collection efforts at Menwith Hill.
Directing its electronic vacuum cleaners towards
unsuspecting communications satellites in the skies, receiving
signals gathered by satellites that scoop up the most minute signals
on the ground, listening in on the radio communications throughout
the air, or plugging into the ground-based telecommunications
network, Menwith Hill, alongside its sister stations at
Pine Gap,
Australia, and Bad Aibling, Germany, represents the comprehensive
effort of the NSA and its UKUSA allies to make sure that no
communications signal escapes its electronic net.
The ECHELON Dictionaries
The extraordinary ability of ECHELON to intercept most of the communications traffic in the world is breathtaking in its scope. And yet the power of ECHELON resides in its ability to decrypt, filter, examine and codify these messages into selective categories for further analysis by intelligence agents from the various UKUSA agencies.
As the electronic signals are brought into the station,
they are fed through the massive computer systems, such as Menwith
Hill’s SILKWORTH, where voice recognition,
optical character
recognition (OCR) and data information engines get to work on the
messages.
These programs and computers transcend state-of-the-art; in many cases, they are well into the future. MAGISTRAND is part of the Menwith Hill SILKWORTH super-computer system that drives the powerful keyword search programs.<24>
These programs and computers transcend state-of-the-art; in many cases, they are well into the future. MAGISTRAND is part of the Menwith Hill SILKWORTH super-computer system that drives the powerful keyword search programs.<24>
One tool used to sort through
the text of messages, PATHFINDER (manufactured by the UK company,
Memex),<**Be sure to read footnote for update
25 **> sifts through
large databases of text-based documents and messages looking for
keywords and phrases based on complex algorithmic criteria. Voice
recognition programs convert conversations into text messages for
further analysis. One highly advanced system, VOICECAST, can target
an individual’s voice pattern, so that every call that person makes
is transcribed for future analysis.
Processing millions of messages every hour, the ECHELON systems churn away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, looking for targeted keyword series, phone and fax numbers, and specified voiceprints. It is important to note that very few messages and phone calls are actually transcribed and recorded by the system.
Processing millions of messages every hour, the ECHELON systems churn away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, looking for targeted keyword series, phone and fax numbers, and specified voiceprints. It is important to note that very few messages and phone calls are actually transcribed and recorded by the system.
The vast majority
are filtered out after they are read or listened to by the system.
Only those messages that produce keyword “hits” are tagged for
future analysis. Again, it is not just the ability to collect the
electronic signals that gives ECHELON its power; it is the tools and
technology that are able to whittle down the messages to only those
that are important to the intelligence agencies.
Each station maintains a list of keywords (the “Dictionary”) designated by each of the participating intelligence agencies. A Dictionary Manager from each of the respective agencies is responsible for adding, deleting or changing the keyword search criteria for their dictionaries at each of the stations.<26>
Each station maintains a list of keywords (the “Dictionary”) designated by each of the participating intelligence agencies. A Dictionary Manager from each of the respective agencies is responsible for adding, deleting or changing the keyword search criteria for their dictionaries at each of the stations.<26>
Each of
these station dictionaries are given codewords, such as COWBOY for
the Yakima facility and FLINTLOCK for the Waihopai facility.<27>
These codewords play a crucial identification role for the analysts
who eventually look at the intercepted messages.
Each message flagged by the ECHELON dictionaries as meeting the specified criteria is sorted by a four-digit code representing the source or subject of the message (such as 5535 for Japanese diplomatic traffic, or 8182 for communications about distribution of encryption technology,)<28> as well as the date, time and station codeword.
Each message flagged by the ECHELON dictionaries as meeting the specified criteria is sorted by a four-digit code representing the source or subject of the message (such as 5535 for Japanese diplomatic traffic, or 8182 for communications about distribution of encryption technology,)<28> as well as the date, time and station codeword.
Also included in the message headers are the codenames for
the intended agency: ALPHA-ALPHA (GCHQ), ECHO-ECHO (DSD),
INDIA-INDIA (GCSB), UNIFORM-UNIFORM (CSE), and OSCAR-OSCAR (NSA).
These messages are then transmitted to each agency’s headquarters
via a global computer system, PLATFORM,<29> that acts as the
information nervous system for the UKUSA stations and agencies.
Every day, analysts located at the various intelligence agencies review the previous day’s product. As it is analyzed, decrypted and translated, it can be compiled into the different types of analysis: reports, which are direct and complete translations of intercepted messages; “gists,” which give basic information on a series of messages within a given category; and summaries, which are compilations from both reports and gists.<30>
Every day, analysts located at the various intelligence agencies review the previous day’s product. As it is analyzed, decrypted and translated, it can be compiled into the different types of analysis: reports, which are direct and complete translations of intercepted messages; “gists,” which give basic information on a series of messages within a given category; and summaries, which are compilations from both reports and gists.<30>
These are then given
classifications: MORAY (secret), SPOKE (more secret than MORAY),
UMBRA (top secret), GAMMA (Russian intercepts) and DRUID
(intelligence forwarded to non-UKUSA parties).
This analysis product
is the raison d’être of the entire ECHELON system. It is also the
lifeblood of the UKUSA alliance.
The Problem
The ECHELON system is the product of the Cold War conflict, an extended battle replete with heightened tensions that teetered on the brink of annihilation and the diminished hostilities of détente and glasnost. Vicious cycles of mistrust and paranoia between the United States and the Soviet Empire fed the intelligence agencies to the point that, with the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe, the intelligence establishment began to grasp for a mission that justified its bloated existence.
But the rise of post-modern warfare – terrorism – gave the establishment all the justification it needed to develop even greater ability to spy on our enemies, our allies and our own citizens. ECHELON is the result of those efforts. The satellites that fly thousands of miles overhead and yet can spy out the most minute details on the ground; the secret submarines that troll the ocean floors that are able to tap into undersea communications cables;<31> and all power the efficient UKUSA signals intelligence machine.
There is a concerted effort by the heads of intelligence agencies, federal law enforcement officials and congressional representatives to defend the capabilities of ECHELON. Their persuasive arguments point to the tragedies seen in the bombings in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center in New York City.
The vulnerability of Americans
abroad, as recently seen in the bombing of the American embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, emphasizes the
necessity of monitoring those forces around the world that would use
senseless violence and terror as political weapons against the US
and its allies.
Intelligence victories add credibility to the arguments that defend such a pervasive surveillance system. The discovery of missile sites in Cuba in 1962, the capture of the Achille Lauro terrorists in 1995, the discovery of Libyan involvement in the bombing of a Berlin discotheque that killed one American (resulting in the 1996 bombing of Tripoli) and countless other incidents that have been averted (which are now covered by the silence of indoctrination vows and top-secret classifications) all point to the need for comprehensive signals intelligence gathering for the national security of the United States.
But despite the real threats and dangers to the peace and protection of American citizens at home and abroad, our Constitution is quite explicit in limiting the scope and powers of government. A fundamental foundation of free societies is that when controversies arise over the assumption of power by the state, power never defaults to the government, nor are powers granted without an extraordinary, explicit and compelling public interest.
Intelligence victories add credibility to the arguments that defend such a pervasive surveillance system. The discovery of missile sites in Cuba in 1962, the capture of the Achille Lauro terrorists in 1995, the discovery of Libyan involvement in the bombing of a Berlin discotheque that killed one American (resulting in the 1996 bombing of Tripoli) and countless other incidents that have been averted (which are now covered by the silence of indoctrination vows and top-secret classifications) all point to the need for comprehensive signals intelligence gathering for the national security of the United States.
But despite the real threats and dangers to the peace and protection of American citizens at home and abroad, our Constitution is quite explicit in limiting the scope and powers of government. A fundamental foundation of free societies is that when controversies arise over the assumption of power by the state, power never defaults to the government, nor are powers granted without an extraordinary, explicit and compelling public interest.
As the late
Supreme Court Justice William Brennan pointed out:
The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security “necessities” to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism: Its very gravity counsels that courts be cautious when military necessity is invoked by the Government to justify a trespass on [Constitutional] rights.<32>
Despite the necessity of confronting terrorism and the many benefits
that are provided by the massive surveillance efforts embodied by
ECHELON, there is a dark and dangerous side of these activities that
is concealed by the cloak of secrecy surrounding the intelligence
operations of the United States.
The discovery of domestic surveillance targeting 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 US government.
The guardians and
caretakers of our liberties – our duly elected political
representatives – give scarce attention to the activities, let alone
the abuses, that occur under their watch. As pointed out below, our
elected officials frequently become targets of ECHELON themselves,
chilling any effort to check this unbridled power.
In addition, the shift in priorities resulting from the demise of the Soviet Empire and the necessity to justify intelligence capabilities resulted in a redefinition of “national security interests” to include espionage committed on behalf of powerful American companies.
In addition, the shift in priorities resulting from the demise of the Soviet Empire and the necessity to justify intelligence capabilities resulted in a redefinition of “national security interests” to include espionage committed on behalf of powerful American companies.
This quiet collusion between political and
private interests typically involves the very same companies that
are involved in developing the technology that empowers ECHELON and
the intelligence agencies.
Domestic and Political Spying
When considering the use of ECHELON on American soil, the pathetic historical record of NSA and CIA domestic activities in regards to the Constitutional liberties and privacy rights of American citizens provides an excellent guidepost for what may occur now with the ECHELON system.
Since the creation of the NSA by
President Truman,
its spying capability has frequently been used to monitor the
activities of an unsuspecting public.
Project SHAMROCK
In 1945 Project SHAMROCK was initiated to obtain copies of all telegraphic information exiting or entering the United States. With the full cooperation of RCA, ITT and Western Union (representing almost all of the telegraphic traffic in the US at the time), the NSA’s predecessor and later the NSA itself were provided with daily microfilm copies of all incoming, outgoing and transiting telegraphs.
This system changed dramatically when the cable
companies began providing magnetic computer tapes to the agency that
enabled the agency to run all the messages through its HARVEST
computer to look for particular keywords, locations, senders or
addressees.
Project SHAMROCK became so successful that the in 1966 NSA and CIA set up a front company in lower Manhattan (where the offices of the telegraph companies were located) under the codename LPMEDLEY. At the height of Project SHAMROCK, 150,000 messages a month were printed and analyzed by NSA agents.<33>
NSA Director Lew Allen brought Project SHAMROCK to a crashing halt in May 1975 as congressional critics began to rip open the program’s shroud of secrecy.
Project SHAMROCK became so successful that the in 1966 NSA and CIA set up a front company in lower Manhattan (where the offices of the telegraph companies were located) under the codename LPMEDLEY. At the height of Project SHAMROCK, 150,000 messages a month were printed and analyzed by NSA agents.<33>
NSA Director Lew Allen brought Project SHAMROCK to a crashing halt in May 1975 as congressional critics began to rip open the program’s shroud of secrecy.
The testimony of both the representatives from
the cable companies and of Director Allen at the hearings prompted
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Frank Church to conclude
that Project SHAMROCK was “probably the largest government
interception program affecting Americans ever undertaken.”<34>
Project MINARET
A sister project to Project SHAMROCK, Project MINARET involved the creation of “watch lists” by each of the intelligence agencies and the FBI of those accused of “subversive” domestic activities. The watch lists included such notables as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Dr. Benjamin Spock.
After the Supreme Court handed down its 1972 Keith decision,<35> which held that -- while the President could act to protect the country from unlawful and subversive activity designed to overthrow the government -- that same power did not extend to include warrantless electronic surveillance of domestic organizations, pressure came to bear on Project MINARET.<36>
Attorney General Elliot Petersen shut down Project MINARET as soon as its activities
were revealed to the Justice Department, despite the fact that the
FBI (an agency under the Justice Department’s authority) was
actively involved with the NSA and other intelligence agencies in
creating the watch lists.
Operating between 1967 and 1973, over 5,925 foreigners and 1,690 organizations and US citizens were included on the Project MINARET watch lists. Despite extensive efforts to conceal the NSA’s involvement in Project MINARET, NSA Director Lew Allen testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975 that the NSA had issued over 3,900 reports on the watch-listed Americans.<37> Additionally, the NSA Office of Security Services maintained reports on at least 75,000 Americans between 1952 and 1974.
Operating between 1967 and 1973, over 5,925 foreigners and 1,690 organizations and US citizens were included on the Project MINARET watch lists. Despite extensive efforts to conceal the NSA’s involvement in Project MINARET, NSA Director Lew Allen testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975 that the NSA had issued over 3,900 reports on the watch-listed Americans.<37> Additionally, the NSA Office of Security Services maintained reports on at least 75,000 Americans between 1952 and 1974.
This list
included the names of anyone that was mentioned in a NSA message
intercept.
Operation CHAOS
While the NSA was busy snooping on US citizens through Projects SHAMROCK and MINARET, the CIA got into the domestic spying act by initiating Operation CHAOS.
President Lyndon Johnson authorized the
creation of the CIA’s Domestic Operations Division (DOD), whose
purpose was to,
“exercise centralized responsibility for direction, support, and coordination of clandestine operations activities within the United States….”
When Johnson ordered CIA Director John McCone to use the
DOD to
analyze the growing college student protests of the Administration’s
policy towards Vietnam, two new units were set up to target anti-war
protestors and organizations: Project RESISTANCE, which worked with
college administrators, campus security and local police to identify
anti-war activists and political dissidents; and Project MERRIMAC,
which monitored any demonstrations being conducted in the Washington
D.C. area.
The CIA then began monitoring student activists and
infiltrating anti-war organizations by working with local police
departments to pull off burglaries, illegal entries (black bag
jobs), interrogations and electronic surveillance.<38>
After President Nixon came to office in 1969, all of these domestic surveillance activities were consolidated into Operation CHAOS. After the revelation of two former CIA agents’ involvement in the Watergate break-in, the publication of an article about CHAOS in the New York Times<39> and the growing concern about distancing itself from illegal domestic spying activities, the CIA shut down Operation CHAOS.
After President Nixon came to office in 1969, all of these domestic surveillance activities were consolidated into Operation CHAOS. After the revelation of two former CIA agents’ involvement in the Watergate break-in, the publication of an article about CHAOS in the New York Times<39> and the growing concern about distancing itself from illegal domestic spying activities, the CIA shut down Operation CHAOS.
But during the life of the project, the Church Committee and
the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States (the
Rockefeller Commission) revealed that the CIA had compiled files on
over 13,000 individuals, including 7,000 US citizens and 1,000
domestic organizations.<40>
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
In response to the discovery of such a comprehensive effort by previous administrations and the intelligence agencies, Congress passed legislation (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978)<41> that created a top-secret court to hear applications for electronic surveillance from the FBI and NSA to provide some check on the domestic activities of the agencies. In 1995, Congress granted the court additional power to authorize surreptitious entries. In all of these actions, Congressional intent was to provide a check on the domestic surveillance abuses mentioned above.
The seven-member court, comprised of federal District Court judges appointed by the Supreme Court Chief Justice, sits in secret in a sealed room on the top floor of the Department of Justice building. Public information about the court’s hearings is scarce; each year the Attorney General is required by law to transmit to Congress a report detailing the number of applications each year and the number granted. With over 10,000 applications submitted to the FISC during the past twenty years, the court has only rejected one application (and that rejection was at the request of the Reagan Administration, which had submitted the application).
While the FISC was established to be the watchdog for the Constitutional rights of the American people against domestic surveillance, it quickly became the lap dog of the intelligence agencies. Surveillance requests that would never receive a hearing in a state or federal court are routinely approved by the FISC. This has allowed the FBI to use the process to conduct surveillance to obtain evidence in circumvention of the US Constitution, and the evidence is then used in subsequent criminal trials.
But the process
established by Congress and the courts ensures that information
regarding the cause or extent of the surveillance order is withheld
from defense attorneys because of the classified nature of the
court.<42>
Despite Congress’s initial intent for the FISC, it is
doubtful that domestic surveillance by means of ECHELON comes under
any scrutiny by the court.
Political Uses of ECHELON and UKUSA
Several incidents of domestic spying involving ECHELON have emerged from the secrecy of the UKUSA relationship. What these brief glimpses inside the intelligence world reveal is that, despite the best of intentions by elected representatives, presidents and prime ministers, the temptation to use ECHELON as a tool of political advancement and repression proves too strong.
Former Canadian spy Mike Frost recounts how former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made a request in February 1983 to have two ministers from her own government monitored when she suspected them of disloyalty.
In an effort to avoid the legal difficulties
involved with domestic spying on high governmental officials, the GCHQ liaison in Ottawa made a request to CSE for them to conduct the
three-week-long surveillance mission at British taxpayer expense. Frost’s CSE boss, Frank Bowman, traveled to London to do the job
himself. After the mission was over, Bowman was instructed to hand
over the tapes to a GCHQ official at their headquarters.<43>
Using the UKUSA alliance as legal cover is seductively easy.
Using the UKUSA alliance as legal cover is seductively easy.
As Spyworld co-author Michel Gratton puts it,
The Thatcher episode certainly shows that GCHQ, like NSA, found ways to put itself above the law and did not hesitate to get directly involved in helping a specific politician for her personal political benefit…. [T]he decision to proceed with the London caper was probably not put forward for approval to many people up the bureaucratic ladder. It was something CSE figured they would get away with easily, so checking with the higher-ups would only complicate things unnecessarily.<44>
Frost also told of how he was asked in 1975 to spy on an unlikely
target – Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s wife, Margaret Trudeau. The
Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) Security Service division was
concerned that the Prime Minister’s wife was buying and using
marijuana, so they contacted the CSE to do the dirty work. Months of
surveillance in cooperation with the Security Service turned up
nothing of note.
Frost was concerned that there were political
motivations behind the RCMP’s request:
“She was in no way suspected of espionage. Why was the RCMP so adamant about this? Were they trying to get at Pierre Trudeau for some reason or just protect him? Or were they working under orders from their political masters?”<45>
The NSA frequently gets into the political spying act as well.
Nixon
presidential aide John Ehrlichman revealed in his published memoirs,
Witness to Power: The Nixon Years, that Henry Kissinger used the
NSA
to intercept the messages of then-Secretary of State William P.
Rogers, which Kissinger used to convince President Nixon of
Rogers’
incompetence. Kissinger also found himself on the receiving end of
the NSA’s global net. Word of Kissinger’s secret diplomatic dealings
with foreign governments would reach the ears of other Nixon
administration officials, incensing Kissinger.
As former NSA Deputy
Director William Colby pointed out,
“Kissinger would get sore as hell…because he wanted to keep it politically secret until it was ready to launch.”<46>
However, elected representatives have also become targets of spying
by the intelligence agencies. In 1988, a former Lockheed software
manager who was responsible for a dozen VAX computers that powered
the ECHELON computers at Menwith Hill, Margaret Newsham, came forth
with the stunning revelation that she had actually heard the NSA’s
real time interception of phone conversations involving South
Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond.
Newsham was fired from Lockheed
after she filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that the company
was engaged in flagrant waste and abuse. After a top secret meeting
in April 1988 with then-chairman of the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Louis Stokes, Capitol Hill staffers
familiar with the meeting leaked the story to the Cleveland Plain
Dealer.<47> While Sen. Thurmond was reluctant to pressure for a
thorough investigation into the matter, his office revealed at the
time that the office had previously received reports that the
Senator was a target of the NSA.<48>
After the news reports an
investigation into the matter discovered that there were no controls
or questioning over who could enter target names into the Menwith
Hill system.<49>
The NSA, under orders from the Reagan administration, also targeted Maryland Congressman Michael Barnes. Phone calls he placed to Nicaraguan officials were intercepted and recorded, including a conversation he had with the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua protesting the implementation of martial law in that country.
The NSA, under orders from the Reagan administration, also targeted Maryland Congressman Michael Barnes. Phone calls he placed to Nicaraguan officials were intercepted and recorded, including a conversation he had with the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua protesting the implementation of martial law in that country.
Barnes
found out about the NSA’s spying after White House officials leaked
transcripts of his conversations to reporters. CIA Director
William
Casey, later implicated in the Iran-Contra affair, showed
Barnes a
Nicaraguan embassy cable that reported a meeting between embassy
staff and one of Barnes’ aides. The aide had been there on a
professional call regarding an international affairs issue, and
Casey asked for Barnes to fire the aide. Barnes replied that it was
perfectly legal and legitimate for his staff to meet with foreign
diplomats.
Says Barnes,
Says Barnes,
“I was aware that NSA monitored international calls, that it was a standard part of intelligence gathering. But to use it for domestic political purposes is absolutely outrageous and probably illegal.”<50>
Another former chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee has also expressed his concerns about the
NSA’s domestic targeting.
“It has always worried me. What if that is used on American citizens?” queried former Arizona Senator Dennis DeConcini. “It is chilling. Are they listening to my private conversations on my telephone?”<51>
Seemingly non-controversial organizations have ended up in the fixed
gaze of ECHELON, as several former GCHQ officials confidentially
told the London Observer in June 1992. Among the targeted
organizations they named were Amnesty International,
Greenpeace and
Christian Aid, an American missions organization that works with
indigenous pastors engaged in ministry work in countries closed to
Western, Christian workers.<52>
In another story published by the London Observer, a former employee of the British Joint Intelligence Committee, Robin Robison, admitted that Margaret Thatcher had personally ordered the communications interception of the parent company of the Observer, Lonrho, after the Observer had published a 1989 expose charging bribes had been paid to Thatcher’s son, Mark, in a multi-billion dollar British arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
In another story published by the London Observer, a former employee of the British Joint Intelligence Committee, Robin Robison, admitted that Margaret Thatcher had personally ordered the communications interception of the parent company of the Observer, Lonrho, after the Observer had published a 1989 expose charging bribes had been paid to Thatcher’s son, Mark, in a multi-billion dollar British arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Despite facing severe penalties for
violating his indoctrination vows, Robison admitted that he had
personally delivered intercepted Lonrho messages to Mrs. Thatcher’s
office.<53>
It should hardly be surprising that ECHELON ends up being used by elected and bureaucratic officials to their political advantage or by the intelligence agencies themselves for the purpose of sustaining their privileged surveillance powers and bloated budgets. The availability of such invasive technology practically begs for abuse, although it does not justify its use to those ends. But what is most frightening is the targeting of such “subversives” as those who expose corrupt government activity, protect human rights from government encroachments, challenge corporate polluters, or promote the gospel of Christ.
It should hardly be surprising that ECHELON ends up being used by elected and bureaucratic officials to their political advantage or by the intelligence agencies themselves for the purpose of sustaining their privileged surveillance powers and bloated budgets. The availability of such invasive technology practically begs for abuse, although it does not justify its use to those ends. But what is most frightening is the targeting of such “subversives” as those who expose corrupt government activity, protect human rights from government encroachments, challenge corporate polluters, or promote the gospel of Christ.
That the vast intelligence powers of the United States should be arrayed against legitimate and peaceful
organizations is demonstrative not of the desire to monitor, but of
the desire to control.
Commercial spying
With the rapid erosion of the Soviet Empire in the early 1990s, Western intelligence agencies were anxious to redefine their mission to justify the scope of their global surveillance system. Some of the agencies’ closest corporate friends quickly gave them an option – commercial espionage.
By redefining the term “national security”
to include spying on foreign competitors of prominent US
corporations, the signals intelligence game has gotten ugly. And it
very well may have prompted the recent scrutiny by the European
Union that ECHELON has endured.
While UKUSA agencies have pursued economic and commercial information on behalf of their countries with renewed vigor after the passing of communism in Eastern Europe, the NSA practice of spying on behalf of US companies has a long history.
While UKUSA agencies have pursued economic and commercial information on behalf of their countries with renewed vigor after the passing of communism in Eastern Europe, the NSA practice of spying on behalf of US companies has a long history.
Gerald Burke,
who served as Executive Director of President Nixon’s Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board, notes commercial espionage was endorsed
by the US government as early as 1970:
“By and large, we recommended that henceforth economic intelligence be considered a function of the national security, enjoying a priority equivalent to diplomatic, military, and technological intelligence.”<54>
To accommodate the need for information regarding international
commercial deals, the intelligence agencies set up a small,
unpublicized department within the Department of Commerce, the
Office of Intelligence Liaison.
This office receives intelligence
reports from the US intelligence agencies about pending
international deals that it discreetly forwards to companies that
request it or may have an interest in the information. Immediately
after coming to office in January 1993, President Clinton added to
the corporate espionage machine by creating the National Economic
Council, which feeds intelligence to “select” companies to enhance
US competitiveness.
The capabilities of ECHELON to spy on foreign
companies is nothing new, but the Clinton administration has raised
its use to an art:
In 1990 the German magazine Der Speigel revealed that the NSA had intercepted messages about an impending $200 million deal between Indonesia and the Japanese satellite manufacturer NEC Corp. After President Bush intervened in the negotiations on behalf of American manufacturers, the contract was split between NEC and AT&T.
In 1994, the CIA and NSA intercepted phone calls between Brazilian officials and the French firm Thomson-CSF about a radar system that the Brazilians wanted to purchase. A US firm, Raytheon, was a competitor as well, and reports prepared from intercepts were forwarded to Raytheon.<55>
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 US car
manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.<56>
In 1995, the New York Times reported that the NSA and the CIA’s Tokyo station
were involved in providing detailed information to US Trade
Representative Mickey Kantor’s team of negotiators in Geneva facing
Japanese car companies in a trade dispute.<57> Recently, a Japanese
newspaper, Mainichi, accused the NSA of continuing to monitor the
communications of Japanese companies on behalf of American
companies.<58>
Insight Magazine reported in a series of articles in 1997 that President Clinton ordered the NSA and FBI to mount a massive surveillance operation at the 1993 Asian/Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) hosted in Seattle. One intelligence source for the story related that over 300 hotel rooms had been bugged for the event, which was designed to obtain information regarding oil and hydro-electric deals pending in Vietnam that were passed on to high level Democratic Party contributors competing for the contracts.<59>
But foreign companies were not the only losers: when Vietnam
expressed interest in purchasing two used 737 freighter aircraft
from an American businessman, the deal was scuttled after Commerce
Secretary Ron Brown arranged favorable financing for two new 737s
from Boeing.<60>
But the US is not the only partner of the UKUSA relationship that engages in such activity. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ordered the GCHQ to monitor the activities of international media mogul Robert Maxwell on behalf of the Bank of England.<61>
Former CSE linguist and analyst Jane Shorten claimed that she had seen
intercepts from Mexican trade representatives during the 1992-1993
NAFTA trade negotiations, as well as 1991 South Korean Foreign
Ministry intercepts dealing with the construction of three Canadian CANDU nuclear reactors for the Koreans in a $6 billion deal.<62> Shorten’s revelation prompted Canadian Deputy Prime Minister
Sheila Copps to launch a probe into the allegations after the Mexicans
lodged a protest.
But every spy agency eventually gets beat at their own game. Mike Frost relates in Spyworld how an accidental cell phone intercept in 1981 of the American Ambassador to Canada discussing a pending grain deal that the US was about to sign with China provided Canada with the American negotiating strategy for the deal. The information was used to outbid the US, resulting in a three year, $2.5 billion contract for the Canadian Wheat Board. CSE out-spooked the NSA again a year later when Canada snagged a $50 million wheat sale to Mexico.<63>
Another disturbing trend regarding the present commercial use of ECHELON is the incestuous relationship that exists between the intelligence agencies and the US corporations that develop the technology that fuels their spy systems.
Many of the companies that
receive the most important commercial intercepts – Lockheed,
Boeing, Loral, TRW and Raytheon – are actively involved in the manufacturing
and operation of many of the spy systems that comprise ECHELON. The
collusion between intelligence agencies and their contractors is
frightening in the chilling effect it has on creating any foreign or
even domestic competition.
But just as important is that it is a
gross misuse of taxpayer-financed resources and an abuse of the
intelligence agencies’ capabilities.
The Warning
While the UKUSA relationship is a product of Cold War political and military tensions, ECHELON is purely a product of the 20th Century – the century of statism.
The modern drive toward the assumption of
state power has turned legitimate national security agencies and apparati into pawns in a manipulative game where the stakes are no
less than the survival of the Constitution. The systems developed
prior to ECHELON were designed to confront the expansionist goals of
the Soviet Empire – something the West was forced out of necessity
to do.
But as Glyn Ford, European Parliament representative for
Manchester, England, and the driving force behind the European
investigation of ECHELON, has pointed out:
“The difficulty is that the technology has now become so elaborate that what was originally a small client list has become the whole world.”<64>
What began as a noble alliance to contain and defeat the forces of
communism has turned into a carte blanche to disregard the rights
and liberties of the American people and the population of the free
world.
As has been demonstrated time and again, the NSA has been
persistent in subverting not just the intent of the law in regards
to the prohibition of domestic spying, but the letter as well. The
laws that were created to constrain the intelligence agencies from
infringing on our liberties are frequently flaunted, re-interpreted
and revised according to the bidding and wishes of political
spymasters in Washington D.C. Old habits die hard, it seems.
As stated above, there is a need for such sophisticated surveillance technology. Unfortunately, the world is filled with criminals, drug lords, terrorists and dictators that threaten the peace and security of many nations. The thought that ECHELON can be used to eliminate or control these international thugs is heartening. But defenders of ECHELON argue that the rare intelligence victories over these forces of darkness and death give wholesale justification to indiscriminate surveillance of the entire world and every member of it. But more complicated issues than that remain.
The shameless and illegal targeting of political opponents, business competitors, dissidents and even Christian ministries stands as a testament that if America is to remain free, we must bind these intelligence systems and those that operate them with the heavy chains of transparency and accountability to our elected officials.
As stated above, there is a need for such sophisticated surveillance technology. Unfortunately, the world is filled with criminals, drug lords, terrorists and dictators that threaten the peace and security of many nations. The thought that ECHELON can be used to eliminate or control these international thugs is heartening. But defenders of ECHELON argue that the rare intelligence victories over these forces of darkness and death give wholesale justification to indiscriminate surveillance of the entire world and every member of it. But more complicated issues than that remain.
The shameless and illegal targeting of political opponents, business competitors, dissidents and even Christian ministries stands as a testament that if America is to remain free, we must bind these intelligence systems and those that operate them with the heavy chains of transparency and accountability to our elected officials.
But the fact that the ECHELON apparatus can be quickly turned around
on those same officials in order to maintain some advantage for the
intelligence agencies indicates that these agencies are not
presently under the control of our elected representatives.
That Congress is not aware of or able to curtail these abuses of power is a frightening harbinger of what may come here in the United States. The European Parliament has begun the debate over what ECHELON is, how it is being used and how free countries should use such a system. Congress should join that same debate with the understanding that consequences of ignoring or failing to address these issues could foster the demise of our republican form of government. Such is the threat, as Senator Frank Church warned the American people over twenty years ago.
At the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such [is] the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter.
That Congress is not aware of or able to curtail these abuses of power is a frightening harbinger of what may come here in the United States. The European Parliament has begun the debate over what ECHELON is, how it is being used and how free countries should use such a system. Congress should join that same debate with the understanding that consequences of ignoring or failing to address these issues could foster the demise of our republican form of government. Such is the threat, as Senator Frank Church warned the American people over twenty years ago.
At the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such [is] the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter.
There would be no place
to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator
ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that
the intelligence community has given the government could enable it
to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back,
because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to
the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the
reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this
technology…
I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss.
That is the abyss from which
there is no return.<65>