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NSAWatch Highlights
 NSA Spying on Americans is Illegal
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Echelon
From around the world:
On September 13 2003, the France 3 television network apparently broadcast a report regarding the French version of the ECHELON surveillance network. Further information is available from Cryptome.
The United Nations has launched a high-level
inquiry to find out whether United States government is secretly
spying on UN diplomats. The probe came after the Observer, a British
newspaper, published what it claimed was an email
message from a high-ranking officer in the U.S. National Security
Agency (NSA). The email said that the NSA is stepping up efforts to
conduct surveillance "particularly directed at the UN Security
Council (UNSC) members (minus US and GBR of course) for insights as
to how to membership is reacting to the on-going debate RE: Iraq, plans
to vote on any related resolutions, what related policies/ negotiating
positions they may be considering, alliances/ dependencies, etc - the
whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in
obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises."
According to the German publication Heise
Online, European politicians have done little to counteract the
effects of the global surveillance system known as ECHELON, more than
a year after the European Parliament adopted an official report
on the subject. The EP report
essentially said, among other things, that ECHELON does exist and that
counter measures are needed, including greater use of encryption.
The European Parliament has recently expressed
its concern over the lack of progress "concerning measures
to be taken to protect citizens and firms against the abuse and illegal
use of interception of communications," especially in light of
"its resolution of 5 September 2001 on the existence of a global
system for the interception of private and commercial communications
(ECHELON interception system) ... and the report of its Temporary Committee
on this subject."
Privacy experts are expressing concern that efforts to make
ECHELON more accountable are moving too slowly. Further details are
available from ZDNet
UK.
The Australian government has confirmed that its Defence Signals
Directorate intercepted private phone calls during the recent asylum-seeker
affair involving the Norwegian ship Tampa. The Directorate is one of
the reputed primary partners in the Echelon surveillance network. The
list of individuals affected by these taps reportedly includes journalists,
politicians and union members. Prime Minister John Howard has admitted
that the DSD's actions in this case were illegal. Coverage of these
revelations is available from BBC
News Online, The
Age (Melbourne) and the Australian
Daily Telegraph.
European Parliament Vice President Gerhardt Schmidt reportedly
plans to accuse the United States government of using ECHELON to conduct
industrial
espionage.
Various politicians have expressed concern
over proposals to create a European surveillance network that could
rival ECHELON. Further coverage of this debate is available in German
(Deutsch) from Heise Telepolis.
The European Parliament has adopted
a report that says, among other things, that the global surveillance
system known as Echelon does exist. The EP also held that a counter
measures are needed, including greater use of encryption.
A European Parliament investigatory committee has issued a Final
Resolution regarding possible ECHELON abuses. The voting on the resolution
is scheduled to occur in plenary session sometime in the fall of 2001.
New allegations suggest that Echelon was used to conduct widescale
surveillance on Japanese
citizens, from diplomatic posts to fishing vessels.
The Spanish
government has apparently signed a deal with the United States to
receive information collected using ECHELON.
A European committee tasked with investigating ECHELON abuses
is now set to disband
within the next few months.
On May 18, 2001, the European Parliament issued a revised Working
Document that suggests a global surveillance network does indeed exist,
and encourages Internet users and governments to adopt stronger privacy
measures, including greater user of encryption. This document is available
in PDF
and HTML
format.
A European Parliamentary committee has issued a draft report
suggesting that ECHELON does indeed exist, but questioning the system's
capabilities. This report is available in PDF
and HTML
format.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency and National Security
Agency refused
to meet with European Parliamentary committee that visited Washington
D.C. to investigate possible ECHELON abuses.
During a Mar. 29, 2001 session in the House of Commons, several
ranking British politicians discussed
UK intelligence-gathering activities (including ECHELON) and their potential
impact on civil liberties.
On March 22, 2001, a European Parliament committee on ECHELON
held a hearing regarding "Legal Affairs, Human Rights and Privacy." During this session,
several privacy advocates (including Yaman
Akdeniz of Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties UK) expressed concern
that ECHELON has violated international human rights standards.
In an article
from the French publication Liberation (dated March 2, 2001), a European
Commission official said that the United States National Security Agency
was routinely given access to Commission encryption systems. Other officials
from the European Union have since denied this report.
The Dutch government has confirmed
the existence of Echelon, after hearings before the Dutch parliament.
Background information on these developments is available from Jansen & Janssen as well as Bits
of Freedom.
A report
from a French National Assembly enquiry is recommending that the European
Union embrace encryption and other new privacy-enchancing technologies
to combat ECHELON.
The European Parliament has decided to have an inquiry
committee investigate ECHELON. Details
on how this committee will work are just now becoming available. However,
several observers have criticized
this move, saying that the new body will have little power.
France is launching a formal investigation
into possible abuse of ECHELON for industrial espionage.
Meetings
were held in Tokyo to discuss ECHELON activities in Japan.
From the United States:
New computer programs designed to help government security agents scan through and translate documents in foreign languages could be used to augment ECHELON's powers.
According to an American Free Press report, ECHELON 'will be specially programmed to keep track of any threat to [United States President George W.] Bush' as he visits London.
The United States Senate has approved a compromise
plan that will expand the ability
of U.S. government agents to use foreign intelligence surveillance laws.
Under the plan, government officials essentially can get search warrants
through a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court without having
to show that the targeted person actually has ties to a foreign government
or power. Critics charge that these powers are likely
to be abused.
Reports
indicate the state of Florida (with Federal support) is developing a
system (called the MATRIX) to gather personal data on a grand scale.
The system is somewhat similar
to the much-maligned Federal Total Informational Awareness (now Terrorism
Informational Awareness) network.
The Director of the United States National Security
Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, has suggested that his organization
may use ECHELON for domestic surveillance purposes against U.S. citizens.
He made this suggestion while testifying
before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.
In a surprising move, the U.S. Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court has released an opinion to the public, chastising the U.S. government for various "misstatements
and omissions" contained in more than 75 search warrant and wiretap
applications. The Court also held that Federal officials had engaged
in improper intelligence "information sharing and unauthorized
disseminations to criminal investigators and prosecutors," and
the procedures for such information sharing were "not reasonably
designed" to protect privacy rights. Press coverage of this move
is available from CBS
News and the Washington
Post.
A classified United States Congressional report
(dated July 2002) severely criticizes several U.S. government intelligence
organizations, including the National Security Agency. Among other things,
the report chides the NSA for its failure to explain its inner workings,
noting that the organization is either unwilling or "unable to
identify" its yearly expenditures "to any level of detail." Press coverage of this development is available from Time
magazine and the Associated
Press.
The U.S. Department of Defense is seeking to develop
a new generation of devices that may further enhance ECHELON's abilities. The list of possible programs
includes expansions of the current Automated Speaker Recognition System,
extraction tools to capture and analyze data from newer computing technologies
(such as Personal Digital Assistants), and updated facial recognition
systems. The solicitation also mentions "Through-Wall" imagers and even
revamped portable "electrodermal" lie detector matchines to be used
against passengers at various "Ports of Entry." The full DoD solicitation
document is available in PDF format.
The U.S. government has developed 2 new programs
that may enhance ECHELON's powers. "Oasis"
is designed to reduce audiovisual images into machine-readable text
for easier categorization and filtering. FLUENT
is meant to expand ECHELON's multilingual capabilities.
The "Carnivore" Internet surveillance
program, which has been deployed by the United States government, is
somewhat similar to ECHELON. Contrary to prior
assertions, a subsequent government-commissioned review panel found that Carnivore is indeed capable of collecting all communications over
the segment of the network being surveilled: "The results show that
all TCP communications on the network segment being sniffed were captured
by Carnivore." Moreover, the default configuration is to do just that:
"When turning on TCP full mode collection and not selecting any port,
the default is to collect traffic from all TCP ports."
The U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
held a hearing about the legal authority of the National Security Agency
(NSA) to conduct electronic surveillance.
- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) expressed skepticism
about this hearing.
- The hearing attracted a considerable amount of press
coverage.
The U.S. House Government Reform and Oversight
Committee may hold hearings on Echelon.
- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has issued a letter
calling for further Congressional inquiries into the workings
of this global surveillance system.
- Representative Bob Barr has issued a press release on
this subject.
- Take Action! Urge your member of
Congress to investigate Echelon.
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