IP: Former spy divulges ECHELON details, from Danish news articles

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>Subject: FC: Former spy divulges ECHELON details, from Danish news articles
>
>*************
>
> >Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:36:03 +0100 (CET)
> >From: Bo Elkjaer <boo@apollon.datashopper.dk>
> >To: cypherpunks@toad.com, jya@jya.com, jya@pipeline.com
> >
> >Hello
> >A couple of months ago I promised that I would have some articles
> >translated that I and my colleague Kenan Seeberg has written since june
> >about the Echelon network, the UKUSA pact and danish participation herein
> >as third party-member of the pact.
> >We have written approx. 50 articles (Something like that, anyway), and
> >have been very busy, so translation has been moving at a crawl. Anyway,
> >things should start to shape up, so the first articles should be online
> >within the next few weeks. We plan to put up the whole show on our papers
> >website soon. Pictures, interviews, documents etc. Most of it will remain
> >in danish though.
> >
> >Meanwhile, the danish parliament discussed Echelon SIGINT and surveillance
> >two weeks ago. They all agreed that danish citizens communications are
> >intercepted on a regular basis - but they also agreed that they would
> >_not_ start any examinations of the interceptions. For fear of disturbing
> >our allies, it seems.
> >
> >Copies of the debate are available online - in danish - at the parliaments
> >own website www.folketinget.dk. I will pick out links and post them later.
> >
> >On a side note the parliament agreed that strong free crypto is the only
> >means of protection against these kinds of interception. There will be a
> >hearing in Copenhagen about how strong unregulated encryption should be
> >made available to the danish people.
> >
> >No need to be too optimistic though, as there are opposing trends within
> >government on the subject of unreguleated unbreakable encryption.
> >
> >I will post all translated articles here, as I get them. They will be
> >long. Please bear with any inconveniences.
> >
> >Regards
> >Bo Elkjaer, Denmark
> >
> >
> >ECHELON WAS MY BABY
> >Ekstra Bladet meets former Echelon spy. In spite of illness and angst, she
> >now reveals how illegal political surveillance was carried out.
> >
> >by Bo Elkjær and Kenan Seeberg. Photos: Martin Lepee
> >
> >LAS VEGAS (Ekstra Bladet): ?Even though I felt bad about what we were
> >doing, I was very pleased with the professional part of my job. I don?t
> >mean to brag, but I was very good at what I did, and I actually felt like
> >Echelon was my baby.?
> >       Ekstra Bladet meets Margaret Newsham in her home in a sleepy Las
> >Vegas suburb. For obvious reasons we are omitting the name of the town
> >where Margaret Newsham is trying to lead a normal life. She has never
> >mentioned her past to her neighbors.
> >       A past in which Margaret Newsham has been in close contact with
> >the very core of the most secretive world of all worlds.
> >       Margaret Newsham helped build the electronic surveillance system
> >known as Echelon.
> >       Today she has broken off connection with the world of espionage
> >and lives in constant fear that ?certain elements? in the NSA or CIA will
> >try to silence her. As a result, she sleeps with a loaded pistol under her
> >mattress, and her best friend is Mr. Gunther - a 120-pound German shepherd
> >that was trained to be a guard and attack dog by a good friend in the
> >Nevada State Police.
> >       She sent the dog to a ?babysitter? before we arrived, since ?he
> >doesn?t let strangers come in to my house,? she says with a faint smile.
> >       Only once before has Newsham told anybody about her work as an
> >Echelon spy: during closed, top-secret hearings held by the US Congress in
> >1988. Today, Margaret breaks eleven years of silence by telling the press
> >for the very first time about her work for the most extensive espionage
> >network in the world. Margaret Newsham decided to talk with Ekstra Bladet
> >even though her doctor advised her not to meet with us. ?Since I have high
> >blood pressure, my doctor thinks it?s risky for me to talk with you, but
> >it?s a chance I?m willing to take.?
> >
> >DEATH SENTENCE
> >       Newsham has gone through hell ever since she was fired from her
> >job at Lockheed Martin where she designed programs for Echelon?s global
> >surveillance network. When asked to work on a project in 1984, she refused
> >because she believed it could harm the US government.
> >       Shortly after, Echelon?s wirepullers in the National Security
> >Agency (NSA) made sure that she was fired by Lockheed Martin. Immediately
> >afterward, she sued her former employer for wrongful dismissal and
> >contacted the internal security commission, DCAA, which arranged the
> >closed hearings.
> >       ?Ever since, I have felt like I was under so much pressure that it
> >has had a fatal influence on my health,? says Margaret Newsham, who up to
> >now has survived a seizure which left her totally paralyzed. All she had
> >left was her sense of hearing when she was admitted to the hospital.
> >       ?I could hear the doctor pronouncing my death sentence, while my
> >husband and three children stood by my side. The only thing that kept me
> >going was the thought that if I died, I would lose my case. That thought
> >was what brought me back to life.?
> >       After regaining her mobility, Newsham suffered a cardiac arrest,
> >and two years ago she underwent surgery for a malignant tumor. Today, she
> >dryly states that she is living on borrowed time, which perhaps explains
> >why she chooses to stand forward at this time.
> >
> >SPYING ON POLITICIANS
> >       ?To me, there are only two issues at stake here: right or wrong.
> >And the longer I worked on the clandestine surveillance projects, the more
> >I could see that they were not only illegal, but also unconstitutional.?
> >       Margaret Newsham is not pleased with herself for participating in
> >spying on ordinary people, politicians, interest groups and private
> >companies, which is exactly what she did for 10 years, from 1974 to 1984.
> >       Both the satellites and the computer programs were developed at
> >Lockheed?s headquarters in Sunnyvale California, and in 1977, she was
> >stationed at the largest listening post in the world at Menwith Hill,
> >England.
> >       ?On the day at Menwith Hill when I realized in earnest how utterly
> >wrong it was, I was sitting with one of the many ?translators?. He was an
> >expert in languages like Russian, Chinese and Japanese. Suddenly he asked
> >me if I wanted to listen in on a conversation taking place in the US at an
> >office in the US Senate Building. Then I clearly heard a southern American
> >dialect I thought I had heard before.?
> >       ?Who is that?? I asked the translator who told me that it was
> >Republican senator Strom Thurmond. ?Oh my gosh!? I thought. We?re not only
> >spying on other countries, but also on our own citizens. That?s when I
> >realized in earnest that what we were doing had nothing to do with
> >national security interests of the US.?
> >
> >KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
> >In all its complicated simplicity, the American intelligence agency, NSA,
> >together with intelligence agencies in England, Canada, Australia and New
> >Zealand, has established a system of satellites and computer systems that
> >can monitor by and large all electronic communication in the world: phone
> >conversations, e-mails, telexes and telefaxes. A number of other countries
> >are affiliated as third or fourth party participants, including Denmark.
> >       The fundamental concept of the system is to get access to all
> >important political movements in hostile and allied countries alike and to
> >keep an eye on all important economic movements. Knowledge is power, and
> >the NSA knows it. Furthermore, NSA?s spies function as the only primary
> >authority to supervise who receives what information and what it is used
> >for.
> >?Even then, Echelon was very big and sophisticated. As early as 1979 we
> >could track a specific person and zoom in on his phone conversation while
> >he was communicating. Since our satellites could in 1984 film a postage
> >stamp lying on the ground, it is almost impossible to imagine how
> >all-encompassing the system must be today.?
> >
> >ECHELON WAS NSA?S IDEA
> >       Who came up with the name Echelon?
> >       ?The NSA. Lockheed Martin?s alphanumeric code was P415.
> >       What did you actually do?
> >       ?Unfortunately, I can?t tell you all my duties. I am still bound
> >by professional secrecy, and I would hate to go to prison or get involved
> >in any trouble, if you know what I mean. In general, I can tell you that I
> >was responsible for compiling the various systems and programs,
> >configuring the whole thing and making it operational on main frames
> >[large computers, ed.].?
> >       Which part of the system is named Echelon?
> >       ?The computer network itself. The software programs are known as
> >SILKWORTH and SIRE, and one of the most important surveillance satellites
> >is named VORTEX. It intercepts things like phone conversations.?
> >
> >APPROVED BY THE CIA
> >       You worked as an agent for the NSA, but were employed by a private
> >company?
> >       ?Yes, it is almost impossible to tell the difference between NSA
> >agents and civilians employed by Lockheed Martin, Ford and IBM. The
> >borderlines are very vague. I had one of the highest security
> >classifications which required the approval of the CIA, the NSA, the Navy
> >and the Air Force. The approval included both a lie detector test, and an
> >expanded personal history test in which my family and acquaintances were
> >discretely checked by the security agency.?
> >       The sky darkens over the cascading neon lights of Las Vegas when
> >Margaret Newsham tells of countless infringements of security regulations
> >and about her colleague who suffered brain damage when she partipated in
> >the development of the Stealth bomber. Though Margaret Newsham is totally
> >exhausted, she also seems relieved.
> >       ?This is the first time I have ever told anyone some of the things
> >I told you today. But now I want to get Mr. Gunther soon so I feel safe
> >again. She measures her blood pressure and looks very alarmed.
> >       ?I had better go to the doctor tomorrow morning, so maybe we
> >should meet later on in the day.?
> >       When she returns with Mr. Gunther an hour later, the dog inspects
> >every room before Margaret goes in. The last thing she does before falling
> >asleep on her king size bed is to check her pistol to make sure it is
> >still loaded.
> >
> >
> >Facts:
> >Lockheed Martin is the largest supplier of munitions to the US military
> >services and to their intelligence agencies, the NSA and the CIA.
> >       During the eighties, Lockheed Martin took over LORAL Space Systems
> >and Ford Aerospace which also deliver monitoring equipment to the
> >espionage agencies. Margaret Newsham worked for the NSA through her
> >employment at Ford and Lockheed from 1974 to 1984. In 1977 and 1978,
> >Newsham was stationed at the largest listening post in the world at
> >Menwith Hill, England. She received on-the-job training at NSA
> >headquarters at Fort George Meade in Maryland, USA.
> >       Ekstra Bladet has Margaret Newsham?s stationing orders from the US
> >Department of Defense. She possessed the high security classification TOP
> >SECRET CRYPTO.
> >       According to information found by Ekstra Bladet in the Pentagon?s
> >databases, the NSA had 38,613 employees in 1995. This figure does not
> >include the many employees at private companies who work for the NSA.
> >       Ekstra Bladet has documented the existence of Echelon in a long
> >series of articles over the last months.
> >       Denmark is affiliated with the Echelon network as a third party,
> >and the most important Danish listening post is located at Aflandshage on
> >the island of Amager.
> >
> >Copyright 1999 - Ekstra Bladet - Denmark
> >
> >
> >>>Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern.<<
> >>>URL: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/index.html<<
> >>>PGP-encrypted mail welcomed and preferred.<<
>
>
> >Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:39:10 +0100 (CET)
> >From: Bo Elkjaer <boo@apollon.datashopper.dk>
> >To: cypherpunks@toad.com, jya@jya.com, jya@pipeline.com
> >Subject: INTERVIEW Pt. II: I SOLD MY LIFE TO BIG BROTHER - >
> >Part II of interview w. Margaret Newsham
> >
> >
> >I SOLD MY LIFE TO BIG BROTHER
> >"Denmark's ministers can believe whatever they want to. I know Echelon
> >exists, because I helped make the system." For the second day running,
> >former Echelon spy Margaret Newsham tells about the 'Black World' of
> >espionage - and the fatal consequences it is had on her life. Half of her
> >espionage colleagues are dead today.
> >"The surveillance was incredibly target-oriented. We were capable of
> >singling out an individual or organization and monitoring all electronic
> >communication - real time - and all the time. The person was monitored
> >without ever having a chance to discover it, and most of the information
> >was sent with lightening speed to another station using the enormous
> >digital capacity at our command. Everything took place without a search
> >warrant."
> >Was all the information forwarded to NSA headquarters at Fort George Meade
> >in Maryland?
> >"Not all of it, but quite a lot."
> >Does the system use programs that are capable of virtually scouring the
> >airwaves based on certain categories and trigger words?
> >"That's one of the ways it functions, yes. It's like an Internet search
> >engine. By restricting your search to specific numbers, persons or terms,
> >you get results that are all related to whatever you enter.
> >
> >BREACH OF SECURITY
> >Ekstra Bladet meets the former surveillance spy, Margaret Newsham, in her
> >home just outside Las Vegas. By talking to Ekstra Bladet, she chooses to
> >break her silence and tell us as much as she considers to be reasonably
> >safe. Because Newsham is still subject to the omertà of the intelligence
> >services. According to this stringent code of silence, she is not allowed
> >to reveal anything about her espionage activities for the NSA.
> >"But it is hard for me to live with the fact that I sold my life and my
> >freedom of speech to the largest intelligence service of the US
> >government." On the whole, it is difficult for Margaret Newsham to lead a
> >normal life, even though she wants to do that most of all. In 1984, she
> >was dismissed by Lockheed Martin, which built espionage equipment for NSA.
> >Ultimately, she refused to work on a project which she felt was a security
> >risk. She was 'terminated' as they called it - and she sued them for
> >wrongful dismissal.
> >
> >BILLION DOLLAR SWINDLERS
> >"I experienced security breaches almost every day both at Lockheed's
> >headquarters in Sunnyvale, California and at Menwith Hill, England.
> >Sometimes it was utterly absurd. At a barbecue party held by colleagues
> >from the department responsible for developing the 'invisible' Stealth
> >bomber, the barbecue kettle was made of the same material that made the
> >bomber invisible to hostile radar systems. Another time, somebody had
> >coffee mugs made and all of them were covered with prints of highly
> >classified Echelon stations. But they were also involved in actual
> >swindling. Lockheed Martin undercut other companies to get NSA project
> >contracts, after which they illegally transferred money and manpower to
> >meet the contract. Since they could swindle others for hundreds of
> >millions of dollars, they were capable of anything. That made them very
> >deceitful, and in my eyes, they jeopardized the security of the United
> >States Government."
> >Was the US Government informed about the clandestine projects?
> >"No. That's why we called them 'Black Programs". The government didn't
> >really know what was happening or what the many billions were actually
> >being used for. And I felt very loyal both to the government and to the
> >American Constitution, which was constantly being infringed. The world of
> >espionage was also called 'The Black World' because most of the operations
> >were carried out in secrecy, beyond any control."
> >Since her dismissal, Margaret Newsham has been under heavy pressure,
> >because her case against Lockheed Martin could mean that an open court
> >case would shed light on the NSA's 'black projects'. Among other things,
> >the case deals with swindling for more than 10 billion DKK (ca. 1.4
> >billion USD), and for the time being, her lawyer has provided her with
> >legal assistance that is the equivalent of 140 million DKK (ca. 20 million
> >USD).
> >
> >PREMATURE DEATHS
> >The case has had a fatal effect on her health. Since '84 she has had a
> >seizure that left her totally paralyzed, survived a cardiac arrest, and on
> >top of everything else is suffering from cancer. Today, she lives on
> >borrowed time and suffers from high blood pressure.
> >"It didn't help any when my husband asked for a divorce after I had
> >survived my cardiac arrest. He is chief of security at Lockheed Martin and
> >has also been under a lot of pressure. He was grossly harassed because of
> >his affiliation with me," Newsham says.
> >She lives alone now and has struggled to maintain contact with her three
> >children and six grandchildren. Today, she lives in a quiet Las Vegas
> >suburb. Not even her neighbors know about her past.
> >"NSA's activities have not only affected me, but also my former espionage
> >colleagues at Lockheed. Nearly half of the people I worked with on
> >clandestine projects are either dead or mortally ill today. For example,
> >my former boss on the Echelon project, Robert Looper, died prematurely of
> >heart failure, and Kay Nickerson, who worked on developing the Stealth
> >bomber, died of brain damage."
> >But how could half of your former colleagues die prematurely?
> >"I don't know how to explain it, but at one point we discovered that
> >Lockheed's headquarters in Sunnyvale are built on top of a highly
> >radioactive dumping ground."
> >What did they die of?
> >"Heart failure, cancer, inexplicable seizures and brain damage. Even I am
> >going to die of cancer before my time. But I have my lawyers, my doctor
> >and my children and grandchildren to support me. They are the people I am
> >fond of."
> >What gives you the courage to continue?
> >"The fact that the NSA, CIA and NRO (National Reconnaissance Organization)
> >are carrying on illegal espionage against the rest of the world. They say
> >they are doing it to catch drug criminals, gunrunners and the like. But
> >that doesn't give them the right to do what they're doing. They are
> >constantly breaking the law."
> >
> >ECHELON IN DENMARK
> >In Denmark, leading politicians and ministers deny any knowledge of
> >Echelon beyond what they read in the newspapers.
> >"Now they can read about me then. I am living proof of Echelon's
> >existence. I configured and ran a lot of Echelon's programs." Margaret
> >Newsham shows us the order that stationed her at Menwith Hill, the
> >specifications for some Echelon programs and other internal documents.
> >We found discarded computer remnants at the Aflandshage Listening Post in
> >Denmark designated "VAX RED". Does that mean anything to you?
> >"Yes, as a matter of fact it means two things. You see, I worked on VAX
> >computers myself, and they were used on the Echelon project.
> >"The color RED probably refers to the classification level. Because the
> >security system is based on the fact that only very few people have an
> >overall picture of everything that goes on. Therefore, some employees have
> >red tags, some purple, some blue and so on. That means that they are only
> >allowed to work with certain parts of the projects, i.e. the ones that are
> >classified under the same color. As a result, very few employees have a
> >complete picture of what is really going on. Since my tag had all the
> >colors, I had a good overview. I was also the one who made the back-up
> >files."
> >
> >BIG BROTHER CONTROLS US
> >Can you understand how some people find it hard to believe that a system
> >like this really exists?
> >"Yes, but it is real. We are spying on our own citizens and the rest of
> >the world - even our European allies. If I say 'Amnesty' or 'Margaret
> >Newsham', it is intercepted, analyzed, coordinated, forwarded and
> >registered - if it is of interest to the intelligence agencies. I spoke
> >with a radiologist recently, who had done exactly the same thing I had,
> >only ten years later, in 1991, under 'Operation Desert Storm'. If only I
> >could tell you everything, then you would understand that Echelon is so
> >big, it's immensity almost defies comprehension." Margaret Newsham does
> >not regret that she has been a pariah in the US intelligence community
> >since her break with the NSA in 1984. A break that cost her her husband,
> >her job and her health.
> >Is there anything you would you have done differently?
> >"Not for a second. It is important for the truth to come out. I don't
> >believe we should put up with being controlled by 'Big Brother' in the
> >future. But we put up with it now."
> >
> >EXTRA FACTS
> >For ten years, Newsham worked for the US munitions and computer firms
> >Signal Science, Ford Aerospace and Lockheed Martin.
> >They had contracts for the development and upgrading of Echelon satellites
> >and computers which the companies designed for the intelligence agency
> >NSA.
> >The NSA cooperates closely with the CIA and NRO (National Reconnaissance
> >Organization).
> >For two years, Newsham shared the responsibility for the day-to-day
> >functioning of Echelon's computer network at Menwith Hill, England.
> >In classified documents, which are in the possession of Ekstra Bladet,
> >Menwith Hill is referred to as 'the largest station in the service'.
> >Denmark participates on a third-party basis in UKUSA, an electronic
> >surveillance agreement.
> >
> >BY BO ELKJÆR AND KENAN SEEBERG
> >
> >COPYRIGHT 1999: EKSTRA BLADET - COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
> >
> >
> >>>Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern.<<
> >>>URL: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/index.html<<
> >>>PGP-encrypted mail welcomed and preferred.<<
> >
>
>
> >Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:47:41 +0100 (CET)
> >From: Bo Elkjaer <boo@apollon.datashopper.dk>
> >To: cypherpunks@toad.com, jya@jya.com, jya@pipeline.com
> >Subject: MINISTER ADMITS: Denmark participates in global surveillance -
>Sigint/Surveillance/Denmark
> >
> >Printed sept. 27. 99:
> >
> >THE MINISTER FOR THE DEFENCE ADMITS.
> >"Denmark participates in a global surveillance system," admitted the
> >Minister for the Defense Hans Hækkerup under heavy pressure.
> >As one of the first governments in the clandestine Western intelligence
> >cooperation, Hækkerup acknowledged during a joint council in the Danish
> >Parliament's Europe Committee last Friday that the FE (Intelligence Agency
> >of the Danish Armed Forces) participates in the interception of electronic
> >communication.
> >Does this occur in cooperation with the NSA, which manages the so-called
> >Echelon?
> >"I can't confirm that, but I can tell you that the FE has been
> >intercepting signals ever since the Second World War - and we're still
> >doing it."
> >Can you confirm that this takes place at Aflandshage on the island of
> >Amager?
> >"Yes, it does, and the facilities out there have been continuously
> >expanded over the years. We both collect and process information from
> >satellites. "
> >Is this cooperation in compliance with the law?
> >"Yes, it is."
> >The Minister for Defense was summoned to a joint council by parliament
> >member Keld Albrechtsen who was quite astonished by the Minister's
> >admissions. Up to now, the ministries of Defense, Justice and Research
> >have actually denied any knowledge of the controversial global
> >surveillance systems.
> >The Minister stated that such satellite systems exist and that Denmark is
> >included in them, but that this system is not called Echelon. He also
> >stated that we have the capacity to collect and exchange information with
> >the intelligence agencies of other countries.
> >Do you have any guarantee that Danish citizens are not being illegally
> >monitored and registered?
> >"No, unfortunately." He evaded the question of whether the law is obeyed
> >in regards to the cooperation with the secret services of other countries.
> >So this system provides no guarantee for the security of life and property
> >for the ordinary citizen. He also to refused to go into detail on the
> >question of whether the operations occur in cooperation with other
> >countries. Another parliament member of the Europe Committee, Knud Erik
> >Hansen, asked at the meeting if the facilities also spied on the
> >commercial satellites, i.e. the ones that transmit signals like telephone
> >conversations.
> >He unfortunately evaded that question, too, but now the Minister for
> >Justice must be brought to order so he can assure us that both private and
> >commercial communication is not being monitored illegally.
> >BY BO ELKJÆR AND KENAN SEEBERG
> >COPYRIGHT 1999: EKSTRA BLADET - COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
> >
> >
> >>>Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern.<<
> >>>URL: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/index.html<<
> >>>PGP-encrypted mail welcomed and preferred.<<
> >
>
>
> >Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:42:30 +0100 (CET)
> >From: Bo Elkjaer <boo@apollon.datashopper.dk>
> >To: cypherpunks@toad.com, jya@jya.com, jya@pipeline.com
> >Subject: THEY SPY ON ORDINARY PEOPLE - Sigint/Surveillance/Denmark
> >
> >Interview w. Duncan Campbell
> >
> >THEY SPY ON ORDINARY PEOPLE
> >"They spy on companies and interest groups," says Duncan Campbell, who has
> >looked at the listening post at Aflandshage near Copenhagen in Denmark.
> >"The facilities at Aflandshage are hardly distinguishable from the Echelon
> >installation in New Zealand."
> >Physicist and technology expert Duncan Campbell has no doubt. Denmark is
> >involved in illegal surveillance together with the other primary
> >participants in the so-called Echelon system, the US, England, Australia,
> >Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
> >"My best guess is that the facilities at Aflandshage were additionally
> >expanded shortly after the end of the Cold War. In 1990 or perhaps a
> >little later."
> >What does that mean?
> >"Well it means that Aflandshage is in any case not part of NATO's defense
> >against Russia and the other East Bloc countries like it was before.
> >Everything indicates that the large parabolic antennas and accompanying
> >buildings are used in the same way as the facilities in the other
> >countries: to intercept communication from commercial satellites that
> >transmit the phone and fax conversations of ordinary people. And to
> >forward the intercepted information."
> >
> >BREACH OF DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES
> >In addition to his physics degree, Duncan Campbell is also a journalist
> >and has closely cooperated with a group of British women who are
> >protesting against the largest listening station in the Echelon system. It
> >is located in a beautiful area on Menwith Hill near Birmingham, England.
> >With the help of cunning tricks, the women have sneaked into the base more
> >than a hundred times and removed thousands of classified documents from
> >the secretive base. With the help of these papers, and from information
> >from anonymous agents, Campbell has acquired a unique knowledge which last
> >year resulted in an extensive report on the global surveillance, ordered
> >by the European Parliament.
> >"The problem is that most democratic countries have laws that protect the
> >sanctity of private life and do not allow the lawful political activities
> >of their citizens to be monitored and registered. In order to monitor
> >someone, you must have grounds for suspicion and be authorized to do so by
> >a judge. Echelon is a total breach of these principles. A great number of
> >categories are coded into the system, and under each category there are
> >even more code words. Many of the words are used in normal daily
> >conversation. Not only the rights of ordinary people are infringed;
> >Echelon also monitors interest groups like Amnesty International,
> >Greenpeace and private companies. Several examples of industrial espionage
> >exist in which the US intelligence service has passed on information to US
> >companies that was intercepted from satellites.
> >
> >BREAKS THE LAW
> >How can you be so sure that this is possible?
> >I have seen the footage taken inside the systems while they were in
> >operation. Both from Menwith Hill, England and Waihopa, New Zealand.
> >TV-Free from New Zealand succeeded in filming in the Waihopa base, and the
> >operations room was almost completely devoid of staff. The process is
> >totally automated and operates at lightening speed. In addition, I also
> >made a documentary for which we set up a tiny parabolic antenna beside the
> >base on Menwith Hill. The information it intercepted was unbelievable
> >after we positioned it to listen in on the same satellite at which the
> >large parabolic antennas in the base are aimed."
> >Isn't it reasonable that the system has the capability to monitor
> >terrorists and the like?
> >"Sure it is. But there is all the difference in the world between
> >conventional surveillance and monitoring and this system in which the law
> >is consistently and constantly being broken by the very people who should
> >be making sure that others obey the law. They are purely and simply
> >exchanging information which is illegal for the local intelligence
> >agencies in the individual countries to collect."
> >Is it still called Echelon?
> >"The code name Echelon is only part of the entire system, and everything
> >seems to indicate that they have switched codes. Last I heard it was
> >'Magistrand'."
> >
> >BY BO ELKJÆR AND KENAN SEEBERG
> >COPYRIGHT 1999: EKSTRA BLADET - COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
> >
> >
> >>>Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern.<<
> >>>URL: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/index.html<<
> >>>PGP-encrypted mail welcomed and preferred.<<
> >
>
>
>
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