Perhaps I detect an element of naivete in this discussion. At any rate I'm
reposting something in this, and perhaps another post, which folks aren't
aware of. It involves national security, doesn't it ?
MichaelP
----------------------------------------


In the days of the cold war this sort of thing was justified on security
grounds. The main thing these days is not national, but commercial
security

 ----------------------------------------------------------
London Daily Telegraph  Connected Supplement 16th December 1997

A European Commission report warns that the United States has developed an
extensive spying network on European Citizens and we should all be
worried,
reports Simon Davies.

A global electronic spy network that can eavesdrop on every
telephone,email and telex communication around the world will be
officially acknowledged for the first time in a European Commission report
to be delivered this week.

The report - Assessing the Technologies of Political Control -- was com-
missioned last year by the Civil Liberties Committee of the European
Parliament. It contains details of a network of American-controlled spy
stations on British soil and around the world. that "routinely and
indiscriminately" monitors countless phone, fax and email messages.

It states: "Within Europe all email telephone and fax communications are
routinely intercepted by the United States Natiomnal 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 Yorkshire.

The report confirms for the first time the existence of a the secretive
Echelon system.

Until now evidence of such astounding technology has been patchy and
anecdotal. But the report - to be discussed on Thursday by the committee
of the office of Science and Technology Assessment in Luxembourg -
confirms that the citizens of Britain and other European states are
subject to an intensity of surveillance far in excess of that imagined by
most parlia- ments. Its findings arc certain to excite the concern of
MEPS.

"The Echelon system forms part of the UKUSA system but unlike many of the
electronic spy systems developed during the Cold War, Echelon is designed
primarily for non- military targets: governments, organizations and
businesses in virtually every country.

"The Echelon system works by indiscriminately intercepting very large
quantities of communications and then siphoning out what is valuable using
artificial intelligence aids like MEMEX to find key words".

According to the report, Echelon uses a number of national dictionaries
containing key words of interest to each country.

For more than a decade, former agents of US, British. Canadian and New
Zealand national security agencies have claimed that the monitoring of
electronic communications has become endemic throughout the world. Rumours
have circulated that new technologies have been developed which have the
capability to search most of the world's telex, fax and email networks for
"keywords". Phone calls. they claim. can be automatically analysed for key
words.

Former signals intelligence operatives have claimed that spy bases control
led by America have the ability to search nearly all data communications
for key words. They claim that Echelon automatically analyses most email
messaging for "precursor". data which assists intelligence agencies to
determine targets. According to former Canadian Security Establishment
agent Mike Frost. a voice recognition system called Oratory has been used
for some years to intercept diplomatic calls.

The driving force behind the report is Glyn Ford. Labour MEP for Greater
Manchester East. He believes the report is crucial to the future of civil
liberties in Europe.

"In the civil liberties committee we spend a great deal of time debating
issues such as free movement, immigration and drugs. Technology always
sits at the centre of these discussions.

"There are times in history when technology helps democratise, and times
when it helps centralise. This is a time of centralisation. The justice
and home affairs pillar of Europe has become more powerful without a
corresponding strengthening of civil liberties."

The report recommends a variety of measure for dealing with the increas-
ing power of the technologies of surveillance being used at Menwith Hill
and other centres. It bluntly advises: "The European Parliament should
reject proposals from the United States for making private messages via
the global communications network Internet) accessible to US intelli-
gence agencies.

The report also urges a fundamental review of the involvement of the
American NSA (National Security Agency in Europe, suggesting that the
activities be either scaled down, or become more open and accountable.

Such concerns have been privately expressed by governments and MEPS since
the Cold War, but surveillance has continued to expand. US intelligence
activity in Britain has enjoyed a steady growth throughout the past two
decades. The principal motivation for this rush of development is the US
interest in commercial espionage. In the Fifties. during the development
of the 'special relationship'. between America and Britain, one US insti-
tution was singled out for special attention.

The NSA, the world's biggest and most powerful signals intelligence organ-
isation. received approval to set up a network of spy stations throughout
Britain. "Their role was to provide military, diplomatic and economic
intelligence by intercepting communications from throughout the Northern
Hemisphere.

The NSA is one of the shadowest of the shadowy US intelligence agencies.
Until a few years ago, it existence was a secret and its charter and any
mention of its duties are still classified. However, it does have a Web
site (www.nsa.gov:8080) in which it describes itself as being responsible
for the signals intelligence and communications security activities of the
US government.

One of its bases, Menwith Hill, was to become the biggest spy station in
the world. Its ears - known as radomes - are capable of listening in to
vast chunks of the communications spectrum throughout Europe and the old
Soviet Union.

In its first decade the base sucked data from cables and microwave links
running through a nearby Post Office Tower, but the communications revolu-
tions of the Seventies and Eighties gave the base a capability that even
its architects could scarcely have been able to imagine. With the creation
of Intelsat and digital telecommunications, Menwith and other stations
developed the capability to eavesdrop on an extensive scale on fax, telex
and voice messages. Then. with the development of the Internet, electronic
mail and electronic commerce, the listening posts were able to increase
their monitoring capability to eavesdrop on an unprecedented spectrum (of
personal and business communications.

This activity has been all but ignored by Parliament. When Labour MEPS
raised questions about the activities of the NSA. the Government invoked
secrecy rules. It has been the same for 40 Years.

Glyn Ford hopes his report may be the first step in a long road to more
openness. "Some democratically elected body should surely have a right to
know at some level. At the moment that's nowhere."  =====================

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