Signals intelligence and human rights: the ECHELON report

[bobthedrummer]

Prepared by Duncan Campbell for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) June 9, 2000.

This link was published at Cryptome December 19, 2005 and is very educational in the context of the George W. Bush NSA/FBI spying scandal.

Any comments would be appreciated, as well as keeping this kicked.

http://cryptome.org/sigint-hr-dc.htm

[bobthedrummer]

1. It is a lengthy read but very valuable for citizens that want to

understand the background of George W. Bush's domestic spying scandal.

[loosecannon]

2. Hi Bob.

If you read the dates it is not helpful. I am new here but I want to be honest.

[bobthedrummer]

3. Yes, honesty is important-so is the historical background

contained in the link. Welcome to DU.
(edited for spelling)

[berni_mccoy]

4. Wow, I could easily spend a few hours reviewing this...

Perhaps you could put together some cliff-notes? A good summary is needed. I've been reading for about 20 minutes and what I've learned is that the U.S. created an awesome surveillance technology that was designed to intercept ALL/ANY domestic/friendly communications... and that there was fear that it could be used unlawfully against U.S. citizens. But I've barely finished the intro... there are countless pages to this doc.

[bobthedrummer]

5. To save some time perhaps selecting from the Table of Contents

would help-it is pretty chronological. I appreciate your post berni_mccoy. Readers should consider the fact that the head of EPIC ignored it at the time (June 2000) because he didn't believe such a thing could happen here in the United States of America. But it has, and every technological advancement in SIGINT may have been used domestically, hence criminally--that's one of the main points of this article.

[InkAddict]

6. Let me put this in perspective...

I knew a gentleman that was sent to Yale University at the young age of about 21, for a several month long crash course in the hardware (not a codebreaker, I don't think) behind communications systems...he served his country in New Guinea and the Phillipines and only reported back to his family on WWII that the people on those islands ate rats as big as cats and never again did he want to see or taste a coconut. This gentleman taught me the Whiffenpooh song and bits of Morse Code (LOL) before I could sing the Star-Spangled Banner, and allowed me to light his cigars.

This fellow had a long career at Ma Bell and poured over LD routings all day long...sort of an LD lineman for the country. He knew from transmission mappings where the little wires and big cables were going beneath the ground and where the transmissions flew through the air.

In light of this report, it isn't surprising, therefore, that he refused to get a color television until they were "perfected", that he refused to sign up for cable network TV programming, or make use of the Internet, let alone use VOIP, a technology that he may have had to tinker with in its infancy, long before it went mainstream. He even resisted making long distance calls to his out-of-town family except for holidays just to say hi, even though free LD was a retirees' perk. Although this gentleman loved fooling around w/short-wave radios and scanners, he never that I know of, got an FCC HAM's license to transmit --chalk it up to paranoia? Then I guess it's genetic... -- My Dad!

[bobthedrummer]

7. Kick

[bobthedrummer]

8. kick