Echelon

[banana republican]

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. 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. 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. 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:


http://fly.hiwaay.net/~pspoole/echelon.html

[flyarm]

1. thank you..pls everyone k&r this everyone needs to see this!!

i am sending to all in dem party here in fla..and nj..and sending to all my internet groups!!

thank you!!

k&r ..fly:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :hi:

[ovidsen]

2. "60 Minutes" reported this in 2000

It may be "old news", but it's still extremely interesting:

(CBS) Everywhere in the world, every day, people's phone calls, emails and faxes are monitored by Echelon, a secret government surveillance network. No, it's not fiction straight out of George Orwell's 1984. It's reality, says former spy Mike Frost in an interview broadcast on 60 Minutes on Sunday, Feb. 27.

"It's not the world of fiction. That's the way it works. I've been there," Frost tells CBS News 60 Minutes Correspondent Steve Kroft. "I was trained by you guys," says the former Canadian intelligence agent, referring to the United States' National Security Agency.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/02/24/60minutes/main164651.shtml

It appears the "Big Brother" who is watching us has no particular political affiliation.

[formernaderite]

6. Precisely...

I've been pissed off since before Bush about the erosion of our rights. Clinton also if you recall changed the policy on wiretaps to allow "roving" wiretaps...but Echelon, I always warn people...watch what you type or speak.

[Neil Lisst]

7. alk-tay igpatin Lay

ok?

[katinmn]

3. It's well past time this was brought into the public dialogue

:kick:

[populistdriven]

4. Read "The Cuckoo's Egg" It discusses the origins of Echelon & a good read

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743411463/102-9298615-6696919?v=glance&n=283155

[rman]

5. Big Brother already is watching,

it'll just get progressively worse.

[ourbluenation]

8. How this is not a violation of civil liberties is beyond me.

Shit - I said the words anthrax and jihad on the phone last night to my sister explaining what words the super computer looks for. She told me to shut up - we have a lot of Christmasin' to do and don't need any interuptions from some over zealous NSA agents. We were just innocently discussing the issues of the day, current affiars, etc...and it kind of freaks me out that someone is "out there" listening with a net to our conversations.

[banana republican]

9. this isn't even The half of it....

I've spent 20 years working on grey/black programs for uncle sam. They can read your computer monitor from down the block if they want to. They can hear you conversations using a Lazar beam and a window to hear the vibrations. They can listen to you through mobile devices smaller than cockroaches e.r. Delay. A telephone within 6 feet of a computer allows them to monitor your screen. And GOK what they have come up with since I retired a year ago....

[politicat]

10. What type of telephone? Cordless? Wired?

I mean, a wired one makes sense, since the specific frequency of the monitor could be fed back through the phone lines, but I'd think with the prevalence of wireless phones that would be harder.

And what about VoIP?

[Al-CIAda]

11. .