----- Original Message ----- From: "peter coxhead" <coxhead at tasmail.com>
> Hi guys
> Some of you will remember the scandal that surfaced in Vic a year or
two ago about the National Crime Authority and spying on
environmental/ists/groups and others (even meals on wheels participants no
less
> Well this report below cites the work of Nicky Hager, the coauthor of a
book written in conjunction with our Tas TWS identity, Bob Burton
> It will be of interest to some
>
> >
> >
> > The Waihopai Valley station in Marlborough is an important
> > link in the Echelon spy network.
> >
> > Spying chain's cover blown
> >
> > NZ Herald 07.06.2001 - By ALAN PERROTT and INDEPENDENT
> >
> > One after another the shutters in Washington came down on
> > the European Union delegation as soon as they mentioned
> > Echelon.
> >
> > No one in the United States Government would admit that
> > the electronic spying system, the most powerful in the
> > world, even existed. And if it did, they made clear, they
> > would rather not go into it.
> >
> > The National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence
> > Agency, the State Department and even the Department of
> > Commerce refused to talk to the committee of members of
> > the European Parliament (MEPs) on a fact-finding trip last
> > month.
> >
> > Stonewalled wherever they turned, the MEPs left, angry and
> > frustrated, cutting short their trip.
> >
> > Now, with the European Parliament's groundbreaking report
> > into the global spy network published in Brussels, the
> > MEPs who were left out in the cold know whom to blame. Not
> > just the American authorities but the British Government,
> > they are convinced, colluded in the obstruction.
> >
> > The 108-page report, the fruit of seven months'
> > investigation by the Parliament, does nothing to dampen
> > the controversy long associated with the clandestine
> > network and raises fresh, disturbing questions.
> >
> > Echelon was set up during the Cold War by the United
> > States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to
> > collate electronic intelligence. The network has grown to
> > keep pace with the explosion in information technology.
> >
> > Today it gives 55,000 British and American operatives
> > access to data gathered by 120 spy satellites worldwide.
> > Every minute of every day, the system can process three
> > million electronic communications.
> >
> > The spy network is very much an Anglo-American show, with
> > the Americans as senior partners, run from Fort Meade in
> > Maryland, Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, and GCHQ at Cheltenham.
> > In Germany, 750 Americans operate an intercept station
> > near Bad Aibling, taken over by the US Army in 1952.
> >
> > New Zealand espionage expert and author Nicky Hager says
> > New Zealand's Waihopai surveillance facility near Blenheim
> > eavesdrops on two major satellites funnelling enormous
> > amounts of information across the Pacific, whether between
> > Asia and the Americas or between countries on Asia's
> > Pacific edge.
> >
> > This daily barrage is fed through a computer system which
> > sifts out messages containing keywords or individual names
> > and divides them between various intelligence agencies for
> > further study.
> >
> > Officers of New Zealand's largest intelligence agency, the
> > GCSB or Government Communications Security Bureau, sit in
> > Wellington checking screen after screen of communications
> > from Pacific sources.
> >
> > "The bureau has a name designed to be forgotten," says
> > Hager. "Despite a best-selling book about them, very few
> > people know they exist."
> >
> > The communications passed to the GCSB can come from any
> > Pacific nation or source south of the equator and east of
> > Papua New Guinea.
> >
> > Other data received in New Zealand, but obtained from
> > different areas, is never sighted here but sent direct to
> > Washington or Canberra.
> >
> > Hager doubts whether there is any political will in New
> > Zealand to withdraw from this alliance as it would
> > fundamentally alter our relationship with the United
> > States.
> >
> > One of Europe's main worries is the claim that Echelon
> > gathers industrial espionage from European companies for
> > American rivals.
> >
> > Boeing and McDonnell Douglas are said to have beaten
> > France to a $6 billion contract to supply Airbus jets to
> > Saudi Arabia, thanks to Echelon intercepts of faxes and
> > phone calls.
> >
> > There has also been scathing criticism of Britain - and
> > its obsession with secrecy - from its European partners
> > for siding with the "Anglo-Saxon" club rather than Europe
> > in espionage matters.
> >
> > The MEPs were alarmed to learn that their mobile phones
> > were being used to track their movements and could be
> > transformed into bugging devices.
> >
> > At least they can take some comfort from claims that the
> > network is just as capable of being used against the
> > United States.
> >
> > A former employee of Canada's security agency has claimed
> > that Canadian spies once managed to overhear the American
> > ambassador in Ottawa discussing a pending trade deal with
> > China on a mobile phone.
> >
> > The information gained was used to undercut the Americans
> > and land a $2.5 billion Chinese grain sale.
> >
> > But while the European report is revealing, the authors
> > did not vindicate all the claims made about the spy
> > system. They failed to prove conclusively that Echelon had
> > been used by the United States, or indeed Britain, for
> > commercial spying on European competitors. And its scope
> > is not as extensive as had been feared.
> >
> > But the report warned businesses and ordinary individuals
> > that they were being spied on and that users should
> > encrypt their e-mails. It said: "That a global system for
> > intercepting communications exists ... is no longer in
> > doubt. They do tap into private, civilian and corporate
> > communications."
> >
> > Nicky Hager expects increasing concern over Echelon and
> > similar networks to encourage more individuals and
> > businesses to turn to encryption, which will in turn
> > pressure communication networks to offer such a service to
> > customers.
> >
> > "Moving to encryption is a similar step to deciding to
> > start using e-mail. It's very simple, but it isn't a great
> > hassle to intelligence agencies yet because hardly anyone
> > knows about them other than the very people the United
> > States says Echelon is aimed at, such as terrorists
> > shipping plutonium."
> >
> > Hager uses an apparently unbreakable encryption system
> > which can be easily downloaded free from www.pgpi.org.
> >
> > "As long as the person you are e-mailing has the same
> > system, you simply push a button and the message can be
> > decoded in 20 seconds. To break the encryption would take
> > about 100 years and I don't think you'd be around to worry
> > about it."
> >
> > But even as the means to negate electronic surveillance
> > becomes available, Hager fears the United States is moving
> > to another level.
> >
> > The Navy's newly launched $2.5 billion Seawolf-class
> > attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter is the third of a class
> > suspected of being capable of attaching tapping devices
> > directly to the fibre-optic cables which criss-cross our
> > oceans.
> >
> > The 106.7m, 9297-tonne nuclear-powered vessel can dive to
> > a depth of 800m where it can deploy minisubs and
> > remote-controlled underwater vehicles.
> >
> > Such taps would be extremely difficult to detect and easy
> > to replace.
> >
> > But if the European Union appears powerless to do much
> > about such developments within America, the members'
> > report has pointed out that Britain's role could breach
> > the European Convention on Human Rights.
> >
> > And, as the report was being debated in Brussels, the MEPs
> > voiced their suspicion of a British hand in ensuring their
> > investigation in Washington DC went nowhere.
> >
> > Gerhard Schmid, the vice-president of the European
> > Parliament, who drafted the report for the MEP Echelon
> > committee, said: "We think perhaps it was one-half of this
> > famous Anglo-American partnership telling the people in
> > Washington not to be too open with us."
> >
> > Elly Plooij-van Gorsel, vice-chairwoman of the committee,
> > added: "The way we were treated in Washington was very
> > insulting to a senior mission. We were very surprised when
> > all these meetings began to be cancelled by officials
> > using exactly the same language.
> >
> > "The visit had been arranged by the EU mission in the US
> > and we had been told it was all right. We are very
> > concerned about the role we think the British Government
> > has played in this. There is a lot of concern it was they
> > who had told the Americans not to speak to us.
> >
> > "But we must also question the behaviour of the British.
> > When Britain held the [EU] presidency in 1997, I asked
> > about Echelon and I was told it did not exist.
> >
> > "Britain will have to decide where it wants to stand. How
> > can we have a common European Union security policy if
> > they continue with this attitude towards other member
> > states."
> >
> > The committee members did meet the oversight committee of
> > Congress and former intelligence officials and civil
> > liberties groups.
> >
> > "Not one Government official would even admit even the
> > name Echelon," said Ms Plooij-van Gorsel. "The only person
> > who did was James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA.
> > He said it was just a codename for a search engine."
> >
> > Mr Woolsey had conceded that the United States did spy on
> > European companies "but only because they bribe" to get
> > lucrative contracts.
> >
> > And although European states criticise Britain and the
> > United States, they have been busy building their own
> > electronic eavesdropping networks.
> >
> > France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Denmark all have
> > similar systems in place. But Echelon and the British
> > connection is a difficult field for British members of the
> > European Parliament.
> >
> > One MEP, Neil MacCormick, says: "Obviously, national
> > security should be protected, but the UK Government must
> > be aware of its obligation not just towards human rights
> > but member states of the European Union."
> >
> > The four-year search for the truth about Echelon began in
> > one of the more obscure outposts of the European
> > Parliament, the Scientific and Technological Options
> > Assessments unit, which keeps MEPs abreast of complicated
> > areas of new technology.
> >
> > In the 1970s the Labour MEP Glyn Ford had read a book
> > called The Technologies of Political Control. He wondered
> > whether the Parliament's researchers could lift the lid on
> > the murky world of electronic surveillance.
> >
> > Mr Ford pulled out of the race for an official position on
> > the committee after eyebrows were raised in the Labour
> > Party hierarchy.
> >
> > This week he said he did not want to pursue past agendas
> > but was looking forward.
> >
> > "Maybe you cannot prove that Echelon exists but you can
> > make a reasonable judgment. There are good reasons to
> > believe it exists and it has been abused. There may not be
> > hard evidence that it has been abused, but we want a
> > system to guarantee that it isn't."
> >
> > Mr Ford and his colleagues say the work raises fundamental
> > issues about respect for individual rights.
> >
> > But Echelon is not always the all-pervasive, powerful
> > monster sometimes portrayed.
> >
> > "Often," he says, "it just takes them so long to analyse
> > this stuff that it is useless. Maybe in three weeks, they
> > will find out that the Independent is planning to write an
> > article on Echelon today."
> >
> > ©Copyright 2001, NZ Herald
>
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