WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A European Parliament team probing a suspected U.S.-led global electronic eavesdropping system cut short a fact-finding visit on Thursday after failing to meet with U.S. intelligence chiefs.
Carlos Coelho of Portugal, chairman of a temporary committee on the so-called Echelon surveillance system, said the team was ``concerned and dismayed'' by what he described as snubs from the State Department, Commerce Department, Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency.
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield, however, said: ``We never led them to believe that a meeting with CIA officials would take place. Everything that U.S. intelligence officials would be able to discuss with a foreign delegation on this subject has already been said publicly numerous times.''
U.S. officials have never publicly confirmed the existence of Echelon, but Coelho's committee is due to publish a report at the end of this month which members say will assert proof of its existence.
``Echelon'' is the term popularly used for the surveillance network said by intelligence experts to be run by the NSA and its partners in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Public interest in the suspected eavesdropping system has grown since reports about it were written for the European Parliament alleging it was being used to help American companies steal business secrets from foreign competitors.
This is denied by the United States.
SPACE-AGE SPYING
Intelligence experts say the system relies on high-powered computers to sift through conversations, faxes and e-mails searching for keywords and other triggers. Communications that include triggers chosen by the intelligence agencies are said to be transcribed for further checks.
Delegation members said they had met House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and other members of the U.S. Congress and some officials at the Justice Department since arriving on Monday.
They decided to return home a day early on Thursday after being told there would be no meetings at the State Department and the Commerce Department's ``Advocacy Center,'' which draws on 19 U.S. government agencies to help U.S. companies win overseas contracts.
Coelho claimed the CIA and NSA -- the supersecretive Defense Department eavesdropping and code-breaking arm -- rejected meetings at the last minute ``in spite of the advanced preparations that had been made.''
NSA spokeswoman Judith Emmel said her agency had declined to meet the European delegation, adding: ``We don't comment on actual or alleged intelligence activities. We do not confirm or deny details recounted in the public domain.''
State and Commerce did not return phone calls seeking comment.
CIA Director George Tenet told the House Intelligence Committee on April 12, 2000, that charges that U.S. intelligence agencies were engaged in industrial espionage to benefit American companies were ``simply wrong.''
``I recognize that it is standard practice for some countries to use their intelligence services to conduct economic espionage but that is not the policy or practice of the United States,'' he said.