Echelon is back in the news
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32586,00.html
ACLU to Spy on Echelon
by Chris Oakes
3:00 a.m. 17.Nov.1999 PST
The American Civil Liberties Union has focused its eye on an international electronic surveillance system that allegedly eyeballs regular citizens.
The civil liberties watchdog launched Echelon Watch, a site designed to prompt governmental investigation into the reality -- and the legalities -- of a global electronic surveillance system said to be code-named "Echelon."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also: Echelon 'Confirmation:' Not
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This has gone from X Files material to clear reality," said ACLU associate director Barry Steinhardt. "I think at this point it's fact that it exists."
The ACLU created and administers the site in conjunction with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Omega Foundation of Great Britain, which prepared a report on the issue to the European Parliament.
No US intelligence agency has confirmed Echelon, but Steinhardt believes there is sufficient evidence to require a congressional investigation.
"I admit that we do not know all the details," Steinhardt said. "But based on these credible reports, it is plainly very large, and very sophisticated."
The ACLU bases its position mainly on two reports commissioned by the European Parliament and a letter written by an Australian intelligence official, which confirmed aspects of an Echelon-like operation involving the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.
According to reports such as those solicited by the European Parliament, Echelon is led by the National Security Agency in the United States, in conjunction with its counterpart agencies in England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Such reports paint a picture of an internationally coordinated surveillance system that intercepts and analyzes global land-based and space-based communications networks, such as the Internet. Monitoring operations run by intelligence agencies worldwide are said to catch everyday telephone, data, cellular, fax, and email transmissions. The transmissions are then purportedly analyzed for suspect activity -- such as terrorism -- and handed off to the appropriate government.
By coordinating across national boundaries, governments can monitor each other's traffic and circumvent laws prohibiting governments from spying on their own citizens. Echelon reportedly attempts to capture satellite, microwave, cellular, and fiber-optic communications.
The latest in a trickle of what are often merely suggestions of Echelon-like operations is a patent issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office to the US National Security Agency in August for voice-recognition technology.
Steinhardt pointed out that the technology is designed to summarize voice communications for further examination.
Such technology sounds Echelon-ish -- but then again, it was issued to an intelligence-gathering agency.
That's partly why the ACLU wants to see the issue taken beyond disparate reports, theories, and rumors.
"Echelon operates inside this black box -- without judicial supervision, without public notice," Steinhardt said. "At this point what the ACLU is asking for is full disclosure of the laws under which Echelon operates -- something the NSA has refused to provide, even to Congress."
The report to the European Parliament said that the United Kingdom used the Echelon system to spy on charities, including Amnesty International and Christian Aid.
The United States has never officially acknowledged Echelon's existence. When approached to discuss Echelon-related developments, the National Security Agency repeatedly declines comment.
Representative Bob Barr (R-Georgia) earlier this year amended intelligence legislation in the House of Representatives to require US intelligence agencies to report on legal standards used in surveillance activities.
The legislation -- which targets the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Justice -- remains in a House-Senate conference committee awaiting action.
Barr is a former CIA official and US attorney who serves on the House Judiciary and Government Reform committees. He has accused the NSA of conducting a "dragnet" of communication and "invading the privacy of American citizens."
Documents posted at Echelon Watch include the fax image of a letter sent to an Australian journalist from the Office of the Director of the Australian Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), Martin Brady.
The operating rules of the Australian agency "do provide mechanisms to permit DSD to monitor and report foreign communications involving Australians in some special carefully-defined circumstances," the letter said. "DSD does cooperate with counterpart signals intelligence organizations overseas under the UK-USA relationship."
In addition to a collection of such documents related to Echelon, the new ACLU site will leverage the group's existing site traffic to encourage public discussion of Echelon's impact on civil liberties. It features links prompting visitors to urge an investigation to Congress.
"I think it's beginning to be taken seriously in Washington," Steinhardt said. "It's certainly being taken seriously in other parts of the world. I think the hearings will be the likely next step."
