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Grayson post Oct 11 2005, 08:19 PM
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"Within Europe, all email, telephone and fax communications are routinely inter-coped by the United States National Security Agency, transferring all target information from the European mainland ... to [The headquarter of NSA] ... a global surveillance system that stretches around the world to form a targeting system on all of the key Intelsat satellites used to convey most of the world's satellite phone[/size] calls, internet, email, faxes and telexes. ...unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the cold war, Echelon is designed for primarily non-military targets: governments, organizations and businesses in virtually every country... Five nations share the results with the US as the senior partner ... Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are very much acting as subordinate information servicers."
What is Project ECHELON?
ECHELON is the term popularly used for an automated global interception and relay system operated by the intelligence agencies in five nations: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (it is believed that ECHELON is the code name for the portion of the system that intercepts satellite-based communications). While the United States National Security Agency (NSA) takes the lead, ECHELON works in conjunction with other intelligence agencies, including the Australian Defence Signals Directorate (DSD). It is believed that ECHELON also works with Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the agencies of other allies of the United States, pursuant to various treaties.
These countries coordinate their activities pursuant to the UKUSA agreement, which dates back to 1947. The original ECHELON dates back to 1971. However, its capabilities and priorities have expanded greatly since its formation. According to reports, it is capable of intercepting and processing many types of transmissions, throughout the globe. In fact, it has been suggested that ECHELON may intercept as many as 3 billion communications everyday, including phone calls, e-mail messages, Internet downloads, satellite transmissions, and so on. The ECHELON system gathers all of these transmissions indiscriminately, then distills the information that is most heavily desired through artificial intelligence programs. Some sources have claimed that ECHELON sifts through an estimated 90 percent of all traffic that flows through the Internet.
However, the exact capabilities and goals of ECHELON remain unclear. For example, it is unknown whether ECHELON actually targets domestic communications. Also, it is apparently very difficult for ECHELON to intercept certain types of transmissions, particularly fiber communications.
How does ECHELON work?
ECHELON apparently collects data in several ways. Reports suggest it has massive ground based radio antennae to intercept satellite transmissions. In addition, some sites reputedly are tasked with tapping surface traffic. These antennae reportedly are in the United States, Italy, England, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and several other places.
Similarly, it is believed that ECHELON uses numerous satellites to catch "spillover" data from transmissions between cities. These satellites then beam the information down to processing centers on the ground. The main centers are in the United States (near Denver), England (Menwith Hill), Australia, and Germany.
According to various sources, ECHELON also routinely intercepts Internet transmissions. The organization allegedly has installed numerous "sniffer" devices. These "sniffers" collect information from data packets as they traverse the Internet via several key junctions. It also uses search software to scan for web sites that may be of interest.
Furthermore, it is believed that ECHELON has even used special underwater devices which tap into cables that carry phone calls across the seas. According to published reports, American divers were able to install surveillance devices on to the underwater cables. One of these taps was discovered in 1982, but other devices apparently continued to function undetected.
It is not known at this point whether ECHELON has been able to tap fiber optic phone cables.
Finally, if the aforementioned methods fail to garner the desired information, there is another alternative. Apparently, the nations that are involved with ECHELON also train special agents to install a variety of special data collection devices. One of these devices is reputed to be an information processing kit that is the size of a suitcase. Another such item is a sophisticated radio receiver that is as small as a credit card.
After capturing this raw data, ECHELON sifts through them using DICTIONARY. DICTIONARY is actually a special system of computers which finds pertinent information by searching for key words, addresses, etc. These search programs help pare down the voluminous quantity of transmissions which pass through the ECHELON network every day. These programs also seem to enable users to focus on any specific subject upon which information is desired.
If ECHELON is so powerful, why haven't I heard about it before?
The United States government has gone to extreme lengths to keep ECHELON a secret. To this day, the U.S. government refuses to admit that ECHELON even exists. We know it exists because both the governments of Australia (through its Defence Signals Directorate) and New Zealand have admitted to this fact. However, even with this revelation, U.S. officials have refused to comment.
This "wall of silence" is beginning to erode. The first report on ECHELON was published in 1988. In addition, besides the revelations from Australia, the Scientific and Technical Options Assessment program office (STOA) of the European Parliament commissioned two reports which describe ECHELON's activities. These reports unearthed a startling amount of evidence, which suggests that ECHELON's powers may have been underestimated. The first report, entitled "An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control," suggested that ECHELON primarily targeted civilians.
This report found that:
"The ECHELON system forms part of the UKUSA system but unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the cold war, ECHELON is designed for primarily non-military targets: governments, organisations and businesses in virtually every country. The ECHELON system works by indiscriminately intercepting very large quantities of communications and then siphoning out what is valuable using artificial intelligence aids like Memex to find key words. Five nations share the results with the US as the senior partner under the UKUSA agreement of 1948, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are very much acting as subordinate information servicers.
"Each of the five centres supply "dictionaries" to the other four of keywords, phrases, people and places to "tag" and the tagged intercept is forwarded straight to the requesting country. Whilst there is much information gathered about potential terrorists, there is a lot of economic intelligence, notably intensive monitoring of all the countries participating in the GATT negotiations. But Hager found that by far the main priorities of this system continued to be military and political intelligence applicable to their wider interests. Hager quotes from a "highly placed intelligence operatives" who spoke to the Observer in London. "We feel we can no longer remain silent regarding that which we regard to be gross malpractice and negligence within the establishment in which we operate." They gave as examples. GCHQ interception of three charities, including Amnesty International and Christian Aid. "At any time GCHQ is able to home in on their communications for a routine target request," the GCHQ source said. In the case of phone taps the procedure is known as Mantis. With telexes its called Mayfly. By keying in a code relating to third world aid, the source was able to demonstrate telex "fixes" on the three organisations. With no system of accountability, it is difficult to discover what criteria determine who is not a target."
The most recent report, known as Interception Capabilities 2000, describes ECHELON capabilities in even more elaborate detail.
The release of the report sparked accusations from the French government that the United States was using ECHELON to give American companies an advantage over rival firms.
In response, R. James Woolsey, the former head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), charged that the French government was using bribes to get lucrative deals around the world, and that U.S. surveillance networks were used simply to level the playing field.
However, experts have pointed out that Woolsey missed several key points. For example, Woolsey neglected to mention alleged instances of economic espionage (cited in Intelligence Capabilities 2000) that did not involve bribery. Furthermore, many observers expressed alarm with Woolsey's apparent assertion that isolated incidents of bribery could justify the wholesale interception of the world's communications.
The European Parliament is now considering several measures with regard to ECHELON, including a formal Committee of Enquiry and new rules on personal privacy.
In addition, an Italian government official has begun to investigate Echelon's intelligence-gathering efforts, based on the belief that the organization may be spying on European citizens in violation of Italian or international law.
The Danish Parliament also has begun an inquiry.
Events in the United States have also indicated that the "wall of silence" might not last much longer. Exercising their Constitutionally created oversight authority, members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence recently started asking questions about the legal basis for NSA's ECHELON activities. In particular, the Committee wanted to know if the communications of Americans were being intercepted and under what authority, since US law severely limits the ability of the intelligence agencies to engage in domestic surveillance. When asked about its legal authority, NSA invoked the attorney-client privilege and refused to disclose the legal standards by which ECHELON might have conducted its activities.
President Clinton then signed into law a funding bill which required the NSA to report on the legal basis for ECHELON and similar activities.
However, the subsequent report (entitled Legal Standards for the Intelligence Community in Conducting Electronic Surveillance) gave few details about ECHELON's operations and legality.
In addition, Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), who has taken the lead in Congressional efforts to ferret out the truth about ECHELON, has arranged for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee to hold oversight hearings.
Finally, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has sued the U.S. Government, hoping to obtain documents which would describe the legal standards by which ECHELON operates.
What is being done with the information that ECHELON collects?
The original purpose of ECHELON was to protect national security. That purpose continues today. For example, we know that ECHELON is gathering information on North Korea. Sources from Australia's DSD have disclosed this much because Australian officials help operate the facilities there which scan through transmissions, looking for pertinent material.
However, national security is not ECHELON's only concern. Reports have indicated that industrial espionage has become a part of ECHELON's activities. While present information seems to suggest that only high-ranking government officials have direct control over ECHELON's tasks, the information that is gained may be passed along at the discretion of these very same officials. As a result, much of this information has been given to American companies, in apparent attempts to give these companies an edge over their less knowledgeable counterparts.
In addition, there are concerns that ECHELON's actions may be used to stifle political dissent. Many of these concerns were voiced in a report commissioned by the European Parliament. What is more, there are no known safeguards to prevent such abuses of power.
Is there any evidence that ECHELON is doing anything improper or illegal with the spying resources at its disposal?
ECHELON is a highly classified operation, which is conducted with little or no oversight by national parliaments or courts. Most of what is known comes from whistleblowers and classified documents. The simple truth is that there is no way to know precisely what ECHELON is being used for.
But there is evidence, much of which is circumstantial, that ECHELON (along with its British counterpart) has been engaged in significant invasions of privacy. These alleged violations include secret surveillance of political organizations, such as Amnesty International. It has also been reported that ECHELON has engaged in industrial espionage on various private companies such as Airbus Industries and Panavia, then has passed along the information to their American competitors. It is unclear just how far ECHELON's activities have harmed private individuals.
However, the most sensational revelation was that Diana, Princess of Wales may
have come under ECHELON surveillance before she died. As reported in the Washington Post, the NSA admitted that they possessed files on the Princess, partly composed of intercepted phone conversations. While one official from the NSA claimed that the Princess was never a direct target, this disclosure seems to indicates the intrusive, yet surreptitious manner by which ECHELON operates.
What is even more disquieting is that, if these allegations are proven to be true, the NSA and its compatriot organizations may have circumvented countless laws in numerous countries. Many nations have laws in place to prevent such invasions of privacy. However, there are suspicions that ECHELON has engaged in subterfuge to avoid these legal restrictions. For example, it is rumored that nations would not use their own agents to spy on their own citizens, but assign the task to agents from other countries. In addition, as mentioned earlier, it is unclear just what legal standards ECHELON follows, if any actually exist. Thus, it is difficult to say what could prevent ECHELON from abusing its remarkable capabilities.
Is everyone else doing what ECHELON does?
Maybe not everyone else, but there are plenty of other countries that engage in the type of intelligence gathering that ECHELON performs. These countries apparently include Russia, France, Israel, India, Pakistan and many others. Indeed, the excesses of these ECHELON-like operations are rumored to be similar in form to their American equivalents, including digging up information for private companies to give them a commercial advantage.
However, it is also known that ECHELON system is the largest of its kind. What is more, its considerable powers are enhanced through the efforts of America's allies, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Other countries don't have the resources to engage in the massive garnering of information that the United States is carrying out.
Sources:
The 3rd EYE
Development of Surveillance Technology and Risk of Abuse of Economic Information (An appraisal of technologies for political control), Part 4/4: The state of the art in Communications Intelligence (COMINT) of automated processing for intelligence purposes of intercepted broadband multi-language leased or common carrier systems, and its applicability to COMINT targeting and selection, including speech recognition, Ch. 1, para. 5, PE 168.184 / Part 4/4 (April 1999). See Duncan Campbell, Interception Capabilities 2000 (April 1999) (http://www.iptvreports.mcmail.com/stoa_cover.htm).
Kevin Poulsen, Echelon Revealed, ZDTV (June 9, 1999).
Greg Lindsay, The Government Is Reading Your E-Mail, TIME DIGITAL DAILY (June 24, 1999) (Dotdash Meredith - America's Largest Digital & Print Publisher).
An Appraisal of Technologies for Political Control, at 20, PE 166.499 (January 6, 1998). See Steve Wright, An Appraisal of Technologies for Political Control (January 6, 1998) (An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control).
Letter from Martin Brady, Director, Defence Signals Directorate, to Ross Coulhart, Reporter, Nine Network Australia 2 (Mar. 16, 1999) (on file with the author); see also Calls for inquiry into spy bases, ONE NEWS New Zealand (Dec. 28, 1999).
Duncan Campbell, Somebody's listening, NEW STATESMAN, 12 August 1988, Cover, pages 10-12. See Duncan Campbell, ECHELON: NSA's Global Electronic Interception, (last visited October 12, 1999) (http://jya.com/echelon-dc.htm).
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Cary post Oct 11 2005, 09:10 PM
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Outstanding piece on Ecchelon Grayson. The other program that runs a similar "intelligence gathering" program is Carnivore.
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travellingidiot post Nov 25 2005, 10:31 PM
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Echelon is well known about here in the UK. I remember reading somewhere in a national newspaper about how to carry out an experiment to see if you are being watched. What you do is send yourself 3 e-mails, one with non-controversial info in it, like a shopping list or a friendly chat mail, one with certain key words in it, like Al-Qaeeda, terrorists, Iraq, Bin Laden, etc (you get the general idea) and one encrypted using a freely available encryption software programme, one that has 128 bit encryption. If you send these all at the same time in the order 2,3,1, then see what order they arrive back. They should come back in the order that you sent them but if they arrive 1,2,3 then you know that they ignored the clear mail, the key word one was scanned for 'intent' and the third one was decrypted and scanned before being sent on.
Go ahead and try it, are YOU being watched?
They probably routinely scan and read all forums and blogs too, which mean that they have read this by the time it reaches you, which mean that they now know you are going to try it, so will now react differently when you try it, or maybe they won't!!!
Hang on a minute while my head explodes with all the paranoia!!!
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Joesvolcano post Sep 12 2007, 01:19 PM
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I don't believe for one minute this is totally shelved, canned, cancelled - bet it will live on in some form.
QUOTE
ADVISE data-mining program cut by Homeland Security
By Burke Hansen in Austin
Published Thursday 6th September 2007 02:03 GMT
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ditching a controversial data-mining program, the Associated Press revealed (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070905/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/dhs_data_mining_6) today.
The Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement program (ADVISE), a massive data-mining system under development at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory since 2003, was capable of analyzing one billion pieces per hour of "structured" information, such as databases, and one million pieces per hour of "unstructured" information, such as intelligence reports, emails or news articles.
The program had been quietly suspended in the spring due to privacy concerns, after reports surfaced that real personal data, rather than dummy information, had been used in the testing process. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted at the time that "the ADVISE tool could misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism."
The program would have provided information to a slew of DHS agencies, including immigration, customs, border protection, biological defense and its intelligence office. The program had been temporarily halted to allow the DHS to develop stronger privacy protections for controversial program. DHS has apparently thrown in the towel on this one.
According to DHS spokesman Russ Knocke, "ADVISE is not expected to be restarted."
The report (http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtrpts/OIG_07-56_Jun07.pdf) on the program completed in June by the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) seems to have been the nail in the coffin for this particular domestic intelligence operation. The report criticized the operation for failing to provide required privacy protections, as well as for failing to take into account the needs of the DHS "components" that ultimately would be expected to pay for the program. The DHS's own Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) rejected the program in its entirety.
The DHS was cobbled together out of a variety of occasionally competing government agencies back in 2002, and the OIG report says as much about bureaucratic turf war and chaotic, failed attempts to run the government like a business as it does about the privacy implications of government data-mining. About $42m has been invested on a program that, through a combination of communication weakness and bureaucratic infighting, at times failed to obtain necessary information from the agencies or DHS "components" that were supposed to be the ultimate "customers".
The establishment of the DHS was intended to eliminate this kind of infighting, but old habits die hard. The appropriation of business terminology provides sadly comical insight into more general failings at the DHS, as its vast and ill-defined mandate led to generally confused interactions between its myriad agencies,"components" and leadership. The DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), which had the reins on this project, never developed the required "business plan," and repeatedly failed to consult with "stakeholders" and "customers" - i.e., Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the OIA, and the Customs and Border Protection Office of Strategic Trade.
Most people, of course, just want their government to work, and don't concern themselves with the minutiae of Washington politics. Mass data-mining of the type that derailed the Total Information Awareness (TIA) initiative is more unnerving than petty infighting - the behavioral algorithms pioneered by credit rating agencies, based as they are on probabilities, lead to false positives on a regular basis and touch on constitutionally protected liberties.
The root of the dilemma is that effective data-mining requires the kind of mass data aggregation that ultimately and inevitably erodes human dignity and privacy.
Although the software program at the lab has been shelved, the Knocke noted that S&T had "determined that new commercial products now offer similar functionality while costing significantly less to maintain than ADVISE." Parts of the TIA continued, of course, under other names.
Mass government data-mining is most assuredly here to stay.®
Burke Hansen, attorney at large, heads a San Francisco law office
Related stories
Gonzo a goner, but NSA surveillance here to stay (27 August 2007)
www.theregister.co.uk
NSA surveillance and the dream police (23 August 2007)
NSA surveillance and the reality-based community (17 August 2007)
US wiretap plan will leave door open for spooks and hackers (14 August 2007)
Congress approves six-month blanket wiretap warrant (6 August 2007)
Cheesed-off spooks give up on duff spy-sat (3 August 2007)
Judge ruled against NSA surveillance in US (2 August 2007)
www.theregister.co.uk
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Cary post Sep 12 2007, 03:22 PM
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Yeah, they don't let this kind of technology go. They probably improved it, so they can say they're "getting rid of" this one.
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StarLord post Sep 12 2007, 03:55 PM
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Carnivore also.
I'm with you on that Cary. You just KNOW once they put something in place on the info highway, they would never revome it.
For some reason, the term RAPTOR comes to mind when I hear about Carnivore & Eschelon.
Hey Cary, do you remember that movie "The President's Analysist" with James Colburn? The end part where you find out the largest group of spooks were the Telephone Company and all the 'representatives' sitting at their desk were all had wired in the back of their right foot?
Ah, the good old days where the directors came right out and said what they had to say, no wishy washy, mamby pamby beating around the mulberry bush...
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MajorUrsaNorte post Sep 12 2007, 05:16 PM
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It should NOT be a shock to know that every form of communication can and is monitored. The problem comes in being able to sift through the insane volume in a timely manner. Intel is only as good as its shelflife....
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Numenorean7 post Sep 25 2007, 04:06 PM
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I wonder what kind of storage hardware they use to store all the data they must be gathering.
They must have huge processing capabilities : I mean, there's A LOT of stuff being scanned "right away", at every second.
I've never heard of Carnivore before. I'll read about it.
Num7
This post has been edited by Numenorean7: Sep 25 2007, 04:09 PM
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Cary post Sep 25 2007, 04:20 PM
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Num7, If I remember correctly, the NSA computers installed at regional AT&T operations cost a couple of billion dollars each. Yeah, they have mega capacity.
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StarLord post Sep 25 2007, 06:26 PM
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NSA 'may not realize' it collected info on innocent Americans, top US spy says
(OH, And I'm supposed to find that comforting?)
Powerful supercomputers are vacuuming up so much information that logs of calls to or from innocent Americans could exist in government databases indefinitely, the nation's top intelligence official said Tuesday.
"You may not even realize it's in the database because you do lots of collection," Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell said, referring to the "inadvertent collection" of Americans' communications through a vast surveillance program instituted after 9/11.
There's More:
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smadewell post Sep 26 2007, 01:22 PM
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Anyone remember the 1979 movie WINTER KILLS? John Cerruti will be listening to our calls for decades and decades to come. So long as we have insecure asswipes running the show who fear the masses this sort of thing will go on and on and only get more invasive as time drags on. They won't be happy until they've got toilet cams watching our Verichip ass take a dump.
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> Echelon Intelligence Gathering System
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Grayson post Oct 11 2005, 08:19 PM
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"Within Europe, all email, telephone and fax communications are routinely inter-coped by the United States National Security Agency, transferring all target information from the European mainland ... to [The headquarter of NSA] ... a global surveillance system that stretches around the world to form a targeting system on all of the key Intelsat satellites used to convey most of the world's satellite phone[/size] calls, internet, email, faxes and telexes. ...unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the cold war, Echelon is designed for primarily non-military targets: governments, organizations and businesses in virtually every country... Five nations share the results with the US as the senior partner ... Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are very much acting as subordinate information servicers."
What is Project ECHELON?
ECHELON is the term popularly used for an automated global interception and relay system operated by the intelligence agencies in five nations: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (it is believed that ECHELON is the code name for the portion of the system that intercepts satellite-based communications). While the United States National Security Agency (NSA) takes the lead, ECHELON works in conjunction with other intelligence agencies, including the Australian Defence Signals Directorate (DSD). It is believed that ECHELON also works with Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the agencies of other allies of the United States, pursuant to various treaties.
These countries coordinate their activities pursuant to the UKUSA agreement, which dates back to 1947. The original ECHELON dates back to 1971. However, its capabilities and priorities have expanded greatly since its formation. According to reports, it is capable of intercepting and processing many types of transmissions, throughout the globe. In fact, it has been suggested that ECHELON may intercept as many as 3 billion communications everyday, including phone calls, e-mail messages, Internet downloads, satellite transmissions, and so on. The ECHELON system gathers all of these transmissions indiscriminately, then distills the information that is most heavily desired through artificial intelligence programs. Some sources have claimed that ECHELON sifts through an estimated 90 percent of all traffic that flows through the Internet.
However, the exact capabilities and goals of ECHELON remain unclear. For example, it is unknown whether ECHELON actually targets domestic communications. Also, it is apparently very difficult for ECHELON to intercept certain types of transmissions, particularly fiber communications.
How does ECHELON work?
ECHELON apparently collects data in several ways. Reports suggest it has massive ground based radio antennae to intercept satellite transmissions. In addition, some sites reputedly are tasked with tapping surface traffic. These antennae reportedly are in the United States, Italy, England, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and several other places.
Similarly, it is believed that ECHELON uses numerous satellites to catch "spillover" data from transmissions between cities. These satellites then beam the information down to processing centers on the ground. The main centers are in the United States (near Denver), England (Menwith Hill), Australia, and Germany.
According to various sources, ECHELON also routinely intercepts Internet transmissions. The organization allegedly has installed numerous "sniffer" devices. These "sniffers" collect information from data packets as they traverse the Internet via several key junctions. It also uses search software to scan for web sites that may be of interest.
Furthermore, it is believed that ECHELON has even used special underwater devices which tap into cables that carry phone calls across the seas. According to published reports, American divers were able to install surveillance devices on to the underwater cables. One of these taps was discovered in 1982, but other devices apparently continued to function undetected.
It is not known at this point whether ECHELON has been able to tap fiber optic phone cables.
Finally, if the aforementioned methods fail to garner the desired information, there is another alternative. Apparently, the nations that are involved with ECHELON also train special agents to install a variety of special data collection devices. One of these devices is reputed to be an information processing kit that is the size of a suitcase. Another such item is a sophisticated radio receiver that is as small as a credit card.
After capturing this raw data, ECHELON sifts through them using DICTIONARY. DICTIONARY is actually a special system of computers which finds pertinent information by searching for key words, addresses, etc. These search programs help pare down the voluminous quantity of transmissions which pass through the ECHELON network every day. These programs also seem to enable users to focus on any specific subject upon which information is desired.
If ECHELON is so powerful, why haven't I heard about it before?
The United States government has gone to extreme lengths to keep ECHELON a secret. To this day, the U.S. government refuses to admit that ECHELON even exists. We know it exists because both the governments of Australia (through its Defence Signals Directorate) and New Zealand have admitted to this fact. However, even with this revelation, U.S. officials have refused to comment.
This "wall of silence" is beginning to erode. The first report on ECHELON was published in 1988. In addition, besides the revelations from Australia, the Scientific and Technical Options Assessment program office (STOA) of the European Parliament commissioned two reports which describe ECHELON's activities. These reports unearthed a startling amount of evidence, which suggests that ECHELON's powers may have been underestimated. The first report, entitled "An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control," suggested that ECHELON primarily targeted civilians.
This report found that:
"The ECHELON system forms part of the UKUSA system but unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the cold war, ECHELON is designed for primarily non-military targets: governments, organisations and businesses in virtually every country. The ECHELON system works by indiscriminately intercepting very large quantities of communications and then siphoning out what is valuable using artificial intelligence aids like Memex to find key words. Five nations share the results with the US as the senior partner under the UKUSA agreement of 1948, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are very much acting as subordinate information servicers.
"Each of the five centres supply "dictionaries" to the other four of keywords, phrases, people and places to "tag" and the tagged intercept is forwarded straight to the requesting country. Whilst there is much information gathered about potential terrorists, there is a lot of economic intelligence, notably intensive monitoring of all the countries participating in the GATT negotiations. But Hager found that by far the main priorities of this system continued to be military and political intelligence applicable to their wider interests. Hager quotes from a "highly placed intelligence operatives" who spoke to the Observer in London. "We feel we can no longer remain silent regarding that which we regard to be gross malpractice and negligence within the establishment in which we operate." They gave as examples. GCHQ interception of three charities, including Amnesty International and Christian Aid. "At any time GCHQ is able to home in on their communications for a routine target request," the GCHQ source said. In the case of phone taps the procedure is known as Mantis. With telexes its called Mayfly. By keying in a code relating to third world aid, the source was able to demonstrate telex "fixes" on the three organisations. With no system of accountability, it is difficult to discover what criteria determine who is not a target."
The most recent report, known as Interception Capabilities 2000, describes ECHELON capabilities in even more elaborate detail.
The release of the report sparked accusations from the French government that the United States was using ECHELON to give American companies an advantage over rival firms.
In response, R. James Woolsey, the former head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), charged that the French government was using bribes to get lucrative deals around the world, and that U.S. surveillance networks were used simply to level the playing field.
However, experts have pointed out that Woolsey missed several key points. For example, Woolsey neglected to mention alleged instances of economic espionage (cited in Intelligence Capabilities 2000) that did not involve bribery. Furthermore, many observers expressed alarm with Woolsey's apparent assertion that isolated incidents of bribery could justify the wholesale interception of the world's communications.
The European Parliament is now considering several measures with regard to ECHELON, including a formal Committee of Enquiry and new rules on personal privacy.
In addition, an Italian government official has begun to investigate Echelon's intelligence-gathering efforts, based on the belief that the organization may be spying on European citizens in violation of Italian or international law.
The Danish Parliament also has begun an inquiry.
Events in the United States have also indicated that the "wall of silence" might not last much longer. Exercising their Constitutionally created oversight authority, members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence recently started asking questions about the legal basis for NSA's ECHELON activities. In particular, the Committee wanted to know if the communications of Americans were being intercepted and under what authority, since US law severely limits the ability of the intelligence agencies to engage in domestic surveillance. When asked about its legal authority, NSA invoked the attorney-client privilege and refused to disclose the legal standards by which ECHELON might have conducted its activities.
President Clinton then signed into law a funding bill which required the NSA to report on the legal basis for ECHELON and similar activities.
However, the subsequent report (entitled Legal Standards for the Intelligence Community in Conducting Electronic Surveillance) gave few details about ECHELON's operations and legality.
In addition, Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), who has taken the lead in Congressional efforts to ferret out the truth about ECHELON, has arranged for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee to hold oversight hearings.
Finally, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has sued the U.S. Government, hoping to obtain documents which would describe the legal standards by which ECHELON operates.
What is being done with the information that ECHELON collects?
The original purpose of ECHELON was to protect national security. That purpose continues today. For example, we know that ECHELON is gathering information on North Korea. Sources from Australia's DSD have disclosed this much because Australian officials help operate the facilities there which scan through transmissions, looking for pertinent material.
However, national security is not ECHELON's only concern. Reports have indicated that industrial espionage has become a part of ECHELON's activities. While present information seems to suggest that only high-ranking government officials have direct control over ECHELON's tasks, the information that is gained may be passed along at the discretion of these very same officials. As a result, much of this information has been given to American companies, in apparent attempts to give these companies an edge over their less knowledgeable counterparts.
In addition, there are concerns that ECHELON's actions may be used to stifle political dissent. Many of these concerns were voiced in a report commissioned by the European Parliament. What is more, there are no known safeguards to prevent such abuses of power.
Is there any evidence that ECHELON is doing anything improper or illegal with the spying resources at its disposal?
ECHELON is a highly classified operation, which is conducted with little or no oversight by national parliaments or courts. Most of what is known comes from whistleblowers and classified documents. The simple truth is that there is no way to know precisely what ECHELON is being used for.
But there is evidence, much of which is circumstantial, that ECHELON (along with its British counterpart) has been engaged in significant invasions of privacy. These alleged violations include secret surveillance of political organizations, such as Amnesty International. It has also been reported that ECHELON has engaged in industrial espionage on various private companies such as Airbus Industries and Panavia, then has passed along the information to their American competitors. It is unclear just how far ECHELON's activities have harmed private individuals.
However, the most sensational revelation was that Diana, Princess of Wales may
have come under ECHELON surveillance before she died. As reported in the Washington Post, the NSA admitted that they possessed files on the Princess, partly composed of intercepted phone conversations. While one official from the NSA claimed that the Princess was never a direct target, this disclosure seems to indicates the intrusive, yet surreptitious manner by which ECHELON operates.
What is even more disquieting is that, if these allegations are proven to be true, the NSA and its compatriot organizations may have circumvented countless laws in numerous countries. Many nations have laws in place to prevent such invasions of privacy. However, there are suspicions that ECHELON has engaged in subterfuge to avoid these legal restrictions. For example, it is rumored that nations would not use their own agents to spy on their own citizens, but assign the task to agents from other countries. In addition, as mentioned earlier, it is unclear just what legal standards ECHELON follows, if any actually exist. Thus, it is difficult to say what could prevent ECHELON from abusing its remarkable capabilities.
Is everyone else doing what ECHELON does?
Maybe not everyone else, but there are plenty of other countries that engage in the type of intelligence gathering that ECHELON performs. These countries apparently include Russia, France, Israel, India, Pakistan and many others. Indeed, the excesses of these ECHELON-like operations are rumored to be similar in form to their American equivalents, including digging up information for private companies to give them a commercial advantage.
However, it is also known that ECHELON system is the largest of its kind. What is more, its considerable powers are enhanced through the efforts of America's allies, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Other countries don't have the resources to engage in the massive garnering of information that the United States is carrying out.
Sources:
The 3rd EYE
Development of Surveillance Technology and Risk of Abuse of Economic Information (An appraisal of technologies for political control), Part 4/4: The state of the art in Communications Intelligence (COMINT) of automated processing for intelligence purposes of intercepted broadband multi-language leased or common carrier systems, and its applicability to COMINT targeting and selection, including speech recognition, Ch. 1, para. 5, PE 168.184 / Part 4/4 (April 1999). See Duncan Campbell, Interception Capabilities 2000 (April 1999) (http://www.iptvreports.mcmail.com/stoa_cover.htm).
Kevin Poulsen, Echelon Revealed, ZDTV (June 9, 1999).
Greg Lindsay, The Government Is Reading Your E-Mail, TIME DIGITAL DAILY (June 24, 1999) (Dotdash Meredith - America's Largest Digital & Print Publisher).
An Appraisal of Technologies for Political Control, at 20, PE 166.499 (January 6, 1998). See Steve Wright, An Appraisal of Technologies for Political Control (January 6, 1998) (An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control).
Letter from Martin Brady, Director, Defence Signals Directorate, to Ross Coulhart, Reporter, Nine Network Australia 2 (Mar. 16, 1999) (on file with the author); see also Calls for inquiry into spy bases, ONE NEWS New Zealand (Dec. 28, 1999).
Duncan Campbell, Somebody's listening, NEW STATESMAN, 12 August 1988, Cover, pages 10-12. See Duncan Campbell, ECHELON: NSA's Global Electronic Interception, (last visited October 12, 1999) (http://jya.com/echelon-dc.htm).
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Cary post Oct 11 2005, 09:10 PM
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Outstanding piece on Ecchelon Grayson. The other program that runs a similar "intelligence gathering" program is Carnivore.
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travellingidiot post Nov 25 2005, 10:31 PM
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Echelon is well known about here in the UK. I remember reading somewhere in a national newspaper about how to carry out an experiment to see if you are being watched. What you do is send yourself 3 e-mails, one with non-controversial info in it, like a shopping list or a friendly chat mail, one with certain key words in it, like Al-Qaeeda, terrorists, Iraq, Bin Laden, etc (you get the general idea) and one encrypted using a freely available encryption software programme, one that has 128 bit encryption. If you send these all at the same time in the order 2,3,1, then see what order they arrive back. They should come back in the order that you sent them but if they arrive 1,2,3 then you know that they ignored the clear mail, the key word one was scanned for 'intent' and the third one was decrypted and scanned before being sent on.
Go ahead and try it, are YOU being watched?
They probably routinely scan and read all forums and blogs too, which mean that they have read this by the time it reaches you, which mean that they now know you are going to try it, so will now react differently when you try it, or maybe they won't!!!
Hang on a minute while my head explodes with all the paranoia!!!
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Joesvolcano post Sep 12 2007, 01:19 PM
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I don't believe for one minute this is totally shelved, canned, cancelled - bet it will live on in some form.
QUOTE
ADVISE data-mining program cut by Homeland Security
By Burke Hansen in Austin
Published Thursday 6th September 2007 02:03 GMT
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ditching a controversial data-mining program, the Associated Press revealed (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070905/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/dhs_data_mining_6) today.
The Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement program (ADVISE), a massive data-mining system under development at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory since 2003, was capable of analyzing one billion pieces per hour of "structured" information, such as databases, and one million pieces per hour of "unstructured" information, such as intelligence reports, emails or news articles.
The program had been quietly suspended in the spring due to privacy concerns, after reports surfaced that real personal data, rather than dummy information, had been used in the testing process. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted at the time that "the ADVISE tool could misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism."
The program would have provided information to a slew of DHS agencies, including immigration, customs, border protection, biological defense and its intelligence office. The program had been temporarily halted to allow the DHS to develop stronger privacy protections for controversial program. DHS has apparently thrown in the towel on this one.
According to DHS spokesman Russ Knocke, "ADVISE is not expected to be restarted."
The report (http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtrpts/OIG_07-56_Jun07.pdf) on the program completed in June by the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) seems to have been the nail in the coffin for this particular domestic intelligence operation. The report criticized the operation for failing to provide required privacy protections, as well as for failing to take into account the needs of the DHS "components" that ultimately would be expected to pay for the program. The DHS's own Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) rejected the program in its entirety.
The DHS was cobbled together out of a variety of occasionally competing government agencies back in 2002, and the OIG report says as much about bureaucratic turf war and chaotic, failed attempts to run the government like a business as it does about the privacy implications of government data-mining. About $42m has been invested on a program that, through a combination of communication weakness and bureaucratic infighting, at times failed to obtain necessary information from the agencies or DHS "components" that were supposed to be the ultimate "customers".
The establishment of the DHS was intended to eliminate this kind of infighting, but old habits die hard. The appropriation of business terminology provides sadly comical insight into more general failings at the DHS, as its vast and ill-defined mandate led to generally confused interactions between its myriad agencies,"components" and leadership. The DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), which had the reins on this project, never developed the required "business plan," and repeatedly failed to consult with "stakeholders" and "customers" - i.e., Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the OIA, and the Customs and Border Protection Office of Strategic Trade.
Most people, of course, just want their government to work, and don't concern themselves with the minutiae of Washington politics. Mass data-mining of the type that derailed the Total Information Awareness (TIA) initiative is more unnerving than petty infighting - the behavioral algorithms pioneered by credit rating agencies, based as they are on probabilities, lead to false positives on a regular basis and touch on constitutionally protected liberties.
The root of the dilemma is that effective data-mining requires the kind of mass data aggregation that ultimately and inevitably erodes human dignity and privacy.
Although the software program at the lab has been shelved, the Knocke noted that S&T had "determined that new commercial products now offer similar functionality while costing significantly less to maintain than ADVISE." Parts of the TIA continued, of course, under other names.
Mass government data-mining is most assuredly here to stay.®
Burke Hansen, attorney at large, heads a San Francisco law office
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Cary post Sep 12 2007, 03:22 PM
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Yeah, they don't let this kind of technology go. They probably improved it, so they can say they're "getting rid of" this one.
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StarLord post Sep 12 2007, 03:55 PM
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Carnivore also.
I'm with you on that Cary. You just KNOW once they put something in place on the info highway, they would never revome it.
For some reason, the term RAPTOR comes to mind when I hear about Carnivore & Eschelon.
Hey Cary, do you remember that movie "The President's Analysist" with James Colburn? The end part where you find out the largest group of spooks were the Telephone Company and all the 'representatives' sitting at their desk were all had wired in the back of their right foot?
Ah, the good old days where the directors came right out and said what they had to say, no wishy washy, mamby pamby beating around the mulberry bush...
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MajorUrsaNorte post Sep 12 2007, 05:16 PM
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It should NOT be a shock to know that every form of communication can and is monitored. The problem comes in being able to sift through the insane volume in a timely manner. Intel is only as good as its shelflife....
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Numenorean7 post Sep 25 2007, 04:06 PM
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I wonder what kind of storage hardware they use to store all the data they must be gathering.
They must have huge processing capabilities : I mean, there's A LOT of stuff being scanned "right away", at every second.
I've never heard of Carnivore before. I'll read about it.
Num7
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Cary post Sep 25 2007, 04:20 PM
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Num7, If I remember correctly, the NSA computers installed at regional AT&T operations cost a couple of billion dollars each. Yeah, they have mega capacity.
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StarLord post Sep 25 2007, 06:26 PM
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NSA 'may not realize' it collected info on innocent Americans, top US spy says
(OH, And I'm supposed to find that comforting?)
Powerful supercomputers are vacuuming up so much information that logs of calls to or from innocent Americans could exist in government databases indefinitely, the nation's top intelligence official said Tuesday.
"You may not even realize it's in the database because you do lots of collection," Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell said, referring to the "inadvertent collection" of Americans' communications through a vast surveillance program instituted after 9/11.
There's More:
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smadewell post Sep 26 2007, 01:22 PM
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Anyone remember the 1979 movie WINTER KILLS? John Cerruti will be listening to our calls for decades and decades to come. So long as we have insecure asswipes running the show who fear the masses this sort of thing will go on and on and only get more invasive as time drags on. They won't be happy until they've got toilet cams watching our Verichip ass take a dump.
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