N.S.A. Project Echelon

Exposing the Global Surveillance System

Source:
CAQ
Title: "Secret Power: Exposing the Global Surveillance System"
Date: Winter 1996/1997
Author: Nicky Hager


For over 40 years, New Zealand's largest intelligence agency, the Government
Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), has been helping its Western allies to
spy on countries throughout the Pacific region. Neither the public nor the majority
of New Zealand's top elected officials had knowledge of these activities, activities
which have operated since 1948 under a secret, Cold War-era intelligence alliance
between the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (the UKUSA
agreement). But in the late 1980s, in a decision it probably regrets, the U.S. prompted
New Zealand to join a new and highly secret global intelligence system. Author Hager's
investigation into this system and his discovery of the ECHELON Dictionary has reveal-
ed one of the world's biggest, most closely held intelligence projects, one which allows
spy agencies to monitor most of the telephone, e-mail, and telex communications carried
over the world's telecommunication networks. It potentially affects every person commun-
icating between (and sometimes within) countries anywhere in the world.

The ECHELON system, designed and coordinated by the U.S. National Security Agency
(NSA) is one of the world's biggest, most closely held intelligence projects. Unlike many
of the Cold War electronic spy systems, ECHELON is designed primarily to gather
electronic transmissions from nonmilitary targets: governments, organizations, business-
es, and individuals in virtually every country. The system works by indiscriminately
intercepting very large quantities of communications and using computers to identify
and extract messages of interest from the mass of unwanted ones. Computers at each
secret station in the ECHELON network automatically search millions of messages for
pre-programmed keywords. For each message containing one of those keywords, the
computer automatically notes time and place of origin and interception, and gives the
message a four-digit code for future reference. Computers that can automatically search
through traffic for keywords have existed since at least the 1970s, but the ECHELON
system was designed by NSA to interconnect all these computers and allow the
stations to function as components of an integrated whole. Using the ECHELON
system, an agency in one country may automatically pick up information gathered
elsewhere in the system. Thus, the stations of the junior UKUSA allies function for
the NSA no differently than if they were overtly NSA-run bases located on their soil.

The exposure of ECHELON occurred after more than fifty people who work or have
worked in intelligence and related fields, concerned that the UKUSA activities had
been secret too long and were going too far, agreed to be interviewed by Hager, a
long-time researcher of spying and intelligence. Materials leaked to Hager included
precise information on where the spying is conducted, how the system works, the
system's capabilities and shortcomings, and other details such as code names.

The potential abuses of and few restraints around the use of ECHELON have
motivated other intelligence workers to come forward. In one example, a group of
"highly placed intelligence operatives" from the British Government Communications
Headquarters came forward protesting what they regarded as "gross malpractice and
negligence" within the establishments in which they operate, citing cases of GCHQ
interception of charitable organizations such as Amnesty International and Christian Aid.

Nicky Hager states: "The main thing that protects these agencies from change is their
secrecy. On the day my book [Secret Power] arrived in the bookshops, without prior
publicity, there was an all-day meeting of the intelligence bureaucrats in the prime
minister's department trying to decide if they could prevent it from being distributed.
They eventually concluded, sensibly, that the political costs were too high. It is
understandable that they were so agitated."

Student Researchers: Bryan Way, Brad Smith
Faculty Evaluator: David Van Nuys, Ph.D.

                       Hackers Ascend Upper 'Echelon'
                               by James Glave

                          3:00 a.m. 06.Oct.99.PDT
                       Mossad. Bomb. Davidian. MI5.

If the hunch of a loose-knit group of cyber-activists is correct, the above
   words will trip the keyword recognition filter on a global spy system
            partly managed by the US National Security Agency.

   The near-mythical worldwide computer spy network reportedly scans all
  email, packet traffic, telephone conversations -- and more -- around the
       world, in an effort to ferret out potential terrorist or enemy
                              communications.

          Once plucked from the electronic cloud, certain keywords
  allegedly trigger a recording of the conversation or email in question.

Privacy activists have used the words in their signature files for years as
  a running schtick, but on 21 October, a group of activists orginating on
  the "hacktivist" mailing list hope to to trip up Echelon on a much wider
                                  scale.

           "What is [Echelon] good for?" asked Linda Thompson, a
        constitutional rights attorney and chairman of the American
                            Justice Federation.

         "If you want to say we can catch criminals with it, it is
           insane that anyone should be able to snoop on anyone's
                              conversations."

         "Criminals ought to be caught after they commit a crime --
         but police are not here to invade all our privacy to catch
         that two percent [of criminal communications]," she said.

           A 1994 report by the Anti-Defamation League described
         Thompson as "an influential figure in the militia movement
             nationally." The report says the American Justice
            Federation describes itself as "a group dedicated to
         stopping the New World Order and getting the truth out to
                           the American public."

             The Anti-Defamation League says Thompson claims to
               have contact with militias in all 50 states.

            On 21 October, Thompson, along with Doug McIntosh, a
         reporter for the federation's news service, and members of
            the hacktivism mailing list community, invite anyone
         concerned about the system to append a list of intriguing
                          words to their emails.

            Specifically, they suggest the following keywords:

                FBI CIA NSA IRS ATF BATF DOD WACO RUBY RIDGE
                OKC OKLAHOMA CITY MILITIA GUN HANDGUN MILGOV
                 ASSAULT RIFLE TERRORISM BOMB DRUG HORIUCHI
                 KORESH DAVIDIAN KAHL POSSE COMITATUS RANDY
                 WEAVER VICKIE WEAVER SPECIAL FORCES LINDA
                 THOMPSON SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP SOG SOF
                  DELTA FORCE CONSTITUTION BILL OF RIGHTS
                WHITEWATER POM PARK ON METER ARKANSIDE IRAN
                  CONTRAS OLIVER NORTH VINCE FOSTER PROMIS
               MOSSAD NASA MI5 ONI CID AK47 M16 C4 MALCOLM X
               REVOLUTION CHEROKEE HILLARY BILL CLINTON GORE
                 GEORGE BUSH WACKENHUT TERRORIST TASK FORCE
                  160 SPECIAL OPS 12TH GROUP 5TH GROUP SF

            The campaign has spread around the Net and has been
            translated into German. Organizers hope "gag Echelon
          day" catches on on a global scale as a means of raising
                         awareness of the system.

          Neither the NSA, nor its UK equivalent -- the Government
            Communications Headquarters -- has admitted that the
         system exists, although its capabilities have been debated
                        in the European Parliament.

             Australia's Defense Signals Directorate, an agency
            allegedly involved in Echelon, recently admitted the
          existence of UKUSA, the agreement between five national
            communications agencies that reportedly governs the
                                  system.

         Last fall, the Washington-based civil liberties group Free
          Congress Foundation sent a detailed report on the system
               to Congress, but the system was not debated.

        The latest effort hopes to further boost public awareness of
                                the system.

           "Most people are angry about it," said Thompson. "When
          you find out it is not some science fiction movie, most
                         people will be outraged."

          But an Australian member of the activist community hopes
          that "jam Echelon day" will be about public awareness of
          technologies of political control, not about generating
                                 paranoia.

            "Public awareness should empower -- not scare people
          aware from using the Net," the activist, who identified
                        himself only as Sam, said.

           Editor's Note: This Story has been corrected. The Jam
              Echelon Day project will be held 21 October, and
         coordinated by members of the Hacktivism mailing list. The
        article had incorrectly suggested that the American Justice
           Federation had organized the event. Wired News regrets
                                the error.

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