Nexus - 0606 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

ECHELON The NSA's Global Spying Network ECHELON The NSA's Global Network Spying The US National Security Agency uses the ECHELON system not only for surveillance of civilians and politicians, but also for spying on behalf of US corporations. Part 2 of 2 fundamental foundation of free societies is that when controversies arise over the assumption of power by the state, power never defaults to the government, nor are powers granted without an extraordinary, explicit and compelling public interest. As the late United States Supreme Court Justice William Brennan pointed out: The concept of military necessity is seductively broad and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil lib - erties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism: its very gravity counsels that courts be cautious when military necessity is invoked by the Government to justify a trespass on [Constitutional] rights.” Despite the necessity of confronting terrorism and the many benefits that are provided by the massive surveillance efforts embodied by ECHELON, there is a dark and danger- ous side of these activities that is concealed by the cloak of secrecy surrounding the intel- ligence operations of the United States. The discovery of domestic surveillance targeting American civilians for reasons of "unpopular" political affiliation or for no probable cause at all—in violation of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution—is regularly impeded by very elabo- rate and complex legal arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and the US Government. The guardians and caretakers of our liberties—our duly elected political representatives—give scarce attention to the activities, let alone the abuses, that occur under their watch. As pointed out below, our elected officials frequently become targets of ECHELON themselves, chilling any effort to check this unbridled power. In addition, the shift in priorities resulting from the demise of the Soviet Empire, and the necessity to justify intelligence capabilities, resulted in a redefinition of "national security interests" to include espionage committed on behalf of powerful American com- panies. This quiet collusion between political and private interests typically involves the very same companies that are involved in developing the technology that empowers ECH - ELON and the intelligence agencies. DOMESTIC AND POLITICAL SPYING When considering the use of ECHELON on American soil, the pathetic historical record of NSA and CIA domestic activities in regard to the Constitutional liberties and privacy rights of American citizens provides an excellent guidepost for what may occur now with the ECHELON system. Since the creation of the NSA by President Truman, its spying capability has frequently been used to monitor the activities of an unsuspecting public. by Patrick S. Poole © 1998/99 E-mail: pspoole@hiwaay.net Website: http://fly.hiwaay.net/ ~pspoole/echelon.html Project SHAMROCK In 1945, Project SHAMROCK was initiated to obtain copies of all telegraphic informa- tion exiting or entering the United States. With the full cooperation of RCA, ITT and Western Union (representing almost all of the telegraphic traffic in the US at the time), the NSA's predecessor and later the NSA itself were provided with daily microfilm copies of all incoming, outgoing and transiting telegraphs. This system changed dramatically when the cable companies began providing magnetic computer tapes to the agency, which enabled the agency to run all the messages through its HARVEST computer to look for E-mail: pspoole@hiwaay.net Website: http://fly.hiwaay.net/ ~pspoole/echelon.html NEXUS - 19 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 1999