Interesting People mailing list archives

IP: RE: Former spy divulges ECHELON details, from Danish news articles

From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 13:24:19 -0500

Reply-To: <sbilen () umich edu>
From: "Sven G. Bilén" <sbilen () umich edu>
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>

Dave,

I think the person posting the articles should have mentioned that the
articles are in the Danish "Ekstra Bladet", on par with the tabloid
"National Enquirer" and some of the British tabloids (they even have a "Page
9" Girl).  This puts the article in a little better frame for reading and
interpreting the "facts".

Sven G. Bilén                                             |\_-_/|
Research Fellow                                            \___/
University of Michigan                                     (. .)   --
--------------------------------------------------------ooO-(_)- /    \ ---
Space Physics Research Laboratory                           ''' |  **  |
2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143                          |  **  |
(734) 615-3568, FAX (734) 763-5567                               \    /
sbilen () umich edu    http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~sbilen    --

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ip-sub-1 () admin listbox com
[mailto:owner-ip-sub-1 () admin listbox com]On Behalf Of Dave Farber
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 1999 09:15 AM
To: ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com
Subject: IP: Former spy divulges ECHELON details, from Danish news
articles


From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: FC: Former spy divulges ECHELON details, from Danish

news articles


*************

Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:36:03 +0100 (CET)
From: Bo Elkjaer <boo () apollon datashopper dk>
To: cypherpunks () toad com, jya () jya com, jya () pipeline com

Hello
A couple of months ago I promised that I would have some articles
translated that I and my colleague Kenan Seeberg has written since june
about the Echelon network, the UKUSA pact and danish

participation herein

as third party-member of the pact.
We have written approx. 50 articles (Something like that, anyway), and
have been very busy, so translation has been moving at a crawl. Anyway,
things should start to shape up, so the first articles should be online
within the next few weeks. We plan to put up the whole show on

our papers

website soon. Pictures, interviews, documents etc. Most of it

will remain

in danish though.

Meanwhile, the danish parliament discussed Echelon SIGINT and

surveillance

two weeks ago. They all agreed that danish citizens communications are
intercepted on a regular basis - but they also agreed that they would
_not_ start any examinations of the interceptions. For fear of

disturbing

our allies, it seems.

Copies of the debate are available online - in danish - at the

parliaments

own website www.folketinget.dk. I will pick out links and post

them later.


On a side note the parliament agreed that strong free crypto

is the only

means of protection against these kinds of interception. There

will be a

hearing in Copenhagen about how strong unregulated encryption should be
made available to the danish people.

No need to be too optimistic though, as there are opposing

trends within

government on the subject of unreguleated unbreakable encryption.

I will post all translated articles here, as I get them. They will be
long. Please bear with any inconveniences.

Regards
Bo Elkjaer, Denmark


ECHELON WAS MY BABY
Ekstra Bladet meets former Echelon spy. In spite of illness

and angst, she

now reveals how illegal political surveillance was carried out.

by Bo Elkjær and Kenan Seeberg. Photos: Martin Lepee

LAS VEGAS (Ekstra Bladet): Even though I felt bad about what we were
doing, I was very pleased with the professional part of my job. I dont
mean to brag, but I was very good at what I did, and I

actually felt like

Echelon was my baby.
      Ekstra Bladet meets Margaret Newsham in her home in a sleepy Las
Vegas suburb. For obvious reasons we are omitting the name of the town
where Margaret Newsham is trying to lead a normal life. She has never
mentioned her past to her neighbors.
      A past in which Margaret Newsham has been in close contact with
the very core of the most secretive world of all worlds.
      Margaret Newsham helped build the electronic surveillance system
known as Echelon.
      Today she has broken off connection with the world of espionage
and lives in constant fear that certain elements in the NSA

or CIA will

try to silence her. As a result, she sleeps with a loaded

pistol under her

mattress, and her best friend is Mr. Gunther - a 120-pound

German shepherd

that was trained to be a guard and attack dog by a good friend in the
Nevada State Police.
      She sent the dog to a babysitter before we arrived, since he
doesnt let strangers come in to my house, she says with a

faint smile.

      Only once before has Newsham told anybody about her work as an
Echelon spy: during closed, top-secret hearings held by the US

Congress in

1988. Today, Margaret breaks eleven years of silence by

telling the press

for the very first time about her work for the most extensive espionage
network in the world. Margaret Newsham decided to talk with

Ekstra Bladet

even though her doctor advised her not to meet with us. Since

I have high

blood pressure, my doctor thinks its risky for me to talk

with you, but

its a chance Im willing to take.

DEATH SENTENCE
      Newsham has gone through hell ever since she was fired from her
job at Lockheed Martin where she designed programs for Echelons global
surveillance network. When asked to work on a project in 1984,

she refused

because she believed it could harm the US government.
      Shortly after, Echelons wirepullers in the National Security
Agency (NSA) made sure that she was fired by Lockheed Martin.

Immediately

afterward, she sued her former employer for wrongful dismissal and
contacted the internal security commission, DCAA, which arranged the
closed hearings.
      Ever since, I have felt like I was under so much

pressure that it

has had a fatal influence on my health, says Margaret

Newsham, who up to

now has survived a seizure which left her totally paralyzed.

All she had

left was her sense of hearing when she was admitted to the hospital.
      I could hear the doctor pronouncing my death sentence, while my
husband and three children stood by my side. The only thing

that kept me

going was the thought that if I died, I would lose my case.

That thought

was what brought me back to life.
      After regaining her mobility, Newsham suffered a cardiac arrest,
and two years ago she underwent surgery for a malignant tumor.

Today, she

dryly states that she is living on borrowed time, which

perhaps explains

why she chooses to stand forward at this time.

SPYING ON POLITICIANS
      To me, there are only two issues at stake here: right or wrong.
And the longer I worked on the clandestine surveillance

projects, the more

I could see that they were not only illegal, but also

unconstitutional.

      Margaret Newsham is not pleased with herself for

participating in

spying on ordinary people, politicians, interest groups and private
companies, which is exactly what she did for 10 years, from

1974 to 1984.

      Both the satellites and the computer programs were developed at
Lockheeds headquarters in Sunnyvale California, and in 1977, she was
stationed at the largest listening post in the world at Menwith Hill,
England.
      On the day at Menwith Hill when I realized in earnest

how utterly

wrong it was, I was sitting with one of the many

translators. He was an

expert in languages like Russian, Chinese and Japanese.

Suddenly he asked

me if I wanted to listen in on a conversation taking place in

the US at an

office in the US Senate Building. Then I clearly heard a

southern American

dialect I thought I had heard before.
      Who is that? I asked the translator who told me that it was
Republican senator Strom Thurmond. Oh my gosh! I thought.

Were not only

spying on other countries, but also on our own citizens. Thats when I
realized in earnest that what we were doing had nothing to do with
national security interests of the US.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
In all its complicated simplicity, the American intelligence

agency, NSA,

together with intelligence agencies in England, Canada,

Australia and New

Zealand, has established a system of satellites and computer

systems that

can monitor by and large all electronic communication in the

world: phone

conversations, e-mails, telexes and telefaxes. A number of

other countries

are affiliated as third or fourth party participants,

including Denmark.

      The fundamental concept of the system is to get access to all
important political movements in hostile and allied countries

alike and to

keep an eye on all important economic movements. Knowledge is

power, and

the NSA knows it. Furthermore, NSAs spies function as the only primary
authority to supervise who receives what information and what

it is used

for.
Even then, Echelon was very big and sophisticated. As early as 1979 we
could track a specific person and zoom in on his phone

conversation while

he was communicating. Since our satellites could in 1984 film a postage
stamp lying on the ground, it is almost impossible to imagine how
all-encompassing the system must be today.

ECHELON WAS NSAS IDEA
      Who came up with the name Echelon?
      The NSA. Lockheed Martins alphanumeric code was P415.
      What did you actually do?
      Unfortunately, I cant tell you all my duties. I am still bound
by professional secrecy, and I would hate to go to prison or

get involved

in any trouble, if you know what I mean. In general, I can

tell you that I

was responsible for compiling the various systems and programs,
configuring the whole thing and making it operational on main frames
[large computers, ed.].
      Which part of the system is named Echelon?
      The computer network itself. The software programs are known as
SILKWORTH and SIRE, and one of the most important surveillance

satellites

is named VORTEX. It intercepts things like phone conversations.

APPROVED BY THE CIA
      You worked as an agent for the NSA, but were employed

by a private

company?
      Yes, it is almost impossible to tell the difference between NSA
agents and civilians employed by Lockheed Martin, Ford and IBM. The
borderlines are very vague. I had one of the highest security
classifications which required the approval of the CIA, the

NSA, the Navy

and the Air Force. The approval included both a lie detector

test, and an

expanded personal history test in which my family and

acquaintances were

discretely checked by the security agency.
      The sky darkens over the cascading neon lights of Las Vegas when
Margaret Newsham tells of countless infringements of security

regulations

and about her colleague who suffered brain damage when she

partipated in

the development of the Stealth bomber. Though Margaret Newsham

is totally

exhausted, she also seems relieved.
      This is the first time I have ever told anyone some of

the things

I told you today. But now I want to get Mr. Gunther soon so I feel safe
again. She measures her blood pressure and looks very alarmed.
      I had better go to the doctor tomorrow morning, so maybe we
should meet later on in the day.
      When she returns with Mr. Gunther an hour later, the

dog inspects

every room before Margaret goes in. The last thing she does

before falling

asleep on her king size bed is to check her pistol to make sure it is
still loaded.


Facts:
Lockheed Martin is the largest supplier of munitions to the US military
services and to their intelligence agencies, the NSA and the CIA.
      During the eighties, Lockheed Martin took over LORAL

Space Systems

and Ford Aerospace which also deliver monitoring equipment to the
espionage agencies. Margaret Newsham worked for the NSA through her
employment at Ford and Lockheed from 1974 to 1984. In 1977 and 1978,
Newsham was stationed at the largest listening post in the world at
Menwith Hill, England. She received on-the-job training at NSA
headquarters at Fort George Meade in Maryland, USA.
      Ekstra Bladet has Margaret Newshams stationing orders

from the US

Department of Defense. She possessed the high security

classification TOP

SECRET CRYPTO.
      According to information found by Ekstra Bladet in the

Pentagons

databases, the NSA had 38,613 employees in 1995. This figure does not
include the many employees at private companies who work for the NSA.
      Ekstra Bladet has documented the existence of Echelon in a long
series of articles over the last months.
      Denmark is affiliated with the Echelon network as a third party,
and the most important Danish listening post is located at

Aflandshage on

the island of Amager.

Copyright 1999 - Ekstra Bladet - Denmark

Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern.<<
URL: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/index.html<<
PGP-encrypted mail welcomed and preferred.<<

Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:39:10 +0100 (CET)
From: Bo Elkjaer <boo () apollon datashopper dk>
To: cypherpunks () toad com, jya () jya com, jya () pipeline com
Subject: INTERVIEW Pt. II: I SOLD MY LIFE TO BIG BROTHER - >
Part II of interview w. Margaret Newsham

I SOLD MY LIFE TO BIG BROTHER
"Denmark's ministers can believe whatever they want to. I know Echelon
exists, because I helped make the system." For the second day running,
former Echelon spy Margaret Newsham tells about the 'Black World' of
espionage - and the fatal consequences it is had on her life.

Half of her

espionage colleagues are dead today.
"The surveillance was incredibly target-oriented. We were capable of
singling out an individual or organization and monitoring all

electronic

communication - real time - and all the time. The person was monitored
without ever having a chance to discover it, and most of the

information

was sent with lightening speed to another station using the enormous
digital capacity at our command. Everything took place without a search
warrant."
Was all the information forwarded to NSA headquarters at Fort

George Meade

in Maryland?
"Not all of it, but quite a lot."
Does the system use programs that are capable of virtually scouring the
airwaves based on certain categories and trigger words?
"That's one of the ways it functions, yes. It's like an Internet search
engine. By restricting your search to specific numbers,

persons or terms,

you get results that are all related to whatever you enter.

BREACH OF SECURITY
Ekstra Bladet meets the former surveillance spy, Margaret

Newsham, in her

home just outside Las Vegas. By talking to Ekstra Bladet, she

chooses to

break her silence and tell us as much as she considers to be reasonably
safe. Because Newsham is still subject to the omertà of the

intelligence

services. According to this stringent code of silence, she is

not allowed

to reveal anything about her espionage activities for the NSA.
"But it is hard for me to live with the fact that I sold my life and my
freedom of speech to the largest intelligence service of the US
government." On the whole, it is difficult for Margaret

Newsham to lead a

normal life, even though she wants to do that most of all. In 1984, she
was dismissed by Lockheed Martin, which built espionage

equipment for NSA.

Ultimately, she refused to work on a project which she felt

was a security

risk. She was 'terminated' as they called it - and she sued them for
wrongful dismissal.

BILLION DOLLAR SWINDLERS
"I experienced security breaches almost every day both at Lockheed's
headquarters in Sunnyvale, California and at Menwith Hill, England.
Sometimes it was utterly absurd. At a barbecue party held by colleagues
from the department responsible for developing the 'invisible' Stealth
bomber, the barbecue kettle was made of the same material that made the
bomber invisible to hostile radar systems. Another time, somebody had
coffee mugs made and all of them were covered with prints of highly
classified Echelon stations. But they were also involved in actual
swindling. Lockheed Martin undercut other companies to get NSA project
contracts, after which they illegally transferred money and manpower to
meet the contract. Since they could swindle others for hundreds of
millions of dollars, they were capable of anything. That made them very
deceitful, and in my eyes, they jeopardized the security of the United
States Government."
Was the US Government informed about the clandestine projects?
"No. That's why we called them 'Black Programs". The government didn't
really know what was happening or what the many billions were actually
being used for. And I felt very loyal both to the government and to the
American Constitution, which was constantly being infringed.

The world of

espionage was also called 'The Black World' because most of

the operations

were carried out in secrecy, beyond any control."
Since her dismissal, Margaret Newsham has been under heavy pressure,
because her case against Lockheed Martin could mean that an open court
case would shed light on the NSA's 'black projects'. Among

other things,

the case deals with swindling for more than 10 billion DKK (ca. 1.4
billion USD), and for the time being, her lawyer has provided her with
legal assistance that is the equivalent of 140 million DKK

(ca. 20 million

USD).

PREMATURE DEATHS
The case has had a fatal effect on her health. Since '84 she has had a
seizure that left her totally paralyzed, survived a cardiac

arrest, and on

top of everything else is suffering from cancer. Today, she lives on
borrowed time and suffers from high blood pressure.
"It didn't help any when my husband asked for a divorce after I had
survived my cardiac arrest. He is chief of security at

Lockheed Martin and

has also been under a lot of pressure. He was grossly harassed

because of

his affiliation with me," Newsham says.
She lives alone now and has struggled to maintain contact with

her three

children and six grandchildren. Today, she lives in a quiet Las Vegas
suburb. Not even her neighbors know about her past.
"NSA's activities have not only affected me, but also my

former espionage

colleagues at Lockheed. Nearly half of the people I worked with on
clandestine projects are either dead or mortally ill today.

For example,

my former boss on the Echelon project, Robert Looper, died

prematurely of

heart failure, and Kay Nickerson, who worked on developing the Stealth
bomber, died of brain damage."
But how could half of your former colleagues die prematurely?
"I don't know how to explain it, but at one point we discovered that
Lockheed's headquarters in Sunnyvale are built on top of a highly
radioactive dumping ground."
What did they die of?
"Heart failure, cancer, inexplicable seizures and brain

damage. Even I am

going to die of cancer before my time. But I have my lawyers, my doctor
and my children and grandchildren to support me. They are the

people I am

fond of."
What gives you the courage to continue?
"The fact that the NSA, CIA and NRO (National Reconnaissance

Organization)

are carrying on illegal espionage against the rest of the

world. They say

they are doing it to catch drug criminals, gunrunners and the like. But
that doesn't give them the right to do what they're doing. They are
constantly breaking the law."

ECHELON IN DENMARK
In Denmark, leading politicians and ministers deny any knowledge of
Echelon beyond what they read in the newspapers.
"Now they can read about me then. I am living proof of Echelon's
existence. I configured and ran a lot of Echelon's programs." Margaret
Newsham shows us the order that stationed her at Menwith Hill, the
specifications for some Echelon programs and other internal documents.
We found discarded computer remnants at the Aflandshage

Listening Post in

Denmark designated "VAX RED". Does that mean anything to you?
"Yes, as a matter of fact it means two things. You see, I worked on VAX
computers myself, and they were used on the Echelon project.
"The color RED probably refers to the classification level. Because the
security system is based on the fact that only very few people have an
overall picture of everything that goes on. Therefore, some

employees have

red tags, some purple, some blue and so on. That means that

they are only

allowed to work with certain parts of the projects, i.e. the

ones that are

classified under the same color. As a result, very few employees have a
complete picture of what is really going on. Since my tag had all the
colors, I had a good overview. I was also the one who made the back-up
files."

BIG BROTHER CONTROLS US
Can you understand how some people find it hard to believe

that a system

like this really exists?
"Yes, but it is real. We are spying on our own citizens and the rest of
the world - even our European allies. If I say 'Amnesty' or 'Margaret
Newsham', it is intercepted, analyzed, coordinated, forwarded and
registered - if it is of interest to the intelligence agencies. I spoke
with a radiologist recently, who had done exactly the same thing I had,
only ten years later, in 1991, under 'Operation Desert Storm'.

If only I

could tell you everything, then you would understand that Echelon is so
big, it's immensity almost defies comprehension." Margaret Newsham does
not regret that she has been a pariah in the US intelligence community
since her break with the NSA in 1984. A break that cost her

her husband,

her job and her health.
Is there anything you would you have done differently?
"Not for a second. It is important for the truth to come out. I don't
believe we should put up with being controlled by 'Big Brother' in the
future. But we put up with it now."

EXTRA FACTS
For ten years, Newsham worked for the US munitions and computer firms
Signal Science, Ford Aerospace and Lockheed Martin.
They had contracts for the development and upgrading of

Echelon satellites

and computers which the companies designed for the intelligence agency
NSA.
The NSA cooperates closely with the CIA and NRO (National

Reconnaissance

Organization).
For two years, Newsham shared the responsibility for the day-to-day
functioning of Echelon's computer network at Menwith Hill, England.
In classified documents, which are in the possession of Ekstra Bladet,
Menwith Hill is referred to as 'the largest station in the service'.
Denmark participates on a third-party basis in UKUSA, an electronic
surveillance agreement.

BY BO ELKJÆR AND KENAN SEEBERG

COPYRIGHT 1999: EKSTRA BLADET - COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern.<<
URL: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/index.html<<
PGP-encrypted mail welcomed and preferred.<<

Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:47:41 +0100 (CET)
From: Bo Elkjaer <boo () apollon datashopper dk>
To: cypherpunks () toad com, jya () jya com, jya () pipeline com
Subject: MINISTER ADMITS: Denmark participates in global surveillance -

Sigint/Surveillance/Denmark


Printed sept. 27. 99:

THE MINISTER FOR THE DEFENCE ADMITS.
"Denmark participates in a global surveillance system," admitted the
Minister for the Defense Hans Hækkerup under heavy pressure.
As one of the first governments in the clandestine Western intelligence
cooperation, Hækkerup acknowledged during a joint council in the Danish
Parliament's Europe Committee last Friday that the FE

(Intelligence Agency

of the Danish Armed Forces) participates in the interception

of electronic

communication.
Does this occur in cooperation with the NSA, which manages the

so-called

Echelon?
"I can't confirm that, but I can tell you that the FE has been
intercepting signals ever since the Second World War - and we're still
doing it."
Can you confirm that this takes place at Aflandshage on the island of
Amager?
"Yes, it does, and the facilities out there have been continuously
expanded over the years. We both collect and process information from
satellites. "
Is this cooperation in compliance with the law?
"Yes, it is."
The Minister for Defense was summoned to a joint council by parliament
member Keld Albrechtsen who was quite astonished by the Minister's
admissions. Up to now, the ministries of Defense, Justice and Research
have actually denied any knowledge of the controversial global
surveillance systems.
The Minister stated that such satellite systems exist and that

Denmark is

included in them, but that this system is not called Echelon. He also
stated that we have the capacity to collect and exchange

information with

the intelligence agencies of other countries.
Do you have any guarantee that Danish citizens are not being illegally
monitored and registered?
"No, unfortunately." He evaded the question of whether the law

is obeyed

in regards to the cooperation with the secret services of

other countries.

So this system provides no guarantee for the security of life

and property

for the ordinary citizen. He also to refused to go into detail on the
question of whether the operations occur in cooperation with other
countries. Another parliament member of the Europe Committee, Knud Erik
Hansen, asked at the meeting if the facilities also spied on the
commercial satellites, i.e. the ones that transmit signals

like telephone

conversations.
He unfortunately evaded that question, too, but now the Minister for
Justice must be brought to order so he can assure us that both

private and

commercial communication is not being monitored illegally.
BY BO ELKJÆR AND KENAN SEEBERG
COPYRIGHT 1999: EKSTRA BLADET - COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern.<<
URL: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/index.html<<
PGP-encrypted mail welcomed and preferred.<<

Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:42:30 +0100 (CET)
From: Bo Elkjaer <boo () apollon datashopper dk>
To: cypherpunks () toad com, jya () jya com, jya () pipeline com
Subject: THEY SPY ON ORDINARY PEOPLE - Sigint/Surveillance/Denmark

Interview w. Duncan Campbell

THEY SPY ON ORDINARY PEOPLE
"They spy on companies and interest groups," says Duncan

Campbell, who has

looked at the listening post at Aflandshage near Copenhagen in Denmark.
"The facilities at Aflandshage are hardly distinguishable from

the Echelon

installation in New Zealand."
Physicist and technology expert Duncan Campbell has no doubt.

Denmark is

involved in illegal surveillance together with the other primary
participants in the so-called Echelon system, the US, England,

Australia,

Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
"My best guess is that the facilities at Aflandshage were additionally
expanded shortly after the end of the Cold War. In 1990 or perhaps a
little later."
What does that mean?
"Well it means that Aflandshage is in any case not part of

NATO's defense

against Russia and the other East Bloc countries like it was before.
Everything indicates that the large parabolic antennas and accompanying
buildings are used in the same way as the facilities in the other
countries: to intercept communication from commercial satellites that
transmit the phone and fax conversations of ordinary people. And to
forward the intercepted information."

BREACH OF DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES
In addition to his physics degree, Duncan Campbell is also a journalist
and has closely cooperated with a group of British women who are
protesting against the largest listening station in the

Echelon system. It

is located in a beautiful area on Menwith Hill near

Birmingham, England.

With the help of cunning tricks, the women have sneaked into

the base more

than a hundred times and removed thousands of classified documents from
the secretive base. With the help of these papers, and from information
from anonymous agents, Campbell has acquired a unique

knowledge which last

year resulted in an extensive report on the global

surveillance, ordered

by the European Parliament.
"The problem is that most democratic countries have laws that

protect the

sanctity of private life and do not allow the lawful political

activities

of their citizens to be monitored and registered. In order to monitor
someone, you must have grounds for suspicion and be authorized

to do so by

a judge. Echelon is a total breach of these principles. A

great number of

categories are coded into the system, and under each category there are
even more code words. Many of the words are used in normal daily
conversation. Not only the rights of ordinary people are infringed;
Echelon also monitors interest groups like Amnesty International,
Greenpeace and private companies. Several examples of

industrial espionage

exist in which the US intelligence service has passed on

information to US

companies that was intercepted from satellites.

BREAKS THE LAW
How can you be so sure that this is possible?
I have seen the footage taken inside the systems while they were in
operation. Both from Menwith Hill, England and Waihopa, New Zealand.
TV-Free from New Zealand succeeded in filming in the Waihopa

base, and the

operations room was almost completely devoid of staff. The process is
totally automated and operates at lightening speed. In addition, I also
made a documentary for which we set up a tiny parabolic

antenna beside the

base on Menwith Hill. The information it intercepted was unbelievable
after we positioned it to listen in on the same satellite at which the
large parabolic antennas in the base are aimed."
Isn't it reasonable that the system has the capability to monitor
terrorists and the like?
"Sure it is. But there is all the difference in the world between
conventional surveillance and monitoring and this system in

which the law

is consistently and constantly being broken by the very people

who should

be making sure that others obey the law. They are purely and simply
exchanging information which is illegal for the local intelligence
agencies in the individual countries to collect."
Is it still called Echelon?
"The code name Echelon is only part of the entire system, and

everything

seems to indicate that they have switched codes. Last I heard it was
'Magistrand'."

BY BO ELKJÆR AND KENAN SEEBERG
COPYRIGHT 1999: EKSTRA BLADET - COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern.<<
URL: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/index.html<<
PGP-encrypted mail welcomed and preferred.<<




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IP: RE: Former spy divulges ECHELON details, from Danish news articles Dave Farber (Dec 23)