ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UKUSA agreement; Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, known as AUSCANZUKUS.[1]
The system has been reported in a number of public sources, first in a New Statesman article titled Someone's Listening in 1988. Its capabilities and political implications were later investigated by a committee of the European Parliament published in 2001.[2]
In its report, the European Parliament states that the term ECHELON is used in a number of contexts, but that the evidence presented indicates that it was the name for a signals intelligence collection system. The report concludes that, on the basis of evidence presented, ECHELON was capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks and microwave links. The committee further concluded that "the technical capabilities of the system are probably not nearly as extensive as some sections of the media had assumed".[2]
Capabilities
The ability to intercept communications depends on the medium used, be it radio, satellite, microwave, cellular or fiber-optic (STOA report p. 30 ff) During World War II and through the 1950s, high frequency ("short wave") radio was widely used for military and diplomatic communication (The Codebreakers, Ch. 10, 11), and could be intercepted at great distances (STOA report p. 33). The rise of geostationary communications satellites in the 1960s presented new possibilities for intercepting international communications. The STOA report states (p. 34) "If UKUSA states operate listening stations in the relevant regions of the earth, in principle they can intercept all telephone, fax and data traffic transmitted via such satellites." Many, if not most reports on ECHELON focus on satellite interception. (e.g.[3])
The role of satellites in point-to-point voice and data communications has largely been supplanted by fiber optics. As of 2006, 99 percent of the world's long-distance voice and data traffic is carried over optical-fiber cables.[4] The 2001 EP report (p. 37) states that "the proportion of international communications accounted for by satellite links has decreased substantially over the past few years in Central Europe; it lies between 0.4 and 5%." Even in less developed parts of the world, such as Latin America, communications satellites are used largely for point-to-multipoint applications, such as video.[5] The EU report concludes (p. 11) "this means that the majority of communications cannot be intercepted by earth stations, but only by tapping cables and intercepting radio signals, something which — as the investigations carried out in connection with the report have shown — is possible only to a limited extent."
One approach is to place intercept equipment at locations where fiber optic communications are switched. For the Internet, much of the switching occurs at a relatively small number of sites. There have been reports of one such intercept site in the United States. In the past, much Internet traffic was routed through the U.S. and the UK. However this is less true at present. According to the 2001 STOA report (p. 33), "95% of intra-German Internet communications are routed via a switch in Frankfurt." Thus for a worldwide surveillance network to be comprehensive, either illegal intercept sites would be required on the territory of friendly nations or cooperation of local authorities would be needed. The STOA report points out (p. 27) "interception of private communications by foreign intelligence services is by no means confined to the US or British foreign intelligence services." U.S. intelligence maintains liaison relationships with countries all over the world.[6]
Organization
The AUSCANZUKUS intelligence community is assessed by the European Parliament to include the Signals Intelligence organisations of each of the member states viz United States National Security Agency, United Kingdom Government Communications Headquarters, Canada Communications Security Establishment, Australia Defence Signals Directorate and New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau.
The EP report concludes that it seems likely that ECHELON is a method of sorting captured signal traffic, rather than a comprehensive analysis tool.
History
Reportedly created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its East Bloc allies during the Cold War in the early sixties, today ECHELON is believed to search also for hints of terrorist plots, drug-dealers' plans, and political and diplomatic intelligence. But some critics, including the European Union committee that commissioned the EU report, claim the system is being used also for large-scale commercial theft and invasion of privacy.
While details of methods and capabilities are highly sensitive and protected by special laws (e.g. 18 USC 798), gathering signals intelligence (SIGINT) is an acknowledged mission of the U.S. National Security Agency. As of August 2006, their web site had a FAQ page on the topic,[7] which states:
NSA/CSS’s Signal Intelligence mission is to intercept and analyze foreign adversaries' communications signals, many of which are protected by codes and other complex countermeasures. We collect, process, and disseminate intelligence reports on foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements set at the highest levels of government. ... Foreign intelligence means information relating to the capabilities, intentions, and activities of foreign powers, organizations or persons.
In 2001, the STOA report (p. 19) recommended that citizens of member states routinely use cryptography in their communications to protect their privacy.[8]
Controversy
Campbell, and a New Zealand Journalist, Nicky Hager, asserted in the 1990s that the USA was exploiting ECHELON traffic for industrial espionage, rather than military and diplomatic purposes.[9] Examples include the gear-less wind turbine technology designed by the German firm Enercon[10] [11] and the speech technology developed by the Belgian firm Lernout & Hauspie. [citation needed] An article in the Baltimore Sun reported in 1995 that aerospace company Airbus lost a $6 billion contract with Saudi Arabia in 1994 after the NSA reported that Airbus officials had been bribing Saudi officials to secure the contract.[12][13]
The proposed US-only "Total Information Awareness" program relied on technology similar to that supposedly used by ECHELON, and is believed to have been intended to integrate the extensive sources it is legally permitted to survey domestically with the "taps" already supposedly compiled by ECHELON. It was canceled by the U.S. Congress in 2004. It was later discovered in 2005 that the CIA had not dismantled the program, but had simply blacklisted it as classified and funded it using CIA money allocated for such top secret operations, thereby defying Congress.[citation needed]
It has been alleged that in 2002 the Bush Administration extended the ECHELON program to domestic surveillance.[14][15][16][17]
Hardware
According to its web site the US NSA is "a high technology organization, ... on the frontiers of communications and data processing." In 2006, the Baltimore Sun reported that the NSA was at risk of electrical overload, because of insufficient internal electrical infrastructure at Fort Meade to support the amount of computer equipment being installed.[18]
While there are occasional stories speculating on the types of computers involved,[19] Jonathan Meier, in his biography, has stated of his time at the NSA that:
- "Conjecture and speculation were rampant on the [ECHELON] projects, even internally. Truthfully, very few individuals were privy to the logistics involved."
At least one company, Narus, is publicly selling systems for mass surveillance of Internet traffic and one of its systems was apparently installed in 2003 in Room 641A, allegedly an intercept station run by AT&T on behalf of the NSA.
In 1999 the Australian Senate Joint Standing Committee on Treaties was told by Professor Desmond Ball that the Pine Gap facility was used as a ground station for a satellite based interception network. The satellites are claimed to be large radio dishes between 20 and 100 meters across, parked in geostationary orbits. The original purpose of the network was to monitor the telemetry from 1970s Soviet weapons, air defense radar, communications satellites and ground based microwave communications.[20] The network is still operational and coordinated by US, British and Australian intelligence communities.[citation needed]
Name
The STOA committee stated: "It seems likely, in view of the evidence and the consistent pattern of statements from a very wide range of individuals and organisations, including American sources, that its name is in fact ECHELON, although this is a relatively minor detail." (STOA report, p. 11) The U.S. intelligence community uses many code names. See, for example, CIA cryptonym.
Margaret Newsham claims that she worked on the configuration and installation of some of the software that makes up the ECHELON system while employed at Lockheed Martin, for whom she worked from 1974 to 1984 in Sunnyvale, California, USA and in Menwith Hill, England.[21] At that time, according to Newsham, the code name ECHELON was NSA's term for the computer network itself. Lockheed called it P415. The software programs were called SILKWORTH and SIRE. A satellite named VORTEX would intercept communications. An image available on the internet of a fragment apparently torn from a job description shows Echelon listed along with several other code names.[22]
Ground stations
Some of the ground stations suspected of belonging to or participating in the ECHELON network include:
Likely satellite intercept stations
The following stations are listed in the EP report (p.54 ff) as likely to have a role in intercepting transmissions from telecommunications satellites:
- Hong Kong (since closed)
- Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station (Geraldton, Western Australia)
- Menwith Hill (Yorkshire, UK) Map
- Misawa Air Base (Japan)
- GCHQ Bude (Cornwall, UK)
- Pine Gap (Northern Territory, Australia - close to Alice Springs)
- Sabana Seca (Puerto Rico - US)
- Sugar Grove (West Virginia, US)
- Yakima (Washington, US) Map
- GCSB Waihopai (New Zealand)
- Troodos, Mt. Olympus peak (Cyprus)
Possible satellite intercept stations
The following stations are listed in the EP report (p.57 ff) as ones whose roles "cannot be clearly established":
- Agios Nikolaos (Cyprus - UK)
- Bad Aibling (Germany - US) - moved to Griesheim in 2004[citation needed]
- Buckley Air Force Base (Colorado, US)
- Fort Gordon (Georgia, US)
- Guam (Pacific Ocean, US)
- Kunia (Hawaii, US)
- Leitrim (south of Ottawa, Canada)
- Medina Annex (Texas, US)
Former ground stations
- Kabkan (Iran - US) - closed in 1979
- Nurrungar (South Australia, Australia - south of Woomera, South Australia) - closed in 1999
- Sidi Yahia central Morocco - closed 1976
See also
- ANCHORY SIGINT intercept database
- Cabinet noir
- Carnivore
- COINTELPRO
- CALEA to make clear a telecommunications carrier's duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for Law Enforcement purposes, and for other purposes
- Counterintelligence Field Activity is a US Department of Defense (DoD) agency that has legal authority to spy on Americans.
- Frenchelon
- Magic Lantern
- Mass surveillance
- Oasis
- Onyx (interception system), the Swiss "Echelon" equivalent
- Policeware
- Project MINARET
- Privacy
- Synthetic Environment for Analysis and Simulations
- Text mining
Further reading
- Bamford, James; Body of Secrets, Anchor, ISBN 0-385-49908-6; 2002
- Bamford, James; The Puzzle Palace, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-006748-5; 1983
- Concic-Kaucic, Gerhard Anna; /S/E/M/EI/ON/ /A/OR/IST/I/CON/ V, Passagen Verlag, Wien; ISBN 978-3-85165-750-0; 2007
- Hager, Nicky; Secret Power, New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network; Craig Potton Publishing, Nelson, NZ; ISBN 0-908802-35-8; 1996
- Keefe, Patrick Radden Chatter: dispatches from the secret world of global eavesdropping; Random House Publishing, New York, NY; ISBN 1-4000-6034-6; 2005
- Michael Barker. Online privacy? Surveillance of social movements on the Internet, The Change Agency, November 2005.
Sources and notes
- ^ AUSCANZUKUS Information Portal. auscannzukus.org. Retrieved on: September30, 2007.
- ^ a b "European Parliament Report on ECHELON" (PDF). 2001. Retrieved 2006-08-14.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ "Nicky Hager Appearance before the European Parliament ECHELON Committee". 2001. Retrieved 2006-07-02.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ "NSA eavesdropping: How it might work". Retrieved 2006-08-27.
{{cite web}}
: Text "CNET News.com" ignored (help) - ^ "Commercial Geostationary Satellite Transponder Markets for Latin America : Market Research Report". Retrieved 2006-08-27.
- ^ "International Cooperation". Retrieved 2006-08-27.
- ^ "SIGINT Frequently Asked Questions". Retrieved 2006-08-27.
- ^ Schmid, Gerhard (2001-07-11). "On the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system) - Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System, (2001/2098(INI))" (PDF/Word). Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
- ^ "Nicky Hager Appearance before the European Parliament ECHELON Committee". 2001. Retrieved 2006-07-02.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ Die Zeit: 40/1999 "Verrat unter Freunden" ("Treachery among friends", German), available at archiv.zeit.de
- ^ Report A5-0264/2001 of the European Parliament (English), available at European Parliament website
- ^ "BBC News". Retrieved 2006-08-27.
{{cite web}}
: Text "EUROPE" ignored (help); Text "Echelon: Big brother without a cause" ignored (help) - ^ "Interception capabilities 2000". Retrieved 2006-08-27.
- ^ "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts". New York Times. 2005-12-16. Retrieved 2006-07-02.
- ^ "NSA uses ECHELON against US citizens". The Register. 2006-12-16. Retrieved 2006-07-02.
- ^ "Posner to the Left: Get a Life". Redstate. 2005-12-22. Retrieved 2006-07-02.
- ^ "MOUNTAIN VIEWS: EAVESDROPPING REVELATIONS STUNNING". Niagara Falls Reporter. 2005-12-20. Retrieved 2006-07-02.
- ^ Gorman, Siobhan. "NSA risking electrical overload". Archived from the original on 2006-08-20. Retrieved 2006-08-06.
- ^
Mellor, Chris (15 October 2004). "Want to know the hardware behind Echelon?". Techworld.com. Retrieved 2006-05-17.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link), "Echelon is a global surveillance network set up in Cold War days to provide the US government with intelligence data about Russia. One of the main contractors is Raytheon. Lockheed Martin has been involved in writing software for it...Hutsell says the SAM systems, 'are supplied to intelligence agencies and the military though system integrators like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Zeta...'" - ^ Official Committee Hansard, JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON TREATIES, Reference: Pine Gap, MONDAY, 9 AUGUST 1999
- ^
Elkjær, Bo (November 17, 1999). "ECHELON Was My Baby". Ekstra Bladet. Retrieved 2006-05-17.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help)“Unfortunately, I can’t 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"; "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...Ekstra Bladet has Margaret Newsham’s stationing orders from the US Department of Defense. She possessed the high security classification TOP SECRET CRYPTO." - ^ "Names of ECHELON associated projects - image without any context". Retrieved 2006-08-27.
External links
- Echelon Spoofer System
- Overview from the Federation of American Scientists
- European Parliament report on ECHELON | (PDF)
- Big Brother Capabilities in an Online World. State Surveillance in the Internet (academic research), by Francisco J. Bernal
- Report to the US Congress about ECHELON, by Patrick S. Poole
- Echelon Research Resources, by Patrick S. Poole
- GlobalSecurity.org's page on ECHELON
- Echelon Watch
- Jeffrey Richelson. Desperately Seeking Signals, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 2000.