[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Thu 02/24/00 at 06:02 PM -0500):
> The mainstrem American press has finally noticed Echelon. See
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/biztech/articles/24spy.html
heh. with notices like this one, we'd be better off if they
ignored it. i'm no fan of the Rag of Record, but the journo
who scribbled this screed must be aiming to break markoff's
record for New Journalistic Lows.
Fears that the United States, Britain and other English-
speaking countries are using a cold-war eavesdropping
network to gain a commercial edge roused passions across
Europe today, even after the notion had been roundly denied
in Washington and London.
'cold war'? ancient history! those wacky euros--they don't trust
the USG?
The hubbub grew from a report prepared for the European
Parliament that found that communications intercepted by a
network called Echelon twice helped American companies gain
an advantage over Europeans.
all this hubbub over two tiny incidents!
Whatever the merits of the latest allegations, suggestions
of commercial spying have surfaced regularly in recent
years. They have infuriated many Europeans who seem to have
little trouble believing that military espionage systems
developed in the cold war would now be used to help
businesses in English-speaking nations.
credulous peasants. heh--let's sell them some dotcom stocks!
Echelon is a network of surveillance stations stitched
together in the 1970's by the United States National
Security Agency with Australia, Britain, Canada and New
Zealand to intercept select satellite communications,
according to recently declassified information in
Washington.
i mean, all the USG did was cobble together some toilet-paper tubes,
bailing wire, duct tape, and some osborne 1s, and they're getting
their codpieces bent over this? jeez...
[etc., etc.]
that the NYT would lead off its coverage of echelon with this kind
of rubbish suggests--like anyone needed a hint--that its silence
on the subject spoke volumes. just not the same kind of volumes
they were speaking, say, when they published the pentagon papers.
cheers,
t
