-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- NATIONAL SECURITY = LOST RIGHTS 3-5-00 Author: Doug Fiedor NATIONAL SECURITY = LOST RIGHTS As long term readers of this publication know, the National Security Agency has been bugging our communications for nearly fifty years. Lately, in the computer/satellite age, they have gotten so good at it they can monitor everything and anything they goes by wire or is transmitted via radio waves -- even your home wireless baby monitors and the kid's walkie-talkies. NSA is Maryland's largest employer, with well over 30,000 employees. But, only part of their system is there. The network includes 120 satellites and stations located in a number of different countries around the world. According to reports, such as those presented in the European Parliament, Echelon works with its counterpart agencies in England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It also has many other listening stations. Most interesting to us in the United States are the large ones in Canada and Mexico. Because, these "system" partner governments then monitor each other's traffic to circumvent laws prohibiting governments from spying on their own citizens. That's right. Our personal communications are being spied on by the governments of Canada and Mexico, and to a lesser extent by the governments of England, Australia and New Zealand. These governments then pipe the information to NSA headquarters in Maryland for analysis and dissemination to other federal agencies. Oh sure, NSA's defenders say it strictly adheres to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which prohibits an agency from deliberately eavesdropping on American citizens, either in the U.S. or overseas. They're supposed to have probable cause and to get a search warrant to do that legally. So, they have agents of a foreign government commit the domestic espionage for them. That gives them plausible denial and they can then report to Congress that they do not illegally spy on American citizens. That's the story that's leaked out, anyway. Officially, they will not even admit that the Echelon program exists. Congress cannot get any information. However, remember the Senate hearings on communist Chinese campaign money laundering? Therein, it came out that workers in the Chinese Embassy in Washington were overheard discussing the illegal funds from the Chinese government. Communist China was laundering illegal money into Congressional campaign funds and some Members of Congress had taken the money. NSA passed the information on to the FBI, and the FBI warned the Members of Congress who were accepting the dirty money. Then, for the most part, it was all hushed up. The Congress critters were not charged with any wrongdoing because the government did not want to expose its means of collecting the information. Generally, that is about as much as recent news accounts are telling us. There is, of course, a lot more to this story. Many in the European Community are a bit upset with our spying techniques. The Clinton administration said that the spook shops will start doing business spying, and so they have. A few months ago, London's "Electronic Telegraph" reported that U.S. spy satellites are stealing the secrets of German businesses. Security experts in Germany have uncovered evidence of a big American industrial espionage operation in Europe using satellite listening posts in both Britain and Germany. "German business is thought to suffer annual losses of at least £7 billion through stolen inventions and development projects. With Europe already locked in a trade war with its American ally over bananas, Germany's high-tech industry wants its government to back a counter- offensive. The main centers used for satellite tapping of millions of confidential company telephone calls, fax and e-mail messages are believed to be terrestrial listening posts run by the American National Security Agency (NSA) at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and Bad Aibling, Bavaria, with the backing of the American government." Industrial espionage is becoming increasingly aggressive. Secrets are being siphoned off to an extent never experienced until now, said Horst Teltschik, a senior BMW board member and a former security adviser to Helmut Kohl. He is currently trying to coordinate a German business response to the spying problem, the Telegraph reported. To make things easier for the spooks, they wrote a back door into the popular Lotus Notes business software. The Swedish government found it. Rumors are that Microsoft was also talked into adding bugging channels in the new Windows software. Anyway, when the European Union first learned of Echelon a few years ago, they became a bit upset and called on our government to explain. Washington sent over a few representatives from our FBI and spook agencies and they "talked." Well, apparently we cut them in on the electronic spy business and the EU formed their own Echelon, called ENFOPOL. <http://www.fipr.org/polarch/enfopol19.html> So, it will soon be mandatory in Europe that the government(s) have easy access to all communications. In most cases, no search warrant will be required. Also busy in the international spy business is an international organization led by the FBI. Apparently a secret organization, ILETS (International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar), is working on building backdoors into all sorts of modern communications equipment -- including the Internet and satellite communications systems. No word on how the FBI got approval for an unconstitutional general search warrant, but we trust that the FBI would not dare do such a thing without the necessary court approval. Right? Sure. Now comes communist China, to the detriment of the rest of the world. The world learned of parts of the China connection because a company named Loral Space Systems received permission to launch its satellites on Chinese rockets -- which exploded. Loral, and other companies, are required to place NSA Echelon circuit boards in their satellites so NSA can spy on us easily. Well, a funny thing happened when one of those rockets crashed: The satellite was recovered almost intact, but without those special boards. The Chinese kept them. NSA made a mad dash to change all its secret up and down-link encryption codes, but that's really only half the correction. All China need do is duplicate the circuitry (which Russia will be glad to help them do) and send up a satellite. NSA did not and (probably) cannot change the encryption up there, where the satellites relay information to each other. Was this serendipity, or a plan? Who knows. All we know is that, unless we all use strong encryption, most governments in the world will soon be able to copy any and all of our private communications at will. Background on Echelon: http://www1.ekstrabladet.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=43236 http://www.fas.org/irp/program/process/echelon.htm http://www.dis.org/erehwon/echelon.html http://mediafilter.org/caq/CAQ59GlobalSnoop.html E-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright © 2000 by Doug Fiedor, all rights reserved This text may be copied and distributed freely but only in its entirety, and with no changes ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! 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