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The Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2000
US Security Agency Defends Eavesdrop Use
By Neil King Jr. Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Under attack from privacy advocates in the U.S. and Europe,
the director of the National Security Agency said yesterday that his agency
snoops on Americans only under rigid controls and never engages in foreign
economic espionage for U.S. corporations.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden used an unusual open session of the
House Intelligence Committee to launch another salvo in his year-long effort
to defend an agency seen by many as sinister and all-powerful. European
officials have accused the NSA recently of using its international
eavesdropping prowess, through a system called Echelon, to spy on foreign
companies and sift through every e-mail, fax or telephone call in Europe,
charges the NSA calls absurd.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have raised similar
concerns about NSA abuses in the U.S., charging that the Echelon system could
be sucking in vast quantities of information about U.S. citizens without
their knowledge. Some members of Congress agree, saying the time is ripe for
new legislation to monitor NSA activities.
On the European front, Gen. Hayden acknowledged that the super-secret NSA
uses its network of powerful listening stations around the globe to gather
economic intelligence to track concerns such as money laundering, weapons
proliferation and corporate corruption. But he insisted the NSA never pursued
industrial secrets or worked to enhance the profitability of U.S. business.
George Tenet, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, echoed those
denials.
"I recognize that it is standard practice for some countries to use their
intelligence services to conduct economic espionage. But that isn't the
policy or the practice of the United States," he said.
Most of the session, though, focused on concerns that the NSA might be
violating the privacy of U.S. citizens by intercepting e-mail or listening in
on telephone calls. Gen. Hayden scoffed at what he called the growing number
of "urban myths" surrounding the NSA, including its alleged ability to tap
everything from e-mail traffic to domestic baby monitors.
He cited as an example the fact that the NSA's huge computer system at its
Maryland headquarters went down for about 80 hours in January. The
malfunction prevented the agency from sorting through all the information it
continued to gather from around the world. "Can you imagine the capacity that
would be required for us to store three and a half days of collection if . .
. we're sweeping up everything in the universe?" Gen Hayden said, adding that
it took only eight to 12 hours to process the backlog.
The laws governing foreign-intelligence surveillance go back to the late
1970s, and some members of Congress argue that new legislation is needed to
encompass changes brought about by the Internet revolution. Both Gen. Hayden
and Mr. Tenet disputed that notion. "There is a rich body of oversight that
ensures that we stay within the law," Gen. Hayden said.
In the face of generally mild questioning, both men described in detail
the laws that control the use of NSA assets for snooping on anyone within the
U.S. To do that, the agency must prove to a special court that the
eavesdropping is a matter of national security and the target is an agent of
a foreign power, a spy or a terrorist. Such NSA requests, Gen. Hayden said,
occur on average about six times a year.
Gen. Hayden dismissed as "simply not true" a number of other recent
accusations, including the charge that the U.S. and friendly countries like
Britain or Canada used one another's services to spy on their own citizens.
NSA intercepts are a key ingredient in U.S. efforts to spy on drug runners
and terrorists, and the agency's eavesdropping proved crucial during the
Kosovo conflict last year as well as during the intense U.S.
counter-terrorist campaign in December.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 04-12-00
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