[CTRL] Echelon News

[William Shannon]

Spy Investigators Leave In A Huff U.S. Government Accused Of Industrial Spying Bush Administration Seen As Uncooperative So European Members Of Parliament Give Up And Go Home WASHINGTON, May 10, 2001 (CBS) European Parliament members investigating a suspected U.S.-led global electronic eavesdropping system abruptly cut short their fact-finding mission to Washington Thursday. They were in town to meet with various officials about reported U.S. spying on the European Echelon surveillance network for the benefit of U.S. companies, but left in protest over the Bush administration's apparent unwillingness to meet with them. Carlos Coelho of Portugal, chairman of a temporary committee investigating the issue, said his team was "concerned and dismayed" that scheduled meetings at the U.S. State and Commerce departments "were canceled at the last minute without a satisfactory explanation." He also said the committee was "very disappointed' that the CIA and National Security Agency refused to meet with it "in spite of the advanced preparations that had been made." The snub is likely to add to strains on already tense relations between President Bush and his European allies. Coehho, who team arrived Monday, said they met with former CIA director James Woolsey, as well as officials at the Justice Department, members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and civil rights and privacy groups. Echelon is reputedly run by the NSA and its equivalent agencies in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Set up at the beginning of the Cold War for intelligence-gathering, it is now capable of intercepting billions of telephone calls, fax transmissions and e-mails throughout the world. U.S. officials have never publicly confirmed that Echelon exists. They also deny that the government engages in industrial espionage.