Many people have heard of the info-interception system at Menwith Hill, but maybe like me you had assumed it was spying on us. WRONG! In a laughable attempt to obey the law involving spying on a country's own citizens, five countries under the banner UKUSA formed a pact to spy on each other's citizens, and to report to each other on the result. Unbelievable. "Rumors have abounded for several years of a massive system designed to intercept virtually all email and fax traffic in the world and subject it to automated analysis, despite laws in many nations (including this one) barring such activity. The laws were circumvented by a mutual pact among five nations. It's illegal for the United States to spy on it's citizens. Likewise the same for Great Britain. But under the terms of the UKUSA agreement, Britain spies on Americans and America spies on British citizens and the two groups trade data. Technically, it may be legal, but the intent to evade the spirit of the laws protecting the citizens of those two nations is clear. The system is called ECHELON, and had been rumored to be in development since 1947, the result of the UKUSA treaty signed by the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. " http://www.accessone.com/~rivero/POLITICS/ECHELON/echelon.html
