-Caveat Lector-
Echelon Has Been Spying On
Japanese For 20 Years
From The Mainichi Shimbun
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20010627p2a00m0fp002000c.html
7-14-1
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Echelon, a
communication spy network maintained by five
English-speaking countries, has been spying on
Japanese embassies and consulates in Oceania for 20
years, the Mainichi has learned.
Nicky Hagar, a New Zealand researcher who testified
before the European Union commission that blasted the
spy network, told the Mainichi Echelon had been used to
covertly carry out mainly industrial espionage against
Japan and report the results to the United States.
Hagar claims the spying was done at the behest of the
United States, which wanted to find out how an
economically powerful Japan's policies were influencing
the South Pacific.
In an exclusive interview, Hagar added that Japanese
encoding was too advanced and little information of worth
seeped out, a point confirmed by Foreign Ministry
officials.
"We think that little more than simple documents could
have been read. It would be impossible to read top secret
diplomatic documents," a Foreign Ministry spokesman
said. "We don't really know what the exact situation is at
the moment, but we have no doubts that Japan's
diplomatic secrets are being well protected."
Hagar said the New Zealand Government
Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) spied on Japan
from its base in Wellington.
Hagar estimates that about 50 people -- current and
former GCSB officials and politicians among them -- are
aware of the existence of Echelon. The countries accused
of setting up the network -- the United States, Britain,
Australia, New Zealand and Canada -- deny it exists.
Until 1989, the GCSB analyzed data it received from U.S.
spy stations. After 1990, it set up a base at Waihopai in
central New Zealand, which used an elaborate spy
network including satellites, to run an exclusive line into
Japanese embassies or consulates.
All Japanese diplomatic documents are encoded, but a
computer provided by the U.S. apparently allowed most of
them to be read.
A GCSB official fluent in Japanese would translate the
documents and send them to the U.S. National Security
Agency (NSA), the headquarters of Echelon.
Among the documents secured were diplomatic reports
from Japanese embassies and consulates throughout
Oceania, as well as information mainly concerning trade,
fishing, negotiation reports, support for developing
nations and visas.
During the 1980s, the network captured information about
the Japanese government's negotiations on coal prices,
which led to New Zealand achieving a favorable deal for
its coal exports. It is believed Echelon was used to pick up
information from Japan that would prove favorable for
New Zealand companies.
From the mid-'90s, the Waihopai base secured the ability
to listen in to phone conversations.
It turned its attention from exclusively monitoring
Japanese diplomatic posts to spying on Japanese fishing
boats and ships carrying plutonium.
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