Shall We Accept This? U.S.: FBI Sought Info Without Court OK By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Apr 28, 06 WASHINGTON - The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court's approval says the Justice Department. It was the first time the Bush administration has publicly disclosed how often it uses the administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter, which allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without a judge's approval or a grand jury subpoena. The disclosure was mandated as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the administration's sweeping anti-terror law. The FBI delivered a total of 9,254 NSLs relating to 3,501 people in 2005, according to a report submitted late Friday to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. In some cases, the bureau demanded information about one person from several companies. The numbers from previous years remain classified, officials said. The department also reported it received a secret court's approval for 155 warrants to examine business records last year under a Patriot Act provision that includes library records. However, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the department has never used the provision to ask for library records. The Patriot Act renewal that President Bush signed in March, made it easier for authorities to obtain subscriber information on telephone numbers captured through certain wiretaps. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the same panel that signs off on applications for business records warrants, also approved 2,072 special warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies. The record number is more than twice as many as were issued in 2000, the last full year before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The American Civil Liberties Union, said the report to Congress "confirms our fear all along that National Security Letters are being used to get the records of thousands of innocent Americans without court approval." The number disclosed Friday excludes requests for subscriber information, an exception written into the law. It was unclear how many FBI letters were not counted for that reason. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Story Edited and used with-out permission.

Echelon's Cover Blown - 120 Satellites
Monitor Millions Of Calls/Emails
By Alan Perrott and The Independent
7-14-01

"Today it gives 55,000 British and American operatives access to data gathered by 120 spy satellites worldwide. Every minute of every day, the system can process three million electronic communications."

One after another the shutters in Washington came down on the European Union delegation as soon as they mentioned Echelon.

No one in the United States Government would admit that the electronic spying system, the most powerful in the world, even existed. And if it did, they made clear, they would rather not go into it.

The National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department and even the Department of Commerce refused to talk to the committee of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on a fact-finding trip last month.

Stonewalled wherever they turned, the MEPs left, angry and frustrated, cutting short their trip.

Now, with the European Parliament's groundbreaking report into the global spy network published in Brussels, the MEPs who were left out in the cold know whom to blame. Not just the American authorities but the British Government, they are convinced, colluded in the obstruction.

The 108-page report, the fruit of seven months' investigation by the Parliament, does nothing to dampen the controversy long associated with the clandestine network and raises fresh, disturbing questions.

Echelon was set up during the Cold War by the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to collate electronic intelligence. The network has grown to keep pace with the explosion in information technology.

Today it gives 55,000 British and American operatives access to data gathered by 120 spy satellites worldwide. Every minute of every day, the system can process three million electronic communications.

The spy network is very much an Anglo-American show, with the Americans as senior partners, run from Fort Meade in Maryland, Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, and GCHQ at Cheltenham. In Germany, 750 Americans operate an intercept station near Bad Aibling, taken over by the US Army in 1952.

New Zealand espionage expert and author Nicky Hager says New Zealand's Waihopai surveillance facility near Blenheim eavesdrops on two major satellites funnelling enormous amounts of information across the Pacific, whether between Asia and the Americas or between countries on Asia's Pacific edge.

This daily barrage is fed through a computer system which sifts out messages containing keywords or individual names and divides them between various intelligence agencies for further study.

Officers of New Zealand's largest intelligence agency, the GCSB or Government Communications Security Bureau, sit in Wellington checking screen after screen of communications from Pacific sources.

"The bureau has a name designed to be forgotten," says Hager. "Despite a best-selling book about them, very few people know they exist."

The communications passed to the GCSB can come from any Pacific nation or source south of the equator and east of Papua New Guinea.

Other data received in New Zealand, but obtained from different areas, is never sighted here but sent direct to Washington or Canberra.

Hager doubts whether there is any political will in New Zealand to withdraw from this alliance as it would fundamentally alter our relationship with the United States.

One of Europe's main worries is the claim that Echelon gathers industrial espionage from European companies for American rivals.

Boeing and McDonnell Douglas are said to have beaten France to a $6 billion contract to supply Airbus jets to Saudi Arabia, thanks to Echelon intercepts of faxes and phone calls.

There has also been scathing criticism of Britain - and its obsession with secrecy - from its European partners for siding with the "Anglo-Saxon" club rather than Europe in espionage matters.

The MEPs were alarmed to learn that their mobile phones were being used to track their movements and could be transformed into bugging devices.

At least they can take some comfort from claims that the network is just as capable of being used against the United States.

A former employee of Canada's security agency has claimed that Canadian spies once managed to overhear the American ambassador in Ottawa discussing a pending trade deal with China on a mobile phone.

The information gained was used to undercut the Americans and land a $2.5 billion Chinese grain sale.

But while the European report is revealing, the authors did not vindicate all the claims made about the spy system. They failed to prove conclusively that Echelon had been used by the United States, or indeed Britain, for commercial spying on European competitors. And its scope is not as extensive as had been feared. But the report warned businesses and ordinary individuals that they were being spied on and that users should encrypt their e-mails. It said: "That a global system for intercepting communications exists ... is no longer in doubt. They do tap into private, civilian and corporate communications."

Nicky Hager expects increasing concern over Echelon and similar networks to encourage more individuals and businesses to turn to encryption, which will in turn pressure communication networks to offer such a service to customers.

"Moving to encryption is a similar step to deciding to start using e-mail. It's very simple, but it isn't a great hassle to intelligence agencies yet because hardly anyone knows about them other than the very people the United States says Echelon is aimed at, such as terrorists shipping plutonium."

Hager uses an apparently unbreakable encryption system which can be easily downloaded free from www.pgpi.org.

"As long as the person you are e-mailing has the same system, you simply push a button and the message can be decoded in 20 seconds. To break the encryption would take about 100 years and I don't think you'd be around to worry about it."

But even as the means to negate electronic surveillance becomes available, Hager fears the United States is moving to another level.

The Navy's newly launched $2.5 billion Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter is the third of a class suspected of being capable of attaching tapping devices directly to the fibre-optic cables which criss-cross our oceans.

The 106.7m, 9297-tonne nuclear-powered vessel can dive to a depth of 800m where it can deploy minisubs and remote-controlled underwater vehicles.

Such taps would be extremely difficult to detect and easy to replace.

But if the European Union appears powerless to do much about such developments within America, the members' report has pointed out that Britain's role could breach the European Convention on Human Rights.

And, as the report was being debated in Brussels, the MEPs voiced their suspicion of a British hand in ensuring their investigation in Washington DC went nowhere.

Gerhard Schmid, the vice-president of the European Parliament, who drafted the report for the MEP Echelon committee, said: "We think perhaps it was one-half of this famous Anglo-American partnership telling the people in Washington not to be too open with us."

Elly Plooij-van Gorsel, vice-chairwoman of the committee, added: "The way we were treated in Washington was very insulting to a senior mission. We were very surprised when all these meetings began to be cancelled by officials using exactly the same language.

"The visit had been arranged by the EU mission in the US and we had been told it was all right. We are very concerned about the role we think the British Government has played in this. There is a lot of concern it was they who had told the Americans not to speak to us.

"But we must also question the behaviour of the British. When Britain held the [EU] presidency in 1997, I asked about Echelon and I was told it did not exist.

"Britain will have to decide where it wants to stand. How can we have a common European Union security policy if they continue with this attitude towards other member states."

The committee members did meet the oversight committee of Congress and former intelligence officials and civil liberties groups.

"Not one Government official would even admit even the name Echelon," said Ms Plooij-van Gorsel. "The only person who did was James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA. He said it was just a codename for a search engine."

Mr Woolsey had conceded that the United States did spy on European companies "but only because they bribe" to get lucrative contracts.

And although European states criticise Britain and the United States, they have been busy building their own electronic eavesdropping networks.

France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Denmark all have similar systems in place. But Echelon and the British connection is a difficult field for British members of the European Parliament.

One MEP, Neil MacCormick, says: "Obviously, national security should be protected, but the UK Government must be aware of its obligation not just towards human rights but member states of the European Union."

The four-year search for the truth about Echelon began in one of the more obscure outposts of the European Parliament, the Scientific and Technological Options Assessments unit, which keeps MEPs abreast of complicated areas of new technology.

In the 1970s the Labour MEP Glyn Ford had read a book called The Technologies of Political Control. He wondered whether the Parliament's researchers could lift the lid on the murky world of electronic surveillance.

Mr Ford pulled out of the race for an official position on the committee after eyebrows were raised in the Labour Party hierarchy.

This week he said he did not want to pursue past agendas but was looking forward.

"Maybe you cannot prove that Echelon exists but you can make a reasonable judgment. There are good reasons to believe it exists and it has been abused. There may not be hard evidence that it has been abused, but we want a system to guarantee that it isn't."

Mr Ford and his colleagues say the work raises fundamental issues about respect for individual rights.

But Echelon is not always the all-pervasive, powerful monster sometimes portrayed.

"Often," he says, "it just takes them so long to analyse this stuff that it is useless. Maybe in three weeks, they will find out that the Independent is planning to write an article on Echelon today."

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Global spy network revealed

Listening in to your phone calls and reading your emails

By Andrew Bomford of BBC Radio 4's PM programme

Imagine a global spying network that can eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet.

It sounds like science fiction, but it's true.

Two of the chief protagonists - Britain and America - officially deny its existence. But the BBC has confirmation from the Australian Government that such a network really does exist and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are calling for an inquiry.

On the North Yorkshire moors above Harrogate they can be seen for miles, but still they are shrouded in secrecy. Around 30 giant golf balls, known as radomes, rise from the US military base at Menwith Hill.

Linked to the NSA

Inside is the world's most sophisticated eavesdropping technology, capable of listening-in to satellites high above the earth.

Facility is said to be capable of 2m intercepts per hour The base is linked directly to the headquarters of the US National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Mead in Maryland, and it is also linked to a series of other listening posts scattered across the world, like Britain's own GCHQ.

The power of the network, codenamed Echelon, is astounding.

Every international telephone call, fax, e-mail, or radio transmission can be listened to by powerful computers capable of voice recognition. They home in on a long list of key words, or patterns of messages. They are looking for evidence of international crime, like terrorism.

Open Oz

The network is so secret that the British and American Governments refuse to admit that Echelon even exists. But another ally, Australia, has decided not to be so coy.

The man who oversees Australia's security services, Inspector General of Intelligence and Security Bill Blick, has confirmed to the BBC that their Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) does form part of the network.

"As you would expect there are a large amount of radio communications floating around in the atmosphere, and agencies such as DSD collect those communications in the interests of their national security", he said.

Asked if they are then passed on to countries like Britain and America, he said: "They might be in certain circumstances."

But the system is so widespread all sorts of private communications, often of a sensitive commercial nature, are hoovered up and analysed.

Journalist Duncan Campbell has spent much of his life investigating Echelon. In a report commissioned by the European Parliament he produced evidence that the NSA snooped on phone calls from a French firm bidding for a contract in Brazil. They passed the information on to an American competitor, which won the contract.

"There's no safeguards, no remedies, " he said, "There's nowhere you can go to say that they've been snooping on your international communications. Its a totally lawless world."

Breaking the silence

Both Britain and America deny allegations like this, though they refuse to comment further. But one former US army intelligence officer has broken the code of silence.

Colonel Dan Smith told the BBC that while this is feasible, it is not official policy: "Technically they can scoop all this information up, sort through it, and find what it is that might be asked for," he said. "But there is no policy to do this specifically in response to a particular company's interests."

Legislators on both sides of the Atlantic are beginning to sit up and take notice. Republican Congressman Bob Barr has persuaded congress to open hearings into these and other allegations.

In December he is coming to Britain to raise awareness of the issue. In an interview with the BBC he accused the NSA of conducting a broad "dragnet" of communications, and "invading the privacy of American citizens."

He is joined in his concerns by a small number of politicians In Britain. Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker has tabled a series of questions about Menwith Hill, but has been met with a wall of silence.

"There's no doubt it's being used as a listening centre," he said, "There's no doubt it's being used for US interests, and I'm not convinced that Britain's interests are being best served by this."

Global Directory

Analysts Expect Spy Satellite Number to Increase
By Kenneth Silber - Staff Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
13 September 1999

Private analysts believe that a new generation of spy satellites planned by the U.S. government's secretive National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) will consist of smaller, more numerous satellites than the current generation of "spies in the sky."

On September 3, NRO announced it had awarded a contract to a Boeing-led team to develop "the nation's next generation of imagery reconnaissance satellites." The contract, which is the main part of NRO's Future Imagery Architecture program, extends to 2010. However, almost everything else about the contract -- such as its dollar amount, and the number and capabilities of the satellites -- is classified.

Nonetheless, outside experts believe that the number of satellites involved is in the dozens -- compared to roughly half a dozen imaging satellites now in orbit. Analysts estimate the contract's total value at over $4 billion.

Despite a gradual opening in recent years, NRO remains one of the most secretive government agencies. The agency's logo was classified until 1994. But outside experts make informed estimates of NRO activity through various means -- for example, by watching the size and frequency of rocket launches carrying classified payloads.

NRO is believed to currently operate three "electro-optical" satellites that capture visible-light or infrared images, and two radar satellites that can see through clouds or in darkness. (NRO also operates satellites that eavesdrop on radio communications and track electronic patterns produced by warships or other systems.)

According to John E. Pike, space policy director at the private Federation of American Scientists, the Future Imagery Architecture is likely to consist of three electro-optical satellites, and as many as two dozen small radar satellites. The emphasis of the program, he believes, is to provide "real-time battlefield surveillance" in future wars.

Marco Caceres, senior space analyst at the Teal Group, a consulting firm, also believes that the Future Imagery Architecture program will include "dozens" of satellites. NRO's goal, he says, is to "spread the risk" by launching smaller, cheaper satellites. In August 1998, a Titan IV launch accident destroyed an NRO satellite whose value has been estimated at more than $700 million.