ECHELON (UK-USA Agreement)
ECHELON refers to an alleged global surveillance network that monitors communications across various platforms, including voice calls, Internet traffic, and fax transmissions. This program is thought to be a collaborative effort among the intelligence agencies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, collectively known as the "Five Eyes" alliance, which is characterized by a framework of intelligence-sharing agreements. While the existence of ECHELON has not been officially confirmed by the participating nations, it has drawn significant scrutiny, particularly from European authorities. A notable investigation by the European Parliament in 2001 concluded that the network's existence was "no longer in doubt." The operational principle of ECHELON is to intercept a vast array of communications and employ advanced supercomputers to analyze them for specific keywords, potentially indicating security threats or other areas of interest. The implications of such surveillance raise important discussions about privacy, security, and the balance between national interests and individual rights in the context of global communication.
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ECHELON (UK-USA Agreement)
Summary: ECHELON describes an alleged global network of communications monitoring linked to supercomputers that have been said to look in upon millions of communications sent by voice, Internet, and fax. The program is reportedly jointly run by intelligence agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These countries comprise the "Five Eyes" (FVEY)bound by intelligence-sharing arrangements. ECHELON has never been expressly confirmed by any of the participating countries. A European Parliament investigation concluded in 2001 that such a network "is no longer in doubt." The principle of ECHELON is to intercept as many messages as possible and then use supercomputers to scan all of them, looking for keywordssuch as "bomb"to identify which messages might be relevant to national security. This approach is the opposite of obtaining court authorization to tap specific telephone lines, for example, used by suspected terrorists or criminals. For this reason, ECHELON has been accused of violating civil liberties protections. Leaks of documents provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in 2015 confirmed the program's existence.
ECHELON is the name applied to an alleged secret network of listening devices operated by five countriesthe United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealandaccused of intercepting vast quantities of communications by telephone, Internet, and facsimile. The ECHELON system is alleged to include many supercomputers programmed to scan intercepted messagesincluding voice messagesfor a set of words that would enable intelligence agencies to pinpoint a suspicious communication that might suggest a prospective danger to national security.
Since at least the 1980s, this combined listening and interpreting network has been widely discussed in press reports by the European Parliament and civil liberties groups, which are concerned that an electronic form of "Big Brother" is listening in on ordinary communications without court authorization. Some European parliamentarians and commercial interests have also alleged that the American arm of ECHELON has used intercepted communications to help American companies in overseas commercial dealings.
The US National Security Agency (NSA), whose listening and computer facilities are believed to lie at the heart of ECHELON, has denied any misuse of intercepted communications to benefit private firms. At the same time, the NSA has consistently refused to confirm or deny the existence of such a network, and thus, details of its operation and history are primarily speculative.
In 1999, a special committee of the European Parliament was ordered to investigate whether ECHELON existed and, if so, the extent of its operations. After two years of work, the committee concluded that based on "clues," the existence of an integrated global system for intercepting communications "operating with the participation of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand under the UK-USA Agreement, is no longer in doubt."
While most of the details of ECHELON remain classified, it is widely believed that the five participants in the network divide responsibilities on a geographical basishe United States is responsible for the Western Hemisphere, Asia, eastern Russia, and northern China. The UK is responsible for Europeincluding western Russiaand Africa. Australia's responsibilities include Indochina, Indonesia, and southern China. New Zealand is responsible for the west of the Pacific.
These responsibilities are defined as areas in which each participating nation intercepts communications. According to published reports not confirmed by any government, intercepts involve satellite dishes, ships at sea, Internet monitoring posts, and even special listening devices attached to underwater cables. Intercepted messages include government and civilian communications, which often share the same networks.
Some reports estimate that the ECHELON network intercepts up to two million messages per hour. Rather than listen to or read all these messages, a set of supercomputers scans them for keywordsknown as a "dictionary". National Security Agency headquarters in Marylandamong the most secretive military posts in the worldis alleged to have five acres of such computers buried underground.
According to published reports, the ECHELON dictionary includes some unmistakable termssuch as "bomb" or "attack"but also includes proper names of politicianswho might, for example, be targets of an attack.
It is precisely this architecture that has made ECHELON highly controversial. Rather than depending on listening to specific telephones or monitoring specific computers for email, for example, ECHELON is thought to work on the opposite principlelisten to or read everything and find what is relevant by looking for terms of interest.
ECHELON, the War on Terrorism, and Civil Liberties. For years, the term ECHELON has evoked dread and alarm. Because none of the governments said to be involved has been willing to confirm the existence of the ECHELON network, much less reveal details of its extent and operations, the very term has taken on aspects of Orwell's Big Brother, listening in on every communication, however innocent.
In the United States, the National Security Agency has repeatedly been accused of "wiretapping without a warrant"contrary to law.
After the Watergate scandal of 1973which involved illegal wiretaps by government agentsa congressional investigation led by Senator Frank Church wrote legislation called FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. This act set up a special panel of judges who could authorize wiretaps in intelligence casesas opposed to criminal investigations, for example. The principle at the heart of FISA was to identify the wire and tap it after issuing a warrant.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, widespread allegations surfaced that the NSA was violating the law in two respects:
- it was monitoring domestic communications, and
- it was conducting wholesale "taps" using the architecture of ECHELON to identify which messages might be relevant to terrorism or otherwise unveil an imminent threat to national security.
Origins. During World War I, the United States and Britainagreed to share intelligence in their common fight against Germany. This sharing was greatly expanded during World War II as early as August 1940, sixteen months before the United States entered the war. In 1942, this cooperation increased, and Canadian intelligence was also included. During this period, American intelligence personnel were stationed in London to intercept and decode Axis communications. A 1943 joint agreement, called the BRUSA-SIGINT AgreementBritish-United States Signals Intelligence Agreementeffectively divided responsibilities: Britain was responsible for intercepting German and Italian signals, and the US was responsible for Japan.
After World War II, a new agreement called the UK-USA Agreement was built on wartime cooperation. Over time, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand joined the joint effort. This agreement has long been highly classified but is believed to be the origin of ECHELON.
In 2015, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked newsletters to the website The Intercept that appeared to reveal details about the long-secretive agreement. This was followed by confirmation by other former NSA employees.
In 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling that found the ECHELON practice of electronic surveillance with warrants to be both unlawful and unconstitutional.
The ECHELON program raised important ethical concerns about abuses of power and cybersecurity in the twenty-first century.
Bibliography
Froomkin, Dan. "After 27 Years, Reporter Who Exposed ECHELON Finds Vindication in Snowden Archive." The Intercept, 3 Aug. 2015, theintercept.com/2015/08/03/17-years-reporter-exposed-echelon-finds-vindication-snowden-archive. Accessed 1 Oct. 1, 2023.
Lusamba, Jessica. "US Ninth Circuit Rules Mass Surveillance Program Exposed by Snowden Was Unlawful." University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 3 Sept. 2020, www.jurist.org/news/2020/09/us-court-of-appeals-rules-that-mass-surveillance-program-exposed-by-snowden-was-unlawful. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.
Myre, Greg. "A Decade On, Edward Snowden Remains in Russia, Though U.S. Laws Have Changed." NPR, 4 June 2023, www.wwno.org/npr-news/2023-06-04/a-decade-on-edward-snowden-remains-in-russia-though-u-s-laws-have-changed. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.
Richelson, Jeffrey. "Desperately Seeking Signals." Bulletin of Atomic Scientists,
"The ECHELON Affair." European Parliament, Nov. 2014, www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS‗STU(2014)538877. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.