> >From Edupage via IP....
>
> ------- Start of forwarded message -------
>
> The National Security Agency (NSA) recently defended itself in a
> letter to Congress, claiming that all of its activities under the
> Echelon satellite-surveillance program are conducted lawfully.
> The agency has come under fire recently from the European
> Parliament, which accused the NSA of using intelligence for the
> benefit of American industry. The European Parliament also
> contends that ordinary European and American citizens are being
> spied upon. The American Civil Liberties Union has recently
> requested congressional hearings on the matter.
> (New York Times, 28 Feb 2000)
Unless my memory has let me down (and it's been a few years since I read "The
Puzzle Palace") the three main reasons for Echelon are:
(i) Collaboration of intelligence on things that need global attention.
(ii) Getting listening stations closer to the heart of "Bad Guys of the week"
due to the land masses that make up the five signatories.
(iii) Circumventing the provisions in the legislation that set up these
agencies which stop them from spying on their own civilians.
Regardless of what is currently being said about using Echelon wrt industrial
espionage, I think (iii) is far more important to be made from a Civil
Liberties point of view. This allows the NSA, GCHQ etc. to stand up and say
that they are conducting everything totally legally, and that they are not
spying on their own nationals, the fact that the other agencies are providing
them with the relevant information is neither here nor there.
Geraint
