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[RRE]Echelon
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[The current issue of The New Yorker carries a long article by Seymour
Hersh reporting the shocking news that the National Security Agency
isn't listening to our communications well enough. Lots more money
would seem to be required. In fact the article was oddly disjointed.
Toward the beginning it asserted that the NSA is increasingly useless
because the people overseas that they are supposed to be listening to
are using cryptography that they do not know how to crack. But this
theme is soon dropped in favor of the idea that the NSA's computers
are simply not big enough, and that bigger computers are called for.
I have long been a semi-somewhat-skeptic about the idea that strong
cryptography was inherently uncontrollable, simply because I don't
believe that anything is inherently anything else. But evidence is
accumulating that cryptography is being institutionalized worldwide.
(I am also a semi-somewhat-skeptic about this necessarily being a good
thing, but that is certainly a topic for another day.) Whether the
Clinton Administration semi-somewhat-surrendered on export controls
because crypto was being used heavily overseas or simply because of
Al Gore's tenuous claim on the campaign funds of the high tech lobby,
i.e., special interest politics as usual, will be a good question for
the historians. For the time being, let us sharpen the argument that
the NSA -- and the CIA as well -- is a redundant, antidemocratic, and
unconstitutional waste of money that should be shut down altogether.
The argument divides mainstream American politics in interesting ways.
It used to be a matter of liberal civil libertarians vs. conservative
supporters of the national security state. But now the Democrats have
moved right, and the Republican "base" has moved so far right that
a major left-right alliance has emerged on the issue, just as it has
on globalization and several other issues. When I was a guest on the
seriously right-wing Free Congress Foundation's civil liberties radio
show, I sat quietly as they pretended that liberals are against civil
liberties because of their love of big government. It's too bad that
some of our fellow civil libertarians on the right feel the need for
such lies about our fellow civil libertarians on the left. But then
liberals have a long history of ignoring the sensitivities of the
(just-plain) libertarians with whom they ought to be allied on public-
sector privacy issues, so it goes both ways. Final note: Even though
the "discovery" of Echelon is making news in 1999, RRE readers first
heard about it from a detailed report by Nicky Hager in December 1996:
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Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 17:39:48 From: owner-aclu-member@lists.aclu.org Subject: 12-08-99 -- Is the NSA Capturing Our Conversations?
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Quote & Link: A Periodic News Service Only For ACLU Members!
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"Echelon is perhaps the most powerful intelligence gathering network in the world. But it is still very much a black box, which apparently operates without the oversight of Congress or the courts."
-- Barry Steinhardt, ACLU Associate Director
Is the secret National Security Agency, working with its counterpart agencies in England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, eavesdropping on private communications from around the world? Credible reports suggest that a global electronic surveillance system -- known by the code name of "ECHELON" -- is indeed capturing satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications worldwide.
Over the past few months, the U.S. House of Representatives has been investigating ECHELON and related activities. As part of these investigations, the House Select Committee on Intelligence requested documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) regarding its operating standards for intelligence systems like ECHELON that may intercept communications of Americans. In a surprising move, NSA officials invoked attorney-client privilege and refused to disclose the documents. This action drew the ire of several members of Congress, including the committee's chairman, Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL).
TAKE ACTION!
Many observers are calling Congress to conduct further inquiries into the workings of this global surveillance system. You can read more about ECHELON and send a letter to Congress supporting further investigations into its activities from our action alert*:
http://www.aclu.org/action/echelon106.html In addition, the ACLU has launched a special website detailing the possible threats of ECHELON and other research on the program. The website can be found at*:
http://www.echelonwatch.org
ACLU "Quote & Link" American Civil Liberties Union National Office 125 Broad Street New York, NY 10004
For general information about the ACLU, write to info@aclu.org ```
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