Echelon Has Been in Existence Since 1948

Echelon is a global spying network. In 1999 the New York Times wrote, “A leading privacy advocacy group on Friday filed a lawsuit that seeks to force the National Security Agency to release its records on potential government surveillance of the Internet communications of American citizens. “The lawsuit, filed in federal district court here by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, seeks the public disclosure of internal NSA documents discussing the legality of the agency's intelligence activities. “The filing was prompted by various news reports in the past year that indicate the NSA is coordinating a global surveillance system known as Echelon.” Echelon eavesdrops on all phone calls and all e-mails all the time. It is, of course, electronic surveillance. A human being does not listen to most of the messages. But certain words or phrases trigger closer surveillance. EVERY phone call and e-mail of EVERY person in the United States is monitored by Echelon. In 1983 journalist James Bamford wrote about the surveillance system that came to be known as Echelon. In his book, “The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America's Most Secret Agency”, Bamford said, “The ‘link-up’ that veteran British journalist Chapman Pincher referred to is quite likely the most secret agreement ever entered into by the English-speaking world. Signed in 1947 and known as the UKUSA Agreement, it brought together under a single umbrella the SIGINT organizations of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Under the pact, the five nations carved up the earth into spheres of cryptologic influence, each country assigned specific targets according to its potential for maximum intercept coverage. Britain, for example, was assigned various Chinese frequencies to cover from its Little Sai Wan station in Hong Kong, and the United States was responsible for other frequencies from its listening posts in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. “The UKUSA nations also agreed to standardize their terminology, code words, intercept-handling procedures, and indoctrination oaths, for efficiency as well as security. Vipar, Trine, and Umbra, therefore, would appear on the TOP (or MOST) SECRET documents and intercepts, regardless of which member originated them. The voluminous looseleaf binder that contains these rules and procedures is known as the IRSIG--for International Regulations on SIGINT.” It’s been no secret that the NSA uses Echelon’s technology and capabilities. So why is the Bush administration denying the fact that all Americans are under surveillance and have been since 1948? The Prez said, “We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.” Stupid lie. The NSA absolutely is mining and trolling through our personal lives and has been doing so since its inception in 1952. "Everything that N.S.A. does is lawful and very carefully done," General Hayden said, adding, “The NSA takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law." It is certainly true that everything the NSA does is done carefully. But it’s another stupid lie that the NSA operates within the law. Secret surveillance of the phone calls of American citizens is not lawful and never has been. The ridiculous part of the Bush/NSA position is that they are denying something that has been publicly written about and has been known to be a fact for nearly 60 years. The NSA was sued in 1999 for doing exactly what it’s denying it is doing in 2006. It’s not about catching terrorists. It’s about the GOP wanting to control all aspects of all Americans' lives all the time. It’s about the White House being fascists. It’s about the Bush administration being a dictatorship. It’s about the military wanting to run our government. It’s about the neocons wanting to rule the world. And it’s about a bunch of silly little men playing cloak-and-dagger games and whispering secrets to each other that the whole world already knows. How idiotic is that!