Project Echelon Intercepting Global Communications

The intelligence community gathers intelligence from various sources. These are typically classified as:

• Interception of communications and other signals (SIGINT)
• Satellite photography or imagery (IMINT)
• Reports from human sources (HUMINT)
• Measurement and signature (MASINT)

One of the most important intelligence sources comes from the interception of communications. Obviously, the more communications one can intercept, unbeknownst to the communicating parties, the more accurate and unclouded the messages will be. This is the task of project echelon.

Spy novels and TV programs are replete with undercover agents planting bugs and performing telephone taps. We've probably all seen the "cherry" transmitter that floats in a martini and carries the voices of the targeted parties to a remote receiver. But, modern spying has become much more sophisticated and ubiquitous.

Telephone lines today are partly land-based or under sea fiber optic cables, or use microwave transmitters that pass signals from tower to tower. The new generation of telecommunications links now being planned will be totally satellite based. This transition is primarily due to economic considerations of the new competitive telecommunications companies--it's cheaper to use satellites than to gain rights-of-way and lay cable.

The Council of the European Union and the United States are overwhelming supportive of this new satellite telecommunications infrastructure. And for good reason.

President Harry Truman created the National Security Agency (NSA) in 1952 with a still classified executive order. Though not publicly acknowledged until 5 years later, its avowed mission is to conduct signal intelligence (SIGINT) and communications security (COMSEC) for the United States. President Regan added goals to the NSA of information systems security and operations security training. It also supports combat operations for the Department of Defense.

NSA is headquartered at Fort George Meade, between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. One of NSA's goals is to be the world leader in cryptology, making and breaking codes. They acquire, through their vast array of intelligence gathering equipment, as much of the world's communications as is technically possible. Their computers and personnel then analyze these communications for content pertinent to U.S. interests.

Throughout WW II, the U.S. and Britain cooperated to intercept any communication that would aid them in their war effort. This cooperation was formalized in 1948 as the UKUSA agreement. Though initially aimed at the Soviet Union, today it links the largest intelligence gathering agencies in five countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

These agencies help collect, decrypt, and analyze practically all communications sent throughout the world. These communications include fax, e-mail, phone, and broadcast transmissions. The majority of intelligence dollars go to collecting, selecting, and examining these communications.

The UKUSA agreement naturally lead to improvements in data collection techniques. A major networked system for this data collection is code named project echelon. The Echelon system, hinted at in a description of the Menwith Hill receiving station in a July 18, 1980 New Statesman article by Duncan Campbell and first described by Nicky Hager in his 1996 book Secret Power, consists of a worldwide network of intercept stations. These stations capture satellite, microwave, fax, telex, cellular, cable and fiber optic (primarily as it emerges to microwave towers) communications traffic.

Designed during the Cold War, Echelon primarily intercepts worldwide non-millitary communications including those from governments, organizations, businesses, and individuals. It could intercept practically any communication between, and often within, countries anywhere in the world.

The project echelon receiving system feeds these streams of millions of communications every hour to massive arrays of computers. These computers decrypt messages when necessary, then when required, utilize optical character recognition (OCR) or advanced voice recognition techniques to extract words from each message. Every message captured is analyzed for keywords or phrases found in the Echelon "dictionary." Keywords include all the names, places, codewords, or subjects that might be of interest. There are separate search lists for each member country.

Messages acquired at any of the listening posts containing requested keywords are then automatically passed on to the intelligence organization requesting those keywords. Those messages are flagged for further analysis.

An array of receiving stations collect all international communications carried by approximately 20 Intelsat satellites. The Intelsats are used by the telephone companies of most countries. Though they carry primarily civilian traffic, they also carry diplomatic and governmental communications. These Intelsats are positioned in stationary orbit around the equator and carry tens of thousands of simultaneous phone calls, faxes, and e-mails.

Echelon's Intelsat receiving stations include:

• Morwenstow, England - Atlantic and Indian Oceans satellites transmitting to Europe, Africa and western Asia
• Sugar Grove, near Washington, D.C. - Atlantic satellites beamed to North and South America
• Yakima Firing Center, near Seattle, Washington - Pacific and Far East satellites
• Waihopai, New Zealand - Pacific and Indian Ocean satellites covering Asia and the South Pacific
• Geraldton, Australia - Pacific and Indian Ocean satellites covering Asia and the South Pacific
• Ascension Island - Atlantic satellites covering the southern hemisphere

Numerous satellites carry domestic communications. These regional communications are monitored by the above stations as well as the following additional monitoring stations.

• Menwith Hill, England
• Shoal Bay, Australia - targets Indonesian satellites
• Leitrim, Canada - targets Latin American satellites
• Bad Aibling, Germany
• Misawa, Japan

Scores of other reception locations are maintained by UKUSA members. These are located primarily at military bases and embassies throughout the world. These listening posts were especially critical before the advent of satellite communications.

Interception of communications flowing through underground or under water cables is easy once the cables surface and connect to microwave towers. Microwave transmissions move communications in a line of site fashion from tower to tower. Placing an antenna in the "beam" of these microwave transmissions gives access to international as well as domestic communications.

Microwave communications frequently converge at large cities, typically a capital city. Embassy buildings in major cities, protected by diplomatic privilege, are ideal sites to intercept these communications

In addition to ground-based observation centers, spy satellites and airplanes are also used. They are capable of receiving high frequency radio broadcasts as well as cellular transmissions.

Numerous spy satellites are busy acquiring photographs. Although the quality and extent of photo coverage is classified, some photos from the Corona program of the 1960s are being made public. One such photo shows details of a Russian shipyard. You can see the details for yourself.

Over the years several major overhauls of the Echelon system have taken place.

Several recent projects, the details of which are concealed, have been detected. One was codenamed "Platform" and was intended to bring 52 separate computer systems together as a massive network feeding the main computers at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade.

Another major project is identified as P415. This enhancement is intended to allow NSA to track civilian communications well into the 21st century. This project involves the traditional members of UKUSA as well as Germany, Japan, and the People's Republic of China.

• Discovery of missile sites in Cuba
• Capture of the Achille Lauro terrorists
• Discovery of Libyan involvement in the Berlin discotheque bombing

In addition to rooting out those who commit crimes, the system have been used to detect the planning of crimes. This allows police action to prevent these crimes.

But, this power has often been used for less noble purposes. It has also been used for political and economic purposes to spy on individuals who are not involved in international terrorism or plots against a national government. Some suspected uses are:

• Target calls from U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond.
• Monitor anti-Viewnam war leaders such as Jane Fonda and Dr. Benjamin Spock.
• Monitor Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver
• Monitor Amnesty International organization
• Monitor Greenpeace organization
• Monitor Christian Aid organization
• Margaret Thatcher requested to have two government ministers monitored
• Margaret Thatcher ordered observation of the parent company of the London Observer after publication of negative articles
• Kissinger used NSA to intercept messages from rival Secretary of State William Rogers
• Monitor phone calls of Maryland Congressman, Michael Barnes
• Menwith Hill station received the 1991 "Station of the Year" prize for its role in the Gulf War.
• Monitoring delegates of the five-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference
• Monitoring Mexican trade representatives during the NAFTA trade negotiations

Echelon represents a powerful force that can be used for good. Echelon has been used to detect plans for sabotage and espionage; events that were thwarted before they came to fruition and were therefor never reported. It has been used to locate and capture international criminals.

The power of the system also lends itself to corrupting influences. Those whose goal is power have used the system to enhance their positions and diminish the power of others.

As the system is further enhanced, its capabilities will improve. It will likely be used increasingly for police, political, and economic purposes.

The government must cease restricting the distribution and use of strong encryption algorithms. The public is entitled to confidence that they are free from unlawful searches and seizures in their dealings with others. Individual communications carried out by electronic means must be as secure as practices consistent with data protection will allow.

Unfortunately, technology has provided governments with virtually unchecked wealth of surveillance devices and interception capacity. Governments gather communications information on a broad scale, indiscriminately capturing private conversations of people innocent of any national or international crime. We must enact legislation that ensures only the short term legal interception of telecommunications of identified individuals. This legislation must give the public confidence that surveillance of individuals occurs for specific durations rather than the long term indiscriminate "fishing" for suspect words or phrases

We must not unduly hinder the needs of law enforcement agencies to perform surveillance on those individuals suspected of national or international crimes. But, we must insist that the criteria on what constitutes legitimate surveillance targets be subject to scrutiny and be accountable to public representatives.

Further, there must be penalties for surveillance malpractice or illegal interception of private communications. These penalties must be severe enough and apply to individuals at all levels in the chain of command so as to reduce infractions to minimal levels.

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Copyright © 2003 Robert Sherman

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