Canadian disclosures about UKUSA/Echelon

Tue May 25 16:10:04 CEST 1999

Following is another article about UKUSA/Echelon, but this time from the
Canadian perspective. It also contains an interesting statement
attributed by the reporter to Mr. Wayne Madsen, that explains how the
NSA can easily, and 'lawfully' circumvent their charter not to spy on
domestic communications. The NSA does this by relying on their foreign
spy-partners to gather the relevant U.S-originating communications and
pass it back to them.

Am I interpreting this correctly, Wayne?

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/990522/2630510.html

==============

Jim Bronskill The Ottawa Citizen

 Canada belongs to a global spy network capable of snooping on virtually
every type of communication, from long-distance phone calls to Internet
e-mail, says a newly published study.

 The detailed report, prepared for the European Parliament, warns that
the electronic intelligence agencies of the world's major
English-speaking countries increasingly use the information they collect
to gain an upper hand on economic rivals.

 It concludes the surveillance web controlled by the UKUSA alliance --
Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand -- has
evolved into a highly advanced network that automatically sifts through
the vast bulk of the messages that traverse the globe daily.

 "Comprehensive systems exist to access, intercept and process every
important form of communications, with few exceptions," says the report,
by Edinburgh-based researcher Duncan Campbell, a longtime observer of
the intelligence world.

 Canada is represented in the alliance by the Communications Security
Establishment, an ultra-secret wing of the Defence Department with
headquarters in an Ottawa office building.

 The report, Interception Capabilities 2000, was approved as a working
document by the Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel of the
European Parliament at a meeting in Strasbourg, France, earlier this
month.

 Mr. Campbell's study raises thorny questions about the scope of global
spy operations and their potential to violate privacy.

 It is the latest in a string of books and articles in recent years to
shine a light on the inner workings of the shadowy UKUSA alliance.

 Citing numerous sources, Mr. Campbell reveals new information about the
ECHELON computer system that helps Canada's CSE and its alliance
partners process the mountains of data collected by monitoring
satellites, microwave radio relays, undersea cables and the Internet.

 The heightened scrutiny is a welcome development, said Wayne Madsen, a
senior fellow with the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information
Center.

 "I think everyone should be asking questions about their intelligence
agencies," he said. "Why do they exist, and what are they doing? The
more people that ask questions the better."

 The UKUSA partnership emerged out of co-operation between members
during the Second World War, when signals intelligence, or SIGINT in spy
parlance, proved instrumental in helping the Allies triumph.

 For decades the alliance's primary purpose was to monitor the military
and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its East Bloc
allies. But the Cold War's end has seen a shift towards collection of
information about terrorism, organized crime and, on a more
controversial note, an increasing flow of data on economic dealings and
scientific developments.

 "There is wide-ranging evidence indicating that major governments are
routinely utilizing communications intelligence to provide commercial
advantage to companies and trade," says Mr. Campbell's report.

 The findings come as no surprise to Fred Stock, who says he was forced
out of CSE in 1993 after objecting to the agency's new emphasis on
economic intelligence and civilian targets.

 Mr. Stock, who worked in CSE's Communications Centre in Ottawa, recalls
incoming message traffic on dealings with Mexico, France, Germany, Japan
and South Korea. The intercepted information covered negotiations on the
North American Free Trade Agreement, Chinese grain purchases, French
arms sales and Canada's boundary dispute with France over the islands of
St-Pierre-Miquelon off Newfoundland's south coast.

 "To me, we shouldn't have been doing that."

 Mr. Stock also maintains the agency routinely received intelligence
about environmental protest actions mounted by Greenpeace vessels on the
high seas.

 Other former CSE employees have told similar stories of economic and
political spying.

 As a matter of policy, the agency refuses to discuss allegations about
operations.

 However, the federal government acknowledges that CSE, supported by
Canadian Forces personnel, collects and analyzes foreign communications.
"Signals intelligence provides unique and timely information on the
intentions, capabilities and activities of foreign states, organizations
or persons," says the defence department. "This intelligence is used by
policy makers to resolve issues relating to the defence of Canada, or
the conduct of its foreign affairs and trade."

 CSE regularly provides information and analysis to national defence
headquarters, foreign affairs and international trade and the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service, the country's domestic spy agency, among
other federal organizations.

 The government says CSE employs about 890, and has an annual budget of
$110 million. Some consider the figures low, particularly since the
agency draws on the personnel and regional intercept facilities of the
Canadian Forces.

 CSE works closely with the National Security Agency, its much larger
U.S. cousin. NSA, the lead American SIGINT organization, has a staff of
21,000 and a $3.6-billion budget, making it the undisputed senior
partner of the alliance.

 The extent and nature of the co-operation between the UKUSA partners
through the ECHELON system was first detailed in the 1996 book Secret
Power, by New Zealander Nicky Hager.

 ECHELON has raised eyebrows among civil libertarians because it
operates on the principle of intercepting a broad range of
communications, then using high-tech tools to zero in on the phone
calls, faxes or e-mails of interest.

 The system employs "Dictionary" computers in each host country that
store lists of targets, including names, telephone numbers, addresses
and subjects of interest to alliance members. According to Hager,
whenever a ''Dictionary'' encounters an intercepted phone call, fax,
e-mail or other message containing a key word or number, it
automatically transmits it to the interested member agency.

 An intelligence analyst in Ottawa, for instance, could log on to a
computer terminal and scan the latest batch of intercepts in a
particular category, such as Japanese diplomatic cables from Latin
America, identified by a four-digit code.

 The intrusiveness of the ECHELON system scares former CSE employee Mike
Frost. He says the fact the vast majority of intercepted messages are
discarded provides little comfort. Mr. Frost compares the electronic
sifting of personal messages to a burglar who breaks into a home and
rifles through possessions without stealing anything.

 "Would you still not feel violated? Of course."

 CSE spokesman Kevin Mills dismisses as ridiculous the notion the agency
intercepts virtually all communications. "That's what I call the vacuum
cleaner mythology."

 However, Mr. Mills limits his assessment to CSE. "I don't have enough
insight as to what the other partners are doing, and how they're
expending their resources and funds, to really make an informed
comment."

 CSE, like other alliance members, is not supposed to target the
communications of Canadians. In addition, it is believed the alliance
members generally refrain from targeting each other's citizens.

 But recent revelations about the alliance's scope, particularly the
ECHELON system, has caused an uproar in Europe, where many countries see
the partnership -- despite Britain's participation -- as an American-led
assault on the continent's economic sovereignty.

 "If this system were to exist, it would be an intolerable attack
against individual liberties, competition and the security of the
states," Commissioner Martin Bangeman told the European Parliament last
September.

 In his report, Mr. Campbell says ECHELON has been in use for more than
20 years, much longer than previously believed. It was greatly expanded
between 1975 and 1995.

 Based on a simple count of antennae installed at ground stations, Mr.
Campbell figures the UKUSA partners operate at least 120 satellite-based
collection systems. For instance, Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, near
Ottawa, intercepts communications satellites on behalf of CSE.

 Still, the alliance faces challenges. The shift in telecommunications
to high-capacity optical fibre networks will make tapping more difficult
since physical access to the cables is required. As a result, Mr.
Campbell predicts greater use of undercover agents to plant collection
devices in the future. (The U.S. has long used submarine crews to tap
undersea cables).

 At the same time, more people are encrypting their communications so
they can't be easily deciphered if intercepted. Still, effective
cryptography is not yet in use on a large scale.

 The falling cost of advanced computers has also enabled agencies to
make use of high-tech tools for processing and sorting data.

 Mr. Campbell rejects the argument that the dramatic growth of the
Internet poses a significant obstacle for intelligence agencies. "Since
the early 1990s, fast and sophisticated (communications intelligence)
systems have been developed to collect, filter and analyze the forms of
fast digital communications used by the Internet."

 Since most of the world's Internet capacity lies within the U.S., much
of the traffic on the network passes through sites there, making it
readily accessible to NSA.

 "Internet traffic can be accessed either from international
communications links entering the United States, or when it reaches
major Internet exchanges."

 NSA is restricted to looking at Internet messages that begin or end in
a foreign country.

 Still, Mr. Madsen, who worked briefly for NSA in 1985, said the
alliance pools efforts to monitor the e-mail of political and social
lobby groups of interest.

Several former CSE employees, including Mr. Stock and Mr. Frost, claim
the agency has spied on Canadians. CSE allegedly helped mount an
eavesdropping operation during the 1990 Oka crisis and tried to
determine whether Margaret Trudeau, while wife of then-prime minister
Pierre Trudeau, was using illegal drugs.

 The persistent charges prompted the Liberal government to appoint a
commissioner, former Quebec judge Claude Bisson, to determine whether
CSE was complying with Canadian law. Mr. Bisson, however, does not look
into events that predate his June 1996 appointment, nor can he respond
directly to members of the public who complain about the agency.

 Mr. Frost, whose 1994 book Spyworld detailed his covert exploits for
CSE, said the agency requires greater independent scrutiny.

 He also cautions that the imperfect world of communications
interception can produce misleading results -- something that's often
lost on politicians.

 "When they see intelligence on their desk, they take it as gospel. It
may not be," said Mr. Frost. "That's a frightening thing."