Echelon

[Arjan Stoffels]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Een zeer vers bericht over Echelon (6 juli 2000) bron:
http://www.antionline.com/2000/07/06/cndin/4230-0007-pat_nytimes.html

Britain's Role In Echelon Spy Network To Be Probed By Europe (7/6)
Stephen Castle
July 06, 2000

BRUSSELS - Britain's role in the global spy network known as Echelon is to be at
the centre of a formal inquiry by the European Parliament, in a development
which threatens new embarrassment to ministers and government officials.

Wednesday's decision by MEPs to mount an investigation will give a new focus to
complaints that the Anglo-American snooping system is being used to the
commercial disadvantage of the UK's European allies.

Since the publication of a report on Echelon for the European Parliament last
year, anger has grown on mainland Europe and, for the first time, a British Home
Secretary was questioned about the system at a meeting of EU justice ministers
in May.

A French prosecutor has been appointed to launch a preliminary judicial
investigation into the workings of Echelon, and other inquiries have been
initiated or are being discussed in Germany and Denmark.

Wednesday's decision by the Strasbourg parliament was a blow to the British
government which hoped that any inquiry would cover all forms of European
intelligence-gathering, rather than concentrating on Echelon, which is dominated
by the US and UK but also includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The parliamentary committee will now have a year to confirm the existence of the
Echelon system, decide whether European industry has been damaged by global
interception of communications and consider ``political and legislative
initiatives'' to protect individuals.

``In addition to wanting to distinguish between what is real and what is
fantasy, the commission will also try to ascertain how European citizens can see
their privacy safeguarded,'' said Carlos Coelho, the Portuguese MEP who is
expected to head the 36-person committee.

However the parliamentarians' backed away from the most confrontational option
by deciding to appoint an ad hoc committee, with powers to invite witnesses,
rather than a ``temporary committee of inquiry'' which can issue subpoenas.

Dating from the cold war, the Echelon system is thought to be able to intercept
almost every modern form of communication, from satellites to the Internet, as
part of a multi-billion pound global surveillance operation.

The British government has never acknowledged the existence of Echelon but such
reticence was undermined by the former director of the CIA, James Woolsey, who
spoke about the network in an interview with the French daily, Le Figaro.

While all EU governments engage in evesdropping, the allegation is that Britain
is participating in a system used to advance US commercial interests at the
expense of European governments. In his report for the European Parliament the
researcher, Duncan Campbell, said that Echelon helped the US aviation firm
McDonnell-Douglas to win a contract in Saudi-Arabia from Airbus Industrie.

However Airbus never made a formal complaint, making it impossible for the
European Commission to investigate whether internal market rules were breached.

The British government said Wednesday night that it was still studying the terms
of reference of the inquiry, but Whitehall is unlikely to try to obstruct the
committee's work overtly. Witnesses are likely to attend hearings and to stress
the British argument that surveillance is vital in the fight against crime.

The government says that all interception is covered by acts of parliament and
that, while monitoring is permitted in the defense of national economic
interests, that does not include the interests of specific British companies.

British witnesses are, however, unlikely to provide any detailed information
about espionage work or the existence of Echelon.

----

(The Independent Web site is at http://www.independent.co.uk/)


(Distributed by New York Times Special Features)



c.2000 The Independent, London




Met vriendelijke groet,
Arjan Stoffels

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