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Spying on the Spies
by Niall McKay
12:15 p.m. 10.May.99.PDT
The National Security Agency has its ear to the world, but doesn't listen
to everyone at once.
That was one conclusion of a new report, Interception Capabilities 2000,
accepted late last week by the European Parliament's Science and
Technology Options Assessment Panel (STOA).
The panel commissioned Duncan Campbell, a British investigative reporter,
to prepare a report on Echelon, the US-led satellite surveillance network.
"I have no objection to these systems monitoring serious criminals and
terrorists," said Glyn Ford, a British Labour Party member of parliament
and a committee member of STOA. "But what is missing here is
accountability, clear guidelines as to who they can listen to, and in what
circumstances these laws apply."
Campbell was asked to investigate the system in the wake of charges made
last year in the European Parliament that Echelon was being used to funnel
European government and industry secrets into US hands.
"What is new and important about this report is that it contains the first
ever documentary evidence of the Echelon system," said Campbell. Campbell
obtained the document from a source at Menwith Hill, the principal NSA
communications monitoring station, located near Harrogate in northern
England.
The report details how intelligence agencies intercept Internet traffic
and digital communications, and includes screen shots of traffic analysis
from NSA computer systems.
Interception Capabilities 2000 also provides an account of a previously
unknown, secret international organization led by the FBI. According to
Campbell, the "secret" organization, called ILETS (International Law
Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar), is working on building backdoor
wiretap capabilities into all forms of modern communications, including
satellite communications systems.
"[The report] is undoubtedly the most comprehensive look at Echelon to
date because of its attention to detail -- [and] the NSA's use of
technology," said John Young, a privacy activist in New York.
Although the United States has never officially acknowledged Echelon's
existence, dozens of investigative reports over the past decade have
revealed a maze-like system that can intercept telephone, data, cellular,
fax, and email transmissions sent anywhere in the world.
Previously, Echelon computers were thought to be able to scan millions of
telephone lines and faxes for keywords such as "bomb" and "terrorist." But
Campbell's report maintains that the technologies to perform such a global
dragnet do not exist.
Instead, Campbell said that the system targets the communications networks
of known diplomats, criminals, and industrialists of interest to the
intelligence community. The report charges that popular software programs
such as Lotus Notes and Web browsers include a "back door," through which
the NSA can gain access to an individual's personal information.
Citing a November 1997 story in the Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet,
the report said that "Lotus built in an NSA 'help information' trapdoor to
its Notes system, as the Swedish government discovered to its
embarrassment."
The report goes on to describe a feature called a "workfactor reduction
field" that is built into Notes and incorporated into all email sent by
non-US users of the system. The feature reportedly broadcasts 24 of the 64
bits of the key used for each communication, and relies on a public key
that can only be read by the NSA.
Lotus could not be reached for comment.
The new report emerges as politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are
growing increasingly concerned about Echelon and its capabilities.
"I believe that it's time that there is some congressional scrutiny of the
Echelon project and I am examining a way to do that," said Representative
Bob Barr (R-Georgia). "I understand the need for secrecy -- I was with the
CIA myself -- but Echelon has raised some questions about fundamental
policy and constitutional rights."
Barr is concerned that the NSA is using its Echelon partners to help it
sidestep laws that forbid the US government from spying on its own people.
So far, there has been very little scrutiny of spy systems in the United
States, according to Patrick Poole, a privacy advocate and lecturer in
government and economics at Bannock Burn College in Franklin, Tennessee.
"The only significant examination of spy systems in the United States was
the Church Report, which was prompted by Watergate in the early '70s,"
said Poole. "I hope that Europe's interest in the Echelon system will
spark some new debate in the US."
Echelon is believed to be principally operated by the NSA and its British
counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters. The system also
reportedly relies on agreements with similar agencies in other countries,
including Canada's Communications Security Establishment, Australia's
Defense Signals Directorate, and New Zealand's Government Communications
Security Bureau.
-o-
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Received on Mon May 17 20:39:27 1999