Om EU-rapport om Echelon fra The Guardian.
Karsten Johansen
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,496859,00.html
Leaked spy report names UK
Privacy warning across Europe
Stuart Millar, Richard Norton-Taylor and Ian Black Saturday May 26, 2001 The
Guardian
European citizens are to be given an unprecedented warning about the threat
to their privacy from a highly controversial global eavesdropping network
led by the British and US intelligence services.
A leaked European parliament document reveals that individuals and
businesses will be urged to encode all electronic communications to protect
their emails and faxes from interception after Euro MPs found overwhelming
evidence of the existence of the shadowy electronic spying system known as
Echelon.
The MEPs' working document - which will form the basis of a report from the
parliament's temporary Echelon committee expected next week - concludes that
the primary purpose of the integrated system of spy satellites and listening
posts is to "intercept private and commercial communications and not
military communications".
The document - the result of the first high-level investigation into Echelon
- comes after years of growing concern about the use of the spy network.
Although evidence of its existence has been growing since the mid-1990s, no
government has officially acknowledged involvement.
The MEPs' report coincides with a warning that Echelon could become a "cyber
secret police". In a new book, Body of Secrets, about the US national
security agency and its links with Britain's GCHQ, James Bamford,
acknowledged to be the foremost American authority on the NSA, warned: "The
real issue is whether Echelon is doing away with individual privacy, a basic
human right."
Operated by the US and Britain, along with Canada, Australia and New
Zealand, Echelon was designed to gather intelligence during the cold war.
But in recent years, its unique global eavesdropping capabilities have
provoked allegations that it is being used to intercept personal and
commercially sensitive communications.
The MEPs' investigation was prompted by claims that the US had used Echelon
to steal sensitive information from their European competitors. The leaked
document reveals, however, that they have been unable to find evidence of
any systematic use of Echelon for industrial espionage.
In a veiled warning to the UK, the only EU Echelon member, the leaked
document warns that any state involved in an electronic eavesdropping system
used to spy on European citizens and companies would be in breach of both
the European convention on human rights and EU law.
They described as "unsatisfactory and regrettable" the lack of democratic
supervision of secret services in several member states, and urged the EU to
make sure that encryption software was easily available to individuals and
businesses to allow them to protect their communications.
Neil MacCormick, the Scottish nationalist vice-chairman of the Echelon
parliamentary committee, said: "People should treat their emails like
seaside postcards; that is to say put anything you like on them but don't be
surprised if someone else reads them."
Some independent privacy campaigners said the MEPs have not got far enough.
They urged the committee to investigate new eavesdropping systems already in
operation to address Echelon's shortcomings. They also warned that
commercially available encryption software would be easily overcome by
intelligence services.
The European parliament document is being studied by officials in the
Foreign Office and the Home Office.
"National security versus human rights is a difficult subject", a Whitehall
source familiar with the report said yesterday.
Whitehall denies Echelon is involved in industrial espionage but admits that
its aims include "countering industrial espionage by others".
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