Modern "freedom of speech": The Anglo-American global surveillance system "Echelon" has entangled the whole world May 31, 2012

The American intelligence agency NSA admitted that it “filters” the Internet using several hundred keywords - “China”, “bird flu”, “pork”, “smart” and even “social network”. The global surveillance system for the USA and England “Echelon” has entangled the whole world.
Russia, together with continental Europe, needs to build its own electronic intelligence system as a counterbalance.

The next set of keywords to which the global monitoring service of the US National Security Agency (NSA) reacts became public after a request from the English public organization Information Center for the Protection of Privacy in the Electronic Environment. The response to civil activists stated that the list included words such as “Yemen”, “al-Qaeda”, “nuclear security”, “terrorism”, etc. In general, the expected set. But the fact that the NSA monitoring systems even track words like “snow”, “agriculture”, “wave”, etc. in email correspondence. everyday life came as a surprise. (The full list of keywords can be found on the website of the British newspaper The Daily Mail). In general, almost every English-language e-mail anywhere in the world could theoretically fall under the surveillance of intelligence services.
NSA spokesman Matthew Chandler said it is necessary to refine the intelligence agency's search engine algorithms, and "this is just the beginning of building a system for preventing terrorism and natural disasters."

Reports of American intelligence agencies spying on Internet users come to light from time to time. But more often the media receives information about “commercial surveillance” of users of American hi-tech giants - such as Google, Facebook and Apple. These companies, however, make excuses that data about users is not subject to disclosure to third parties, and that monitoring people’s movements, their search queries and surfing the Internet “better helps to take into account their interests.”

But there is almost no information in open sources about the system of surveillance of American intelligence services not only over its citizens, but also over all earthlings. If something comes across, it is immediately declared a “conspiracy theory” and on this basis is relegated to the margins.

However, from scraps of information about this system, you can get a brief idea. Back in 1946, a secret agreement on electronic espionage, the “UKUSA Agreement,” was concluded between the United States and England. Also, this tracking system received the common name “Echelon”. A little later they were joined by English satellites Australia, New Zealand and Canada. This alliance of five Anglo-Saxon countries still exists today, but several Echelon stations were installed in Germany and Japan, as well as on the territory of the British military base in Cyprus. The French publication Le Monde claims that the Echelon radio-electronic tracking base is also in Israel.

(“Parents” of the “Echelon” system are English intelligence officers Harry Hinsley and Sir Edward Travis, as well as American Brigadier General Tiltman)

The essence of the Echelon system is described as follows:

“The advent of geostationary communications satellites in the 1960s provided new opportunities for intercepting international communications. Later, the technology of using satellites for directional transmission of voice and other information has in recent years been almost completely replaced by fiber-optic information transmission technologies. Today, 99% of the world's long-distance telephone calls and Internet traffic are carried over fiber optics.

One method of intercepting information could be to install equipment in close proximity to the routers of large fiber optic backbones, since most Internet traffic passes through them, and their number is relatively small. There is information about a similar interception point in the USA called “Room 614A”. In previous years, most Internet traffic passed through networks in the US and UK, but the current situation looks different, for example, back in 2000, 95% of German domestic traffic was routed through the DE-CIX Internet Exchange Point in Frankfurt.”

Interestingly, the Frankfurt communications hub (the largest in Europe) also serves traffic from the West to Russia. Historically, the penetration of the Internet from Europe to Russia went in two directions - from Frankfurt and through Copenhagen-Stockholm-Kingisepp-St. Petersburg. On the maps below you can see the main telecommunications cables in the world and in Europe-Russia, in particular (by clicking on the map you can see it in a larger size).

In the Echelon system, each country has its own area of ​​responsibility. Thus, England (British Government Communications Center) looks after Europe and the European part of Russia, the Asian part of Russia (from the Urals and East), and northern China and Japan - the USA. During the Cold War, Canada was also involved in electronic espionage in the northern USSR, but with the surrender of the Soviet Union, the area of ​​responsibility of this British dominion was redirected to Central and South America.

The NSA is rumored to have already learned how to obtain a “voice print,” which is as unique as a fingerprint. Using a voice sample stored in the computer's memory, you can quickly identify any voice in a stream of sounds. That is, if Echelon once registered the voice of a person, then it can then track his conversation from any telephone in the world.

The heads of the intelligence services of the countries included in Echelon today already recognize the existence of this system. But they justify that electronic surveillance of any corner of the world, of any telephone conversation or email, is aimed at combating terrorism, as well as “transparency in international business.” In particular, former CIA Director James Woolsey said that the United States at one time managed to disrupt a deal worth $6 billion between Airbus and Saudi Arabia when, thanks to Echelon wiretapping, the NSA found out that the Europeans were offering kickbacks to the Arabs. Also, the NSA interception helped the American firm Raytheon secure a contract worth $1.4 billion to supply radars in Brazil, rather than the French firm Thomson-CSF.

Continental Europe has long been burdened by being under the hood of the Anglo-Saxon “Echelon”. In the early 2000s, first of all, France began to create its own electronic surveillance system, independent from the United States and England. France developed and operates the Helios optical-electronic reconnaissance space system with the participation of Spain and Italy (in the interests of the EU, such information is supplied to the space center intelligence in Torrejon), as well as its Frenchelon electronic intelligence system.

(Map of Echelon electronic surveillance bases)

France also insisted on the formation of a new joint planning and control body within the Military Headquarters, which caused protest from NATO, and especially the United States. They argued that such a center would become an unnecessary duplicating body of the alliance's already successfully functioning International Military Headquarters. But EU officials have insisted that the two unions have different missions and therefore must have different governing and planning bodies.

(Echelon system base near the Australian city of Darwin)

The new center began its work in the summer of 2007. However, in the same year, the pro-American French President Sarkozy began to sabotage the work of the new European collective security body. He was also supported by other pro-American leaders of two key continental European countries - Berlusconi and Merkel. Today Sarkozy and Berlusconi have left the political arena, and German Chancellor Merkel will soon do the same. And then nothing can prevent Russia from also participating in the new collective security body of continental Europe. And the first issue of such a structure should be the cessation of the development of American missile defense in Europe. By the way, the American missile defense system fits perfectly into the Echelon system, and the infrastructure of this missile defense system can be used for electronic surveillance of the Internet and other telecommunications in Russia.

(The first photo shows the Waihopai electronic surveillance base in New Zealand)

The Echelon network, designed to collect information, was declassified in 1998. The direction of Echelon's work is to intercept absolutely all information that is transmitted via all types of electronic communications, including satellite communications, wireless radio communications and submarine cable lines. Public organizations, government bodies of all world powers without exception, bankers, entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens are subject to wiretapping.

Scattered across remote corners of our planet, Echelon stations scan the digital space every day and collect a huge amount of information. Everything is under control - e-mail, telephone conversations, mobile communications, faxes. Since the Internet is an information space, it can also be controlled by Echelon. Any information transmitted over terrestrial, underwater, underground, fiber-optic telecommunication networks is intercepted, decrypted and analyzed. Without exception, ordinary citizens who use email, fax and telephone every day are subject to the control of the ubiquitous spy network.

In the first half of the last century, there was an unspoken agreement on the exchange of intelligence between the intelligence services of Great Britain and the United States. These informal contacts led to the conclusion of a formal intelligence alliance in the summer of 1943, better known as the BRUSA Agreement. At the end of the 40s, in preparation for the Cold War with the USSR, the BRUSA Agreement was replaced by a more modern and more appropriate “UKUSA Agreement”. This treaty was ratified by British and US intelligence services in 1948, and soon it was joined by other members of the North Atlantic bloc - Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway and other countries. The "UKUSA Agreement" is still in effect today and includes the following intelligence units - the US National Security Agency (NSA), the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the Australian Defense Communications Directorate (DSD), New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).

In the early 70s of the last century, the US National Security Agency presented to the participants in the agreement a draft global espionage network called Project P-415, which was eventually implemented under the name “Echelon”. At the same time, information was leaked to the press that, under conditions of the strictest secrecy, the NSA was testing a new information scanning system called Storm ("Tetrest"), which uses stray electromagnetic radiation and interference that arise during the operation of computer equipment and radio electronics.

"Echelon" in the truest sense of the word, the network is complex and multi-level. Its components are scattered all over the world - HF signal interceptors “Pusher” and “Classical Bullseye”, satellite communications interceptors “Moonpenny”, “Steeplebush” and “Runway”, speaker identity and voice message recognizers “Voicecast”.
The basis of the network is ground bases that are equipped with highly sensitive antennas, satellite dishes and radio telescopes. Near the fiber optic cable gateways there are special scanning complexes designed to capture and process signals. Such bases are located not only in countries participating in the UKUSA agreement, but also in Italy, Japan, Denmark, China, Turkey, the Middle East, Puerto Rico and African countries. According to unconfirmed reports, bases are also located on Diego Garcia Atoll and Assenson Island in the North Atlantic.

The main link in obtaining intelligence data is the international network of communications satellites lntelsat, which are located in geostationary orbits. lntelsat satellites are used by many telephone companies around the world to make calls and as a relay for faxes and email. Five main tracking stations are responsible for intercepting information transmitted via satellites.

The British tracking station is located on the grounds of the Royal Air Force military base in the town of Morwenstow, north of the Cornish coast. This station is designed to pick up signals from satellites that hover over Europe, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic. The National Security Agency station in Sugar Grove, West Virginia, controls the entire Atlantic. Another National Security Agency station, located at the Yakima Army Proving Ground in Washington State, is designed to monitor the traffic of Telsat satellites over the Pacific Ocean. Pacific lntelsat communications, which are not available to Yakima stations, are controlled by stations located in Western Australia in the town of Geraldton and in New Zealand on the island of Waihopai.

Echelon includes a number of stations designed to read regional satellites that do not belong to the Intelsat network, including Russian satellites. For example, these are the Menwiff Hill base in northern England, which spies on Russia and Europe, the Shoel Bay base in the Australian province of Darwin, spying on Indonesia, the Ottawa station, which controls Latin America, and the Misawa base in northern Japan.

The code name for the station at Menwiff Hill is "Field Station F-83". It occupies almost 20 square kilometers and has 25 satellite terminals, which are filled to the brim with cutting-edge electronics. The base was founded in 1950 on the North Yorkshire Moors near Harrogate. Field Station F-83 is the largest spy station in the world. It was originally intended to intercept commercial international communications on the International Leased Carrier data network, which is used by organizations and banks to make payments.

In the seventies of the last century, the base was repurposed. As part of the Steeplebush I and Steeplebush II agreement, the F-83 Field Station was used to collect information from satellites in Earth orbit. From space, the station looks like a golf course, with giant balls scattered across it - Kevlar caps. This complex Kevlar construction protects the ultra-sensitive antenna receivers from environmental influences.

Station F-83 employs 1,400 physicists, engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, linguists and 370 full-time Department of Defense employees. The station's staff is comparable to the entire MI-5 - the state security service of the British Empire. The Yorkshire F-83 station is the largest listening ear in the world, and also serves as a communication portal between groups of Vortex spy satellites. Every minute, three Vortex reconnaissance satellites located above the equator provide real-time intelligence information to the F-83. The modern constellation of Magnum & Orion satellites is controlled from the F-83 command post

However, it is not correct to think that the Echelon reconnaissance network is intended solely for satellite interception. The F-83 Field Station is also the most powerful means of classical radio espionage. The station is engaged in intercepting VHF signals and messages transmitted by microwave communication lines.
A key object in radio espionage is a network of terrestrial microwave communication lines through which control commands of government and military services are transmitted. All continents are connected by such networks. Heavy cables lie at the bottom of the oceans. On the seabed, cable lines are protected from interception, but once they leave the water, they become vulnerable. Also, microwave data networks consist of circuits that are within the visibility range of the transmitting antennas. Such networks cover entire countries and continents. Retrieving information from them is extremely easy.

The main element of Echelon's control is the National Security Agency's computer network, codenamed "Platform", which consists of 52 supercomputers located in different parts of the world. The Platform's main command center is located at Fort Meade, Maryland - the headquarters of the NSA.
By scanning the information space, Echelon networks look for those that contain certain code words in billions of intercepted messages. Data management is completely left to automation, this is achieved thanks to a highly organized software system. The coordination of the unified network is such that the system command post has instant access to information coming from all corners of the world. As soon as the supercomputer detects a keyword on the network - and it can be a company name, name, phone number, e-mail address or a person’s voice, this message is marked with a code and sent to the database for further processing and archiving. The computer records the details of the message.

Until the mid-90s, Echelon computers could not automatically recognize and digitize speech, so telephone conversations were recorded by the duration of their conversation. However, by the beginning of the current millennium this problem had been solved, and a new division of Transcription and Message Analysis appeared in the town of Menwif Hill. The division has two divisions that deal with Russia and the countries of the former USSR, and a second division that deals with the rest of the world.

Having such information, one can ask a reasonable question: why can terrorists, drug traffickers and criminal communities operate with such control and transparency? There are assumptions that the main activity of Echelon is monitoring respectable citizens. But this seemingly incredible conclusion is prompted by the fact that during the investigation of the European Parliament Commission on Civil Liberties it was found that among the targets of Echelon were human rights organizations, Amnesty International, the Christian Mutual Aid organization and others charity organisations.

The fears are further confirmed by the keywords used by Echelon networks, which were first published by independent American journalist Joseph Farah. In addition to the traditional keywords for such organizations - “detonator”, “murder” and “napalm”, harmless keywords and phrases such as “security of Internet connections”, “privacy”, “encryption”, “communication”, “Janet” were used ", "Java", "corporate security", "Soros", "PGP", and many others not related to counter-terrorism activities. In addition, such “keywords” as “football”, “government”, “inflation”, “discontent” are used. What does the intelligence network of special services have to do with discussions of football matches in telephone conversations and the next increase in prices in stores? There is an opinion that the Echelon system is one of the tools of information warfare, a prototype of a future global surveillance network.

Under the hood: the Echelon spy system

SINCE THE 90S, ENTIRE EUROPE HAS BEEN IN A COLD SWEAT FROM THE “TERRIBLE” SYSTEM OF GLOBAL INTERCEPTION OF INFORMATION “ECHELON”. THERE ARE A LOT OF RUMORS AND GOSSIP ABOUT THE SYSTEM, AND OFTEN JUST FANTASTIC STORIES. BUT WHAT IS SHE REALLY?

The birth of the system occurred in the initial period of the Cold War, namely 1945. It was then that US President Harry Truman set the main task of intercepting all radio signals coming from the “dangerous” Soviet Union at that time.

It was beyond the power of one country to organize such a serious project: after all, a lot of money and all kinds of support were needed. The USA began to cooperate with the UK, then Canada, New Zealand and Australia joined the project. The union was due to the favorable geographical position of the participating countries.

Three years later, in 1948, the United States and Great Britain signed the UKUSA agreement, which established that the primary rights to use the new system belonged to the United States and Great Britain. Other countries that also took part in the project received the status of “minor users”. The text of this agreement is still classified information and it is unlikely that it will ever be made available to the public. Despite this, many “seasoned” journalists provide the public with excerpts from this agreement, but there is no official confirmation of their reliability.

The agreement was signed and interception work began. The creators began to have grandiose plans to cover the entire globe with “control” points. And a few years later, on the basis of this project, a system with the proud name “Echelon” was born.

Since its inception, Echelon has had a limited range of targets. The main ones are surveillance of the military and socialist countries. The targets of wiretapping were to be the military, various government agencies, the most influential non-governmental organizations, and so on. At that time, they didn’t think much about tracking mere mortals. But this is according to the official version, but in reality everything could have been different.
As time passed, the system's tasks expanded. By the beginning of the 90s, the system was being seriously updated: stations designed to intercept information in the countries participating in the project were being improved, the construction of new “points” began in many parts of the globe, and spy satellites were launched. Since 1995, the Echelon system has taken control of European negotiations. It was from this year that mass espionage began.
Echelon stations

Echelon stations are characterized by mobility. An agreement is concluded between the owners of the system and the states in which the station is planned to be built, on the basis of which the station is installed for a certain time. The emergence of such databases is due to increased interest in information from certain countries. A good example of such a station is Bamaga, which was opened in 1988. At that time, Papua and New Guinea was monitored from this base.

For the construction of new stations, the geographical location is determined so that the control areas completely overlap. If one of the stations stops working, the neighboring ones must take over its functions.
Secrecy of "Echelon"

Initially, Echelon was classified. This is understandable: only a certain circle of people should know about a project of this kind, but this did not last long. Some of the information was made available to the general public thanks to former intelligence agents in Canada and Australia. For example, Bill Blick told the whole world that the Australian intelligence service Defense Signals Directorate (DSD) is analyzing and intercepting radio signals for the Echelon project. In addition, Bill said that all data received is transferred to the USA and the UK. After a short period of time, the former American intelligence veteran could not resist and also gave a short interview to journalists, in which he spoke about the ground interception station located near Munich. As he said in his interview: “We could hear what they were talking about in Ukraine in a low voice.” US authorities refused to comment on these events.

A few years later, one of the CIA representatives, James Woolsey, gave an interview for an American magazine in which he confirmed data regarding the existence of Echelon. In addition, Woolsey noted that the United States uses Echelon for economic intelligence.
Operating principle

The structure of Echelon has changed several times since its creation. Expert Duncan Campbell, speaking in the European Parliament, said that the Echelon system most likely consists of three components: the first controls Intelsat satellites, the second controls Vortex satellites, and the third is engaged in ground interception.

The Echelon system intercepts data using ground interception stations and spy satellites, of which there are more than 150 today. The intercepted data enters an extensive computer network, in which the information is analyzed. According to intelligence reports from some countries, Cray computers are used for analysis.

An extensive computer network consists of a huge number of computers scattered across different areas. Presumably this network is called Dictionary. Each such computer contains a database of “keywords”. Due to the huge number of keywords, the database is divided into categories, that is, separately for the analysis of intercepted information about an alleged impending murder, separately for the analysis of possible terrorist attacks, and so on.

"Echelon" recognizes information by keywords. Keywords are certain surnames (as a rule, these are the surnames of very important people), telephone numbers, names of important strategic objects, and so on. All keywords are stored in the database and have translations from several dozen languages ​​of the world. Priority is given to English, Russian and languages ​​of Muslim countries.

The Echelon system is maintained by several tens of thousands of employees who constantly have to analyze the mass of incoming data. In order not to get lost in a large flow of information, the first step is to analyze the computer. After the software analyzes and discards uninteresting data, everything “useful” is distributed to employees. Of course, even after computer screening, the information obtained contains a lot of garbage. Why? During conversations, many use profanity, discuss presidents, jokingly threatening to blow up the White House or rip the president's guts out. The program naturally classifies such conversations as “dangerous,” and only then employees decide how to react to it.

The entire globe is divided by the system into sections, each of which is controlled by a specific center. It is known that all of Western Europe, North Africa and our country up to the Ural Range are controlled by the British Government Communications Center. The American continent and the eastern part of Russia are under the control of the US NSA. The Pacific and South Asian regions are under the supervision of the intelligence services of Australia and New Zealand.

Presumably, Echelon can intercept almost 99% of transmitted information around the world. As for intercepted data from the Internet, it is rumored that Echelon is capable of checking 3 billion electronic messages per day.
"Echelon" today

Today, the Echelon system controls the negotiations of almost all Europeans (again, according to available data, how things really are is unknown). A huge number of Intelsat and Vortex spy satellites (a more advanced version of Intelsat) “flutter” in space. Intelsat satellites carry approximately 90% of all telephone calls from around the world, international fax communications and Internet data exchange. That is, any information can be available to intelligence services.

The United States is still trying to convince that the stories about Echelon are highly embellished, but, nevertheless, they are in no hurry to disclose documents concerning the system. On the other hand, the functionality of the system can indeed be greatly exaggerated. After all, if you remember, during the entire existence of the system there have been quite a few terrorist attacks, and the most sensational of them - September 11, 2001 - was not prevented. This is far from the only example. Experts involved in the study of Echelon give different answers to this question, and many agree that the tasks of Echelon are not at all what is known to the public. Most likely, this is industrial and political espionage.
The "Echelon" problem

The Echelon system is needed by the countries that participate in the project, and the rest, for obvious reasons, are not happy with its existence. The European Union is doing its best to counter US espionage. For example, after lengthy negotiations, Europe achieved the closure of a station near Munich, which was an important link. And this is far from the only case of a clash between Europe and the United States on this basis. In 1997, the European Commission's Human Rights Committee published a report outlining the rights violated when using the Echelon system. And in 1999, the first public action took place against the use of Echelon. On October 21, everyone sent emails with various kinds of “keywords” all day long. It is clear what this action was supposed to lead to - unnecessary work for employees servicing Echelon and overloading the system. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find out about the results of the action. There was no comment from the US. The European Parliament has tried more than once to resolve the matter through the courts, but there was no tangible effect.

In 1999, several American human rights organizations (Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union) opened a joint project “What is Echelon”, the purpose of which is to study the monitoring activities of Echelon. That same year, EPIC filed a lawsuit against the US National Security Agency (NSA), which demanded the release of documents related to the operation of the system. However, as in other cases, the NSA ignored the request.
The future of Echelon

Since most of the information is closed, it is difficult to predict the future of the system. Echelon has a strong opponent - Europe. So far it is clear that it has not been possible to reach an agreement at the legislative level. This means you need to create your own tracking system or use cryptography. Higher officials (government, FSB, and so on) negotiate via secure communication channels. All negotiations are encrypted with a strong algorithm (it is known that they were developed by the KGB).

As for the counterbalance, the European Parliament in 2006 approved the creation of a European satellite tracking system. All EU countries will take part in its creation. Perhaps this decision will turn out to be correct.
Analogues of "Echelon"

We should not make the mistaken conclusion that we are under constant control of America and our country has nothing to respond to. This is wrong. Back in the USSR, a worthy analogue of “Echelon” was invented. Moreover, this was done around the same time when Echelon began to gain momentum. The name of this system is SOUD (System for Unified Accounting of Enemy Data).

According to official data, the agreement between the Warsaw Pact countries was signed in 1977. The system was built on the eve of the Olympic Games, and its main goal was to prevent terrorist attacks against athletes and all kinds of famous guests. Naturally, it would be stupid to create an expensive system for the sake of one Olympics, so the system was developed for the future.

Unlike Echelon, SOUD was well classified. Perhaps it would have remained a state secret if not for Colonel Oleg Gordievsky. He was recruited by the British, and the whole world learned about the existence of SOUD.
Operating principle of the SOUD

The principle of operation of the SOUD is the same as that of the Echelon. The stations intercept information and it is analyzed by supercomputers. To process information using “keywords”, computers manufactured in Bulgaria from IBM were used. These computers contained a large database with information about the main people of that time: military personnel, leading businessmen, foreign politicians and all those who could be of interest to the USSR.

The intercepted information was analyzed in two computer centers. The first was in Moscow, and the second in the GDR. The system worked until 1989, but as a result of the unification of Germany and the GDR, the computer center became the property of German intelligence, and on its basis Germany began to develop its own similar system. Because of this loss, the SOUD lost half of its capabilities.

But the story of the SOUD did not end there. In the early 90s, everything that remained of the SOUD was subject to global updating, or rather transformation. From its remains a new Russian intelligence system emerged. Several new stations were built, and those that remained from the former SOUD were updated.

The Americans tried to gain control over us, and we over them. One of the SOUD interception stations is located in Cuba. This is an ideal place to intercept information from America. An agreement between Russia and Cuba, concluded in the 90s, guaranteed the possibility of using the station until 2000. There are no exact data, but most likely this agreement was extended.
WWW

www.agentura.ru - information on secret projects, government agencies, etc.

www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/index2.html - declassified documents of the Echelon system

nvo.ng.ru/spforces/2000-08-11/7_perehvat.html - article “Global electronic interception”

www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/31/what_are_those_words/ - a tentative list of words to which the system reacts

www.echelonwatch.org - Echelonwatch project

www.ipim.ru/discussion/207.html?print - article about “Echelon”

Unlike other electronic espionage systems, the Echelon supernetwork, the very existence of which was denied until 1998, was not originally intended to intercept military data. Its targets are government bodies, public organizations and firms, politicians, bankers and entrepreneurs, public figures, and now ordinary citizens of every country in the world. The Echelon stations scattered across the planet collect a colossal amount of information, literally sucking out the air on a global scale. ALL email, ALL telephone conversations, including cellular, paging messages, telexes, telegrams, faxes, radio and the Internet, are now an “information space” carefully probed by “Echelon”. Everything that is transmitted over telecommunications networks - overland, underground, underwater or fiber optic cables, radio communications - from chatter on the phone to radar signatures for missile launches - everything is intercepted by this network. In fact, every person in the world who uses a telephone, fax or email is monitored by Echelon on a daily basis, although they are not even aware of it.
...Even before the Second World War, there was an unofficial intelligence sharing pact between British and American intelligence. This practice led to the formal intelligence alliance known as the BRUSA Agreement in 1943. By the late 1940s, in preparation for the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the BRUSA protocol became obsolete and was replaced by the "UKUSA Agreement", ratified by the parties in 1947-1948.
Today, UKUSA includes the following spy agencies from five English-speaking countries:
England - Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ);
USA - National Security Agency (NSA);
Canada - Communications Security Establishment (CSE);
Australia - Communications Security Directorate (DSD);
New Zealand - Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
In the late 1960s - early 1970s. The NSA presented to UKUSA participants “Project P-415”, which was implemented as the global espionage network “Echelon”, which operates today (and continues to actively develop). Currently, in an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, the NSA is developing a new system for collecting information "Tetrest" ("Storm") - for side electromagnetic radiation and interference (PEMIN), which inevitably arises during the operation of any radio-electronic and computer equipment.
"Echelon" is not a single institution, like the CIA or the FSB; "Echelon" in the full sense of the word The network is a complex, multi-variably linked system of units. Within the Echelon network, individual subnetworks scattered around the world carry out network-wide programs - such as "Classical Bullseye" and "Pusher" - interception of RF signals, "Steeplebush", "Runway" and "Moonpenny" - interception of satellite communications, "Voicecast" - recognition of voice messages, as well as determining the identity of speakers.
The basis of the network is ground bases equipped with sensitive antennas, similar to radio telescopes, and satellite dishes. In addition, there are other types of bases located near overhead, underground and underwater telecommunications, designed to pick up signals from conventional and fiber optic cables. Such sites exist not only in UKUSA countries, but also in Denmark, Italy, Japan, China, Turkey, Puerto Rico, the Middle East and Africa. Also, according to unconfirmed reports, they are found on Ascençon Island in the Atlantic and Diego Garcia Atoll in the Indian Ocean.
The main source of intelligence is the international communications satellites lntelsat, located in geostationary orbits, which are used by most telephone companies in the world and serve as relays for telephone conversations, faxes and e-mail. Five main tracking stations are dedicated to intercepting information transmitted by these satellites from one to another.
The British tracking station is located at the Royal Air Force base at Morwenstow on the north Cornish coast, on the tops of high cliffs. It picks up signals from satellites hovering over the Atlantic, Europe and the Indian Ocean. The NSA station at Sugar Grove, in the mountains of West Virginia, spans the Atlantic of both American continents. Another NSA station is in Washington state, inside the Yakima Army training ground. She reads lntelsat traffic over the Pacific Ocean. Those lntelsat Pacific communications that are not available to the Yakima station, and the Indian Ocean are controlled by stations in Geraldton in Western Australia and on the island. Waihopai, New Zealand.
In addition, Echelon includes another network of stations that read regional satellite orbits that do not belong to Intelsat, in particular Russian ones. These are Menwith Hill in northern England, spying on Europe and Russia, Shoal Bay in the Australian province of Darwin, monitoring Indonesia, Leitrim Station, Ottawa, monitoring Latin America, and Misawa Base ( Misawa) in northern Japan.
The Menwief Hill station, codenamed Field Station F-83, with its 25 satellite terminals (not including three under construction) and more than 19.8 square kilometers of state-of-the-art electronics buildings, is the hub of the Echelon network. Founded in the 1950s on the North Yorkshire Moors, above Harrogate, on land purchased by the Crown for an RAF base, the F-83 is the largest spy station in the world.
Initially, the F-83 was intended to intercept international commercial communications on the ILC (International Leased Carrier) network used by banks and firms for payments. In the 1970s it was repurposed. As part of the Steeplebush I and II programs, the F-83 base began collecting information from satellites. From space, it looks like a green lawn on which golf balls are scattered - this is what protective Kevlar caps look like - radoms with a complex surface architecture that protect sensitive antennas.
The F-83 employs 1,400 engineers, physicists, linguists, mathematicians, computer scientists and 370 Department of Defense employees. The modest F-83 station has a staff equal to the entire MI-5 - the state security service of the British Empire...
The F-83 station not only serves as the largest ear in the world, but also serves as a communication portal with a constellation of Anglo-American spy satellites, including the main network monitoring Eurasia - Vortex. Every minute, three Vortex satellites hovering over the equator provide real-time intelligence information to the F-83. More modern, larger satellites Magnum & Orion are also controlled from the F-83.
But don’t think that Echelon is only engaged in satellite interception. The F-83 is also the most powerful unit of classical radio espionage. It intercepts messages transmitted by microwave communication lines, shortwave and VHF signals used in military radio stations and walkie-talkies.
The key link here is the terrestrial microwave communication networks, which transmit commands from government services, including diplomatic directives and military command. Continents are connected by these networks. Heavy cables that lie on the seabed are safe for communications. But once they leave the water and join microwave networks, they are vulnerable to interception. Microwave networks consist of circuits in the line of sight of antennas that transmit messages from one to another. These networks span countries. It is easy to extract information from them. For this, by the way, according to unconfirmed reports (and what fool would confirm them?!), sophisticated receivers and powerful processors are used, allegedly secretly transported to foreign embassies of UKUSA countries in diplomatic bags.
But the most important component of Echelon is the NSA's computer network, code-named Platform, which interconnects 52 separate networks of supercomputers located in other parts of the world. The Platform's command center is located at Fort Meade, Maryland, USA - the headquarters of the NSA. Computer networks of local Echelon networks search millions of intercepted messages for those that contain code words. Thanks to highly organized system support, data management is fully automated, and the coordination of stations into a single network is such that the central authorities of the system have almost instantaneous access to all relevant information from around the world.
As soon as the supercomputers of a separate network detect a keyword - name, title, telephone number, telex, fax, e-mail address, voice "print", which is individual for each person, like fingerprints, then this message is marked in a special way - with a code of four code numbers - and is sent to the database. Before sending, the computer automatically records the details of the message - time/place of interception, recipient/sender, type of communication.
In the mid-1990s, Echelon computers were unable to automatically recognize and convert speech into text and recorded telephone conversations based on outgoing/receiving parameters and duration. But by the beginning of the millennium, the problem was solved, and a Collection/Transcription Analysis and Reporting division, C/TAR, appeared in Menvif Hill, with two departments: 1 - Russia and the countries of the former USSR and 2 - the rest of the world.
You have now been warned. Be vigilant: no matter where you are, no matter who you are, you are being watched by Big Brother, monitoring almost every written or spoken word you transmit through communications. Cryptography today, alas, is becoming similar to literacy in the Middle Ages...
But with such transparency in the world, how can drug dealers and terrorists, organized crime communities and gangs, illegal pornography and other plagues of this civilization exist and operate? We would also like to ask this question if we did not have concerns that Echelon was built to monitor respectable citizens. This paradoxical conclusion is prompted by the fact that, as revealed during the investigation of the special commission of the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament (document “Interception Capabilities 2000”), among the “targets” of the “Echelon” are human rights organizations, Amnesty International ), Christian Aid, and civil liberties groups.
This fear is confirmed by a set of keywords for one of the Echelon networks, first published by American independent journalist Joseph Farah. In addition to the natural keywords for such a list such as “murder”, “napalm”, “detonator”, etc., it contained keywords and phrases: “privacy”, “security of Internet connections”, “Janet”, “Java” ", "encryption", "communication", "dictionary", "Mac Internet Security", "keywords", "Lexis-Nexis", "corporate security", "Soros" and "PGP" (the name of a popular electronic encryptor).
But when we move on to the third group of keywords, fears turn into bewilderment, and then... “Veggie”, “Sayeret Tsanhanim”, “nerd”, “Steeplebush”, “Hollyhock”, “utopia”, “zen”, “ Illuminati", "football", "ritual fetish", "Area 51"..? From this set it is difficult to guess only the meaning of the six closing ones. “Utopia”, “football” and “zen” are clear without explanation. Area 51 is where the remains of aliens and the UFO that crashed in Roswell in 1947 are supposedly located. The Illuminati is a secret revolutionary society that existed in Bavaria and partly in France, founded by Adam Weishaupt and destroyed during the life of the founder. But what does intelligence have to do with it? And fetishes?! After all, the dictionary of Echelon keywords is by no means limitless. How expensive it is to decipher messages containing these words...
Wouldn’t one of our interlocutors be right when he said: “The Echelon system is one of the instruments of information warfare waged against the peoples of the planet, and the most likely prototype of a total tracking network along with the GPS global positioning system. The final phase will begin with the merging of these systems into a single whole.” stage of construction of the world electronic concentration camp"?

Echelon / Echelon

http://www.agentura.ru/dossier/usa/nsa/eshelon/

Is Echelon the best spy network?

http://archiv.kiev1.org/page-772.html

Read more about Echelon...

http://www.planetdeusex.ru/dx/podrobnee-ob-eshelone/

Echelon (secret service)

http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/705020

Echelon (secret service)

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_(%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B0)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_(signals_intelligence)

Mentions that the name "Echelon" is used in different contexts, but there is some evidence indicating that it is the name of an electronic intelligence system. The report concludes that, based on the information provided, Echelon has the ability to intercept and analyze telephone conversations, faxes, emails and other information flows around the world by connecting to communication channels such as satellite communications, public telephone network, microwave connections .

Name

According to the Interim Committee on the Echelon Intelligence System of the European Parliament: "In view of evidence and documentation from a wide range of individuals and organizations, including American sources, its name is indeed 'Echelon', although this is a relatively minor detail."

Margaret Neesham claims that she worked on the configuration and installation of pieces of software as an employee of Lockheed Martin between 1974 and 1984, in the US and UK. According to her, at that time the computer network itself was code-named “Echelon.” Lockheed Martin called it P415. The software was called SILKWORTH and SIRE.

Story

The official history of “Echelon” begins in 1947, when the secret agreement “UKUSA Agreement” was concluded between the United States and England, according to which these countries pooled their technical and human resources in the field of global electronic espionage. The basis for Echelon was the powerful technical intelligence units created during the Second World War by the intelligence services of the United States and Great Britain. It was they who began to create a worldwide listening system. The responsibilities of the alliance members were clearly specified in the UKUSA Agreement. A little later, Canada, Australia and New Zealand joined the USA and England. The heads of the radio intelligence services of the five countries met annually to discuss issues of planning and coordination of activities in areas of global intelligence.

Then a number of NATO countries joined the alliance, including Norway, Denmark, Germany and Türkiye.

Structure

Infrastructure

• Hong Kong, China (currently closed)
• Geraldton, Western Australia
• Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, UK
• Misawa, Japan
• GCHQ Bude, Cornwall, UK
• Pine Gap, Northern Territory, Australia
• Sugar Grove, West Virginia, USA
• Yakima Training Center, USA, Washington State
• GCSB Waihopai, New Zealand.

In addition, this report mentions a number of other stations whose involvement in the system “could not be clearly established”:

• Ayios Nikolaos (Cyprus, UK base)
• Bad Aibling Station (US base in Germany, moved to Griesheim, 7 km west of Darmstadt in 2004)
• Buckley Air Force Base (US Air Force base, Colorado)
• Fort Gordon (Georgia, USA)
• Gander (Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador)
• Guam (US base in the Pacific)
• Kunia (Hawaii Islands, USA)
• Leitrim (Canada, Ontario)
• Lackland Air Force Base, Medina Annex (San Antonio, Texas, USA).

Possibilities

Electronic intelligence methods directly depend on the methods used to transmit information, be it radio, satellite communications, microwave radiation, cellular communications, fiber-optic connections or others.

One way or another, the technology of using satellites for directional transmission of voice and other information has in recent years been almost completely replaced by fiber-optic information transmission technologies. Thus, in 2006, 99% of the world's long-distance telephone calls and Internet traffic were carried through fiber optic communications. The share of international communications attributable to satellite communications has decreased significantly; even in the least developed countries, satellite communications are used primarily for broadcast applications such as satellite television.

Thus, most communications cannot be intercepted by satellite ground stations, and the only option is to connect to cables and intercept microwave signals in line of sight, which can only be done to a limited extent.

One method of intercepting information could be to install equipment in close proximity to the routers of large fiber optic backbones, since most Internet traffic passes through them, and their number is relatively small. There is detailed information about a similar interception point in the United States called “Room 641A” ( Room 641A) and indirect about about 10-20 similar ones. In previous years, most Internet traffic passed through networks in the US and UK, but the current situation looks different, for example, back in 2000, 95% of German domestic traffic passed through the DE-CIX Internet exchange point in Frankfurt. A comprehensive network of information interception is possible if special equipment is confidentially introduced into the territory of other countries, or if we cooperate with local intelligence services. In support of this possibility, a 2001 European Parliament report indicates that wiretapping and interception of telephone conversations and other information flows is not limited to the intelligence services of UKUSA countries.

Most of the information on Echelon is focused on intercepting satellite communications, but nevertheless, speeches in the European Parliament showed that there are separate but similar systems of the countries of the UKUSA agreement created to monitor information passing through submarine intercontinental cables, microwave communication lines and others means of information transmission.

Public response

Some critics accuse the system of being used not only for the search and identification of terrorist bases, drug trafficking routes and political-diplomatic intelligence, which would be natural, but also for large-scale commercial thefts, international commercial espionage and invasion of privacy. For example, British journalist Duncan Campbell and his New Zealand colleague Nicky Hager drew public attention to the fact that in the 1990s the Echelon system was involved in industrial espionage much more than for military and diplomatic purposes. Examples cited by journalists included wind turbine technology developed by the German firm Enercon and speech recognition technology owned by the Belgian company Lernout & Hauspie.

An article in the American newspaper Baltimore Sun reported that in 1994, Airbus lost a $6 billion contract with Saudi Arabia after the US National Security Agency announced that Airbus management companies bribed Saudi officials in order to successfully maintain the contract.

In works of art

see also

Notes

1. John O'Neill. , ISBN 9781595710710
2. One of the earliest articles on Echelon, Someone's Listening, was published in the New Statesman in 1988.
3. Gerhard Schmid. On the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system), (2001/2098(INI)) (undefined) . European Parliament: Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System (11 July 2001). Retrieved August 26, 2018. Archived February 20, 2012.
4. Elkjær, Bo, Kenan Seeberg. ECHELON Was My Baby, Ekstra Bladet (November 17, 1999). Archived March 2, 2000.
5. Independent newspaper
6. Echelon (undefined) (unavailable link). Retrieved April 7, 2009. Archived April 4, 2009.
7. The Codebreakers. Ch. 10, 11
8. NSA eavesdropping: How it might work (undefined) . CNET News.com. Retrieved January 24, 2012. Archived March 21, 2012.