ECHELON Essay, Research Paper

In the greatest surveillance effort ever established, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has created a global spy system, codename ECHELON, which captures and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world. ECHELON is controlled by the NSA and is operated in conjunction with the Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) of England, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) of Canada, the Australian Defense Security Directorate (DSD), and the General Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) of New Zealand. These organizations are bound together under a secret 1948 agreement, UKUSA, whose terms and text remain under wraps even today.

The ECHELON system is fairly simple in design: position intercept stations all over the world to capture all satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications traffic, and then process this information through the massive computer capabilities of the NSA and look for code words or phrases (known as the ECHELON ?Dictionary?). The system includes both advanced voice recognition and optical character recognition (OCR) programs that will prompt the computers to flag the message for recording and transcribing for future analysis. Intelligence analysts at each of the respective ?listening stations? maintain separate keyword lists for them to analyze any conversation or document flagged by the system, which is then forwarded to the respective intelligence agency headquarters that requested the intercept.

ECHELON is also being used for purposes well outside its original mission. The regular discovery of domestic surveillance targeted at American civilians for reasons of ?unpopular? political affiliation or for no probable cause at all in violation of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution ? are consistently impeded by very elaborate and complex legal arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and the US government. The guardians and caretakers of our liberties, our duly elected political representatives, give scarce attention to these activities, let alone the abuses that occur under their watch. Among the activities that the ECHELON targets are political spying are commercial espionage.

The ECHELON system was not designed to eavesdrop on a particular individual’s e-mail or fax link. Rather, the system works by indiscriminately intercepting very large quantities of communications and using computers to identify and extract messages of interest from the mass of unwanted ones. A chain of secret interception facilities has been established around the world to tap into all the major components of the international telecommunications networks. Some monitor communications satellites, others land-based communications networks, and others radio communications. ECHELON links together all these facilities, providing the US and its allies with the ability to intercept a large proportion of the communications on the planet.

There has been much controversy, especially on a personal level for people around the world with regard to the ECHELON project. Many people feel that this project is a direct violation of their rights to privacy and freedom of speech. The concept of ?big brother watching? has always been an issue and will continue to grow with the expansion of technology, telecommunications, and the Internet. Many people feel that there conversations, faxes, and emails should be kept private and out of the discretion of the government.

My initial reaction to this project is anger, invasion, and disgust. In all reality, why should the government bother of even care about what I say over the telephone or in an email?? Really, as long as I am not doing anything illegal, it is none of their business. But, if I am not doing anything illegal, why would I be afraid of a government official reading my emails or listening to my telephone conversation? Do they really care about what is in that email unless it is something that could be damaging to society? This leads to my next point, how would one feel if a crime (murder, bombing, terroristic invasion, mass genocide, etc.) could have been prevented if the government had received a message and where prepared before the crime plan was implemented?

I have decided, based on these points, that the government has every right to scan all methods of communication both domestic and overseas, for the reasons of protecting our well being. The key to fighting criminal behavior is prevention. ECHELON is the perfect device for scanning all methods of communication. With the growth and prevention of ECHELON, more and more criminal operations can and will be prevented. ECHELON is not the answer to society?s problems and tragedies, but it is a mechanism for preventing many of them and should continue to be enforced.