Echelon is a code name used during many years by the American services of Renseignement S to indicate a base of interception of the commercial satellites. By extension the Réseau Level indicates the world system of interception of the Communication S private and public, worked out by the the United States, the the United Kingdom, the Canada, the Australia and the New Zealand within the framework of the Traité UKUSA ( UKUSA Agreement ).

The Echelon network is managed jointly by the services of Renseignement S of the Member States of the treaty UKUSA:

  • NSA (National Security Agency) for the the United States which is the principal contributor and user;
  • GCHQ (Government Headquarter Communications) for the the United Kingdom;
  • CST (Center of the safety of telecommunications) for the Canada;
  • DSD (Defense Signals Directorate) for the Australia;
  • GCSB (Government Communications Security Office) for the New Zealand.

It is a network total, supported by artificial satellite , vast bases of listenings located at the United States, Canada (with Leitrim), at the United Kingdom (with Morwenstow), in Australia (with Pine Gap) and in New Zealand (with Waihopai), small stations of interception in the Ambassade S, and the submarine of Classe Seawolf USS Jimmy Carter, entered service in 2005 to listen to the underwater cables of Télécommunications.

It intercepts the telephone Télécopie S, communications , the emails and, thanks to a powerful network of Ordinateur S, is able to sort according to certain terms the written communications and, starting from the intonation of the voice, the oral communications.

Although several other countries set up similar systems, like the system called Frenchelon in France, there remains most powerful today of the systems of listening.

These networks can be used for military actions, political or commercial. It would have been used to save contracts with American companies, vis-a-vis its competitors, like Boeing against Airbus.

On the basis of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, largest out of the United States: 2,000 people work, of which: 1,500 Americans. The militant ones of Women peace camp entered several times this base, flew of the documents and disseminated information about Echelon.

History

Origins of Level in treaty UKUSA

In 1943, the the United States and the the United Kingdom, then engaged in the Second world war, sign a cooperation agreement in the interception of the communications, the agreement Brusa. The machine Enigma, floret of the Cryptography Nazi, does not resist this alliance. To perennialize this agreement with leaving the war, these two countries sign in 1947 the treaty UKUSA (United-Kingdom - United States off America). They are quickly joined by the Canada, the Australia and the New Zealand.

The development Level during the Cold war

During the first years, the Member States of UKUSA were confined with the interception of the messages entering and outgoing their respective territories and with the listening of certain countries bordering. But well quickly, the Cold war delivered against the Soviet Union obliges them to develop more powerful tools, and with larger operating range. In the middle of the Years 1970, the first Echelon base is born with the the United States. It will be the first of a vast network which covers the whole Earth today. Its name is P415, but it is more known under the name of Réseau Level .

Several third countries will join this alliance - such as the Germany, the Norway, or the South Korea. They will have however only one secondary importance, the five principal countries of this coalition sharing information collected, selecting those which can reach the other Member States and deciding which people, companies, or States must be the target of the network.

Revealing of the network Level

This network remained completely unknown general public during nearly 20 years. It is only in 1988 that a Scottish journalist, Duncan Campbell, reveals the business, in an article entitled " Somebody' S listening" and published in New Statesman . At the time, this one does not make great noise and the media are interested in it very little. In 1996, the New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager confirms its existence in its book Secret Power and evokes for the first time the word Echelon. In parallel, the businesses of economic espionage multiply (Thomson-CSF, Airbus, AT&T,…).

In 1999, the door half-opens with the successive declarations of the Canadians and Australian who confirm their membership of an alliance in the field of the information. This same year, the first documentary evidences are discovered by researchers of the university George Washington (Washington). Two documents déclassifiés by NSA were discovered, one dating of September 3rd, 1991 which specifies the mission of the electronic station control room of Sugar Grove in Virginia, the other of June 15th, 1995 reporting the activation of certain centers of interception on American air bases. It will be noted that NSA always denied this alliance.

Stations of interception

Here the list of the stations known or suspectées to take part in the network Level:

Principal stations

Other stations

Old stations

Known businesses of espionages

Espionage against people

1945 - 1973 Operation SHAMROCK

Starting from 1945, NSA systematically obtained offices of the principal American companies of telegraphy (RCA Global, ITT World Communications, Western Union) the access to the cabled messages. It is the beginning of the operation SHAMROCK which lasted nearly 30 years. Of 1966 with 1973, the total circulation of telegrams to the the United States was approximately 72 million messages per annum. According to the Commission Church of the American Senate, the analysts of NSA selected approximately 1,8 of them million, that is to say one on forty, to exploit them with the assistance of the other American agencies.

1967 - 1975 Operation MINARET

Starting from 1967, the operation MINARET begins. The pacifist ones (against the war of the Vietnam), militants for the civic equal rights (Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Jane Fonda…) are put systematically on listening. To legitimate their actions the various American agencies voluntarily carried charges in their opposition. Thus 450 American and: 3000 foreigners were regarded as international drug traffickers: 1000 Americans and: 1700 foreigners were classified like agitators public or terrorist, 30 American organizations and 700 foreigners were designated as extremists.

August 8th, 1975, the lieutenant-general Lew Allen directing of NSA, recognizes in front of the Commission Pike of the room of the Representatives that: “NSA intercepts systematically the international communications, the phone calls like the cabled messages. ” He also recognized that messages addressed to citizens American or emanating from them were intercepted in the process intended to gather information concerning the foreigner, which is contrary with the American Constitution.

In August 1977, Abdeen Mr. Jabara, lawyer of Strait, brought a lawsuit with FBI. It became the first and the only American to cause the revelation of wide of the monitoring exerted on him by NSA. Between 1967 and 1973, NSA had gotten for FBI the contents of six phone calls and telegrams passed abroad through this man. This one also learned that NSA had transmitted information relating to it at thirteen American federal agencies and three foreign governments. It obtained temporarily that it is interdict with NSA to listen to its communications, and destruction of the material and the files relating to it. A few years later the file was classified without continuation.

Economic espionage

Fight against criminality

  • 1992 : It would have allowed espionner, Jose Ignacio López de Arriortua, a framework of General Motors left to Volkswagen in 1992 with secret documents (Lopez was recognized guilty by contumacy in May 2000 by a federal jury of the United States).
  • 2007 : During the removal of the young girl Madeleine McCann with the Portugal, Scotland Yard would have had recourse to the Echelon network via the Government Communications Headquarters.

Opponents

Jam Day Level

In 1999, a group of “hacktivists” lance a mobilization campaign against the system LEVEL while drawing started from alleged sound weak point: its dictionary of key words. October 21st, 1999 is declared as being “Jam Echelon Day”, the day of clogging of the network LEVEL. The Internaute S are invited to add to all their emails a list of key words suitable to make react the system of sorting. According to the militants, the system of listenings could then be submerged by the mass of messages to treat. But well quickly this assertion is questioned. William Knowlse who was the first to prepare a list of Mots-clés since 1998 declares “ I piled up these key words with the wire of my readings, without really thinking of destabilizing the secret services I doubt that an old list of more than two years can create troubles with NSA. ”. Duncan Campbell, a specialist in the network LEVEL, will even add “ It is enough for the employees to the NSA to require of their Ordinateur S to be unaware of the messages containing more than one ten key words. The network LEVEL would then be protected and would not undergo any clogging. ”.

In 2001, the action is started again with a more informative goal. Its main objective is to render comprehensible with the citizens whom the freedom of thought and of expression is threatened. The second objective is to provide opinions, software to make safe the communications of the companies and private individuals. However the message passes badly, and has difficulties in leave a cocoon of specialized Internaute S.

Women Peace Camp

Menwith Hill, in the Yorkshire, with the the United Kingdom, is the greatest base of the network LEVEL out of the the United States. Close to: 2000 people work there of which approximately: 1500 Americans. A group of women, Women Peace Camp, old on average of more than 60 years is opposed to this presence. Since 1994, they install caravans opposite the base, evacuated without care they alert the public opinion. During more than 2 years, they were introduced several times into the base and made its dustbins without waking up the suspicions. Thanks to photocopies missed by the faxes they succeed in updating nearly 250 operative systems at Menwith Hill, and several bases established on the British ground unknown factors until now.

Following their multiple actions, they multiply the lawsuits and the periods of imprisonment. Thus Ann Lee was condemned the year dernière to 2 months of imprisonment to have cut out a grid of safety, Helen John old of more than 60 years 34 times were condemned and made 18 months of prison. But their fight seems ineffective, in spite of the growing dissatisfaction of the personnel of the base, Menwith Hill does not cease developing.

Appendices

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