From: Bill Knapp <bill.knapp@>
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 09:01:01 -0400
Fwd Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 21:13:38 -0400
Subject: Australia Confirms Existence of UKUSA, Echelon


For the first time the existence of a global spy network, led by
the USA and the UK, was officially confirmed. Martin Brady,
director of the Defence Signals Directorate in Canberra,
Australia said that his country was a member of an organisation
called UKUSA which operates Echelon--a giant computerised
network that eavesdrops on electronic communications on a global
scale, especially (but not limited to) that carried on
satellites. The other member countries of the pact are not only
the U.K. and the USA, as the name implies, but also Canada and
New Zealand.

Although the DSD does not use the term "Echelon", government
sources have confirmed that what was known about the system so
far is correct. The main source has been New-Zealand based
author Nicky Hager who described the function of the Echelon
stations all over the world as follows: "Some monitor
communications satellites, others land-based communications
networks, and others radio communications. Echelon links
together all these facilities, providing the U.S. and its allies
with the ability to intercept a large proportion of the
communications on the planet--not just international traffic but
sometimes within countries anywhere in the world." According to
Hager, land-based communications systems are tapped as well, and
there are also U.S. spy satellites that can intercept microwave
transmissions from space.

Australia's main contribution to this system, reports The Age,
"is an ultra-modern intelligence base at Kojarena, near
Geraldton in Western Australia. The station was built in the
early 1990s. At Kojarena, four satellite tracking dishes
intercept Indian and Pacific Ocean communications satellites.
The exact target of each dish is concealed by placing them
inside golfball like 'radomes'".

Echelon automatically checks phone calls, faxes, e-mail and
almost everything kind of electronic communications against
keywords (which is easier than it sounds.) The Australian
station, for instance, looks for North Korean economic,
diplomatic and military messages and data, Japanese trade
ministry plans, and Pakistani developments in nuclear weapons
technology and testing. [It will in fact look for many more
topics, primarily of economic nature. Another word for that is
industry espionage, or commercial intelligence.] If a message
meets the criteria, it is sent to the other UKUSA members using
a dedicated network. 80 percent of the messages captured in
Australia are passed to the U.S. National Security Agency or to
its British counterpart unread.

More stations have meanwhile been identified as Echelon sites,
such as a U.S. Navy station at Sugar Grove, West Virginia/USA,
and Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico. Of course, the Internet
(satellite-based or not) is also under surveillance. Most of the
international traffic runs through the U.S. backbones anyway.
Special U.S. nuclear-powered submarines reportedly even tap
underwater cables around the world (not only those which pass
the U.S.)

The official revelations by the Australian government are a
major blow against the USA which so far would not confirm the
mere existence of UKUSA, let alone the Echelon system.