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The Echelon Network

Echelon is 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.

Senator Frank Church

At the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such [is] the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology..
"I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."

Senator Frank Church, quoted in: ECHELON: America's Secret Global Surveillance Network

Source: US Congress

Suspected French Interception Stations

Active use of equipment for collecting intelligence from radio signals began in the USA during the Second World War. Admiral. Nimitz in evaluating the role which such equipment played in the Pacific Theater said that having them was of equal value to having an additional fleet. However, the significance of SIGINT grew even more after the end of WW II. In 1952 the National Security Agency (NSA) was created, which served to concentrate all of the USA's efforts in SIGINT operations, development of the required equipment, and protection of information transmitted over national communications lines. Official data on the budget and staffing are lacking, but experts estimate that around 10 billion dollars are expended each year on the needs of the NSA, and that there are 50-100 thousand people on staff (of whom 80 percent are civilian specialists).

The special position of the NSA is explained by the exceptional importance of the intelligence it obtains on military, political and economic matters, which is then actively used by the US leadership in working out its political course or in undertaking actions of a military and economic nature. Timely creation of an organizational structure with wide-ranging powers and generous financing enabled the USA to acquire an arsenal of SIGINT equipment around the world, the most important and expensive of which were space systems.

In 1968-1969 two of the first experimental SIGINT satellites of the Spook Bird type (another name is Canyon) were put into quasi stationary orbit. These were used for following the buildup of groupings of Soviet forces in the Far East during the period of deterioration of Soviet- Chinese relations in the end of the 1960s (after the conflict on Damanskiy Island). US intelligence services used these satellites to intercept communications in radio nets controlling the flight of Soviet bombers, the crews of which were at that time undergoing intensive training. In the early 1970s SIGINT satellites were also used for reconnaissance during local conflicts in Vietnam, and also between India and Pakistan. Today there are many more SIGINT satellites up there monitoring all forms of communication around the world by super computers that are keyed to certain phrases and words.

Source: US Air Force

World Wide Coverage

SIGINT satellites are only one part of the Echelon System.

We know from working at NSA [that] the United States reads the secret communications of more than forty nations, including its own allies ... NSA keeps in operation more than 2000 manual intercept positions ... Both enciphered and plain text communications are monitored from almost every nation in the world, including the nations on whose soil the intercept bases are located.
New York Times, 7 September 1960.

We have the facilities to monitor almost every type of communication and our capacity advances with the advances of technology.

Source: US Air Force

Tracking Relay

NSA intelligence is delivered very similar to the way the internet works. Authorized users with the correct clearance log on to access "Special Compartmented Intelligence", they use web browsers. The net is known as 'Intelink' and run from Fort Meade, the headquarters for the NSA. Thirteen different intelligence agencies and some authorized foreign agencies are connected. Intelink was established in 1996.

Source: NASA

When Signit was focused on Iraq the American capacity to monitor was quickly exceeded. We realized we needed many more interpreters. Along with carrying out the mission of strategic reconnaissance against Iraqi military C2 radio nets, the United States made special efforts to intercept information of tactical significance (e.g., the fact of airplanes taking off or the movement of tanks as revealed by the radio conversations of the crews) and to deliver it rapidly to users in the theater.

There are usually eight Signit satellites in orbit at any given time.

Source: US Air Force

The word is that the U.S. has a secret court which is only available to certain government agencies and that this court has never turned down a request. The court supposedly is located in the heart of the main Justice Department Building.

Then there is the fringe element out there that claims that the Echelon System is really composed of, not receivers, but transmitters, that can affect the thought process. I wonder if they walk around with tin foil wrapped around their heads ?