Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 08:29:07 -0500
From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
Subject: I'm proud we're spying on Europe
To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)


Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 19:16:24 +0000
From: Robert Henderson <Philip@anywhere.demon.co.uk>
Subject: The EU - Echelon


Daily Telegraph London 25/2/2000

I'm proud we're spying on Europe

Daniel  Hannan was pleased to hear that Britain  and  America
are keeping tabs on the EU

IT WAS the way he said "our communications"  that made me  so
uncomfortable.  There  we  all  were,  the  members  of  the
European Parliament's civil  liberties committee,  gathered
to  investigate  a  case  of  Anglo-Saxon  espionage  against
Europe.  And  if  we were surprised to find  that   the  man
giving  evidence  was himself a  British  journalist,  Duncan
Campbell, we were too discreet to show it.

Instead, we tut-tutted at his revelations. America, explained
Mr  Campbell,  working in league with Brittain  and  her  old
dominions,   had developed a surveillance network capable  of
tapping  into  telephone  calls  all  over  the  world.   The
Americans  could intercept  e-mails, listen in to  satellite
calls,  and  were even modifying one of their  submarines  to
eavesdrop on undersea cables.

We  could  not know for certain at whom this  was   directed,
said  Mr  Campbell.  But since  the  majority  of  electronic
messages  came from  this part of the world,  it  was  likely
that   the   submarine  would be  aimed   primarily  "at  our
communications    in   Europe."   My   colleagues     assumed
suitably horrified expressions.  But  I simply could not  get
into the spirit of things. Deep down, I felt pleased that the
cousins were keeping their guard up,  and proud  that we were
doing our little hit to help them.

That Mr Campbell should be lecturing us about how "we" had to
develop  "our  own"  software systems, so as to  break  "our"
reliance  on   American  products struck me as  --  well,  as
letting the side down.

Mr Campbell has doubtless done some very thorough work, and
his conclusions have serious implications. He has uncovered
a  surveillance network called Echelon, with listening posts
all over the world.

The US National Security Agency has apparently linked up with
Britain's  GGHQ and with the equivalent services in  Canada,
Australia  and  New Zealand. Under  an  intelligence  accord
called UKUSA, dating back to 1947, the five agencies pool the
information  picked up from their various sites.

The challenge for our boys, apparently,  is not tapping  into
calls, but knowing how to sift through the information. With
millions  of messages being intercepted every hour, computer
programs called "dictionaries" are employed to recognise key
words.  They  can   even pick out the  voices  of  well-known
politicians.  And,  of course, the whole thing is unofficial,
and therefore unregulated.

There are plainly issues of privacy and data protection  here
--  although  the European Parliament  is  noticeably  less
exercised  about these when discussing,  say,  pornography on
the internet.  But what really bothers MEPs is the suggestion
that  the  information  picked up by these  spy  stations  is
being used to favour American businesses over their European
rivals.

The  evidence  is thin,  but Boeing is said  to  have  beaten
Airbus  to a contract after revealing that Airbus had  bribed
Saudi  officials. And a French company was apparently nudged
aside by an American firm in its bid to supply Brazil with  a
new radar  system, in a case again involving kickbacks.

Thank heavens for Echelon,  I thought,  guiltily.  If  these
Continentals can win contracts only by cheating, it's just as
well  that   they sometimes get caught out And  anyway,  the
French  and  Germans are running a joint  listening  post  in
French  Guyana.  I simply  couldn't get into the  "them  and
us"  mentality.  Or,  more accurately, I  saw  "us"  as  the
community of free English-speaking nations,  not the EU.

The  French are having all their complexes confirmed.  Simply
to list  the countries involved -- America,  Britain,  Canada,
Australia,  New Zealand -- is to wave a red rag at them.  Le
Monde devoted three pages and an editorial to the dangers  of
this  "Anglo-Saxon   network".  A cartoon on its  front  page
showed Britain-- now habitually depicted in that  newspaper
as a mad cow -- taking telephone  instructions from Uncle Sam
while attending a European summit.

In  a sense,  of course,  they are right.  When  truly  vital
matters  are at stake,  the blood of the  English-speaking
peoples is  thicker than the water of the Channel.  We  don't
mind  sharing  our  military secrets  with  Her  Majesty's
Canadian  subjects;  but ;  how  many of us  could  honestly
claim to feel the same about the Belgians?

It  is true that we Anglo-Saxons often seem to be acting  in
concert.  But this is not, as the French believe,  because we
are  subservient to the United States.  It is rather that our
shared  constitutional  heritage  Often makes  us  react  to
things in tile same  way.

We are keen on personal liberty,  for instance,  and thus  on
free trade.  We like the rule of law,  and dislike  bullies,
which  makes  us especially ready to deploy  troops  against
the likes of Saddam:

The  Echelon  affair  has implications that  go  well  beyond
security.  It  reminds us of just how much the EU,  like  any
aspirant state,   depends on a shared sense of identity among
its citizens. Some Europeans have that sense. We don't.

The author is a Conservative MEP for the South-East region.

Views   about   articles  on  this  page  can  be   sent   to
dtcomment@telegraph.co .uk

-- 
Robert Henderson


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