LONDON -- These days you can never be too paranoid.
Remember all the stories of a global network meant to eavesdrop on every
single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere in the world? Well, the British
Broadcasting Corporation says it's true.
The radio says it has received confirmation from the Australian
government that Britain and the United States are operating such a
network -- called Echelon -- through a series of satellites and ground
stations linked to the National Security Agency. One of them is located at
the U.S. military base at Menwith Hill in England.
The eavesdropping station is linked to NSA headquarters in Fort Mead,
Md. Both Britain and the United States refuse to acknowledge that the
system exists.
But Australia's inspector general of intelligence and security Bill
Blick, has confirmed to the BBC that their Defense Signals Directorate forms
part of the network. "As you would expect there are a large amount of radio
communications floating around in the atmosphere, and agencies such as DSD
collect those communications in the interests of their national security,"
he told the BBC.
The network screens all communications for terrorist plots. But
journalist Duncan Campbell, in a report commissioned by the European
Parliament, says the NSA has eavesdropped on phone calls from a French
company bidding for a contract in Brazil and then relayed the information to
a U.S. competitor.
