[Nettime-bold] [Spy News] Duncan Campbell: Germany, UK breaching human rights withNSA spy link-up (fwd)

[Jei <jei@cc.hut.fi>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 19:39:07 +0200
From: Mario Profaca <Mario.Profaca@zg.tel.hr>
Reply-To: spynews@yahoogroups.com
To: IntelForum <intelforum@his.com>, "[Spy News]" <spynews@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Spy News] Duncan Campbell: Germany,
     UK breaching human rights with NSA spy link-up

Germany, UK breaching human rights with NSA spy link-up
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/7753/1.html

Duncan Campbell
27.05.2001

Echelon system identified as "legislation-free zone"

Composite Signals Organisation Station Morwenstow, run by Britain's GCHQ,
was the first station built to intercept civil commercial satellite
communications as part of the ECHELON system
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/7753/7753_3.jpg

Echelon committee vice-chairman Neil MacCormick (Scotland) wants to see
legal changes to protect private communications; meanwhile "people should
treat their e-mails like seaside postcards" that anyone else can read.
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/7753/7753_2.jpg

The job of the US Department of Commerce's Advocay Center is to
"aggressively support U.S. bidders in global competitions where advocacy is
in the national interest".
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/7753/7753_1.jpg

In a major report to be published this week, the Echelon committee of the
European Parliament has found that the conduct of electronic surveillance
activities by US intelligence breaches the European Convention of Human
Rights even when conducted, allegedly, for law enforcement purposes. It
concludes that if the British and German governments fail to prevent the
improper use of surveillance stations sited on their territory to intercept
private and commercial communications, they may be in breach both of
community law and of human rights treaties.

Two drafts of the proposed EP report, prepared by rapporteur and MEP Gerhard
Schmidt, were leaked earlier this month. The form and wording of the
committee's final report is due to be settled by the full committee in a
meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 29 May.

Comparison of the two drafts shows that the committee was waiting to
question American government and trade officials about their use of economic
intelligence before making its final comments. But, two weeks ago, the
American government decided to snub them after members had already arrived
in Washington, abruptly cancelling a series of planned meetings.

The declared policy of the US government, as explained last year by former
CIA director James Woolsey, is to use the U.S. intelligence system spy on
European companies in order to gather evidence of bribery and unfair trade
practices. Woolsey said "Yes, my continental European friends, we have spied
on you. And it's true that we use computers to sort through data by using
keywords". "We have spied on you because you bribe", he wrote in the  Wall
Street Journal.

US economic intelligence policies in support of business and trade were
exposed four months ago in a detailed new report to the Echelon committee.
That report on  "COMINT impact on international trade" is published here
exclusively for the first time today. The report traces in detail how U.S.
intelligence gathering priorities shifted dramatically after the end of the
Cold War, with the result that "about 40 percent of the requirements" of
U.S. intelligence collection became "economic, either in part or in whole".

The new priorities for economic intelligence were approved by the first
President Bush in a document called NSD-67 (National Security Directive 67),
issued by the White House on 20 March 1992. By using the CIA and NSA to spy
on foreign rivals of American companies, the declared U.S. objective was to
"level the playing field" in foreign trade.

After the new policies came into force, the incoming Clinton administration
set up a new Trade Promotion co-ordinating committee, with direct
intelligence inputs from the CIA and direct links to U.S. business through a
new "Advocacy Center". Intelligence from NSA and CIA was supplied to the
U.S. government department of Commerce through an "Office of Intelligence
Liasion", which was equipped to handle intercepted communications such as
those supplied by the Echelon network.

According to documents provided to the Echelon Committee and now published
here, the CIA team in the Commerce Department proposed gathering information
on "primary competitors" of American business in a major Asian market. One
document shows that, of 16 U.S. government officials attending a meeting on
winning contracts in Indonesia, 5 were from the CIA (see  Annexe 2-3).

Two of the NSA's largest electronic intelligence stations are located at Bad
Aibling, Bavaria and Menwith Hill, in England. Both stations intercept
satellite communications and use surveillance satellites to collect
communications from the ground, anywhere in the western hemisphere.

The U.S. congress was recently told that, as a result of "levelling the
playing field", American companies gained $145 billion worth of business
during the 1990s, after intelligence agencies claimed to have detected and
defeated bribery or unfair conduct by foreign competitors. Many such
contracts were listed in dossiers of cases publicised during the 1990s.

According to reports of "success stories" published by the Advocacy Center,
European countries have lost out massively. France lost nearly $17 billion
dollars worth of trade, and Germany $4 billion out of a total of about $40
billion. Sweden lost $386 million worth of business, the Netherlands $184
million. Not all "successes" necessarily involved allegations of bribery,
but many did.

Despite the huge number of cases in which it claims to have detected
bribery, the U.S. government has never published any evidence to
substantiate its claims. Nor has it instigated any prosecutions. Equally
hard to substantiate has been evidence in specific cases where secret
interception activities are alleged to have affected a major contract. All
of the specific accounts of European business losses, such as the lost of an
$8 billion Airbus contract in 1994, were published by the American press, at
a time when the Clinton administration wanted to publicise that it was doing
its best for business.

The clear motive was to tell the Americans that their government and
intelligence agencies were now helping with the economy. But when Europe
became concerned about the Echelon system, such stories stopped appearing in
the U.S. media, and information dried up.

Many MEPs suspect that the American claim only to use their secret listening
systems, including the Echelon network, to prevent bribery are a smoke
screen to cover straightforward spying for business and trade purposes.

The report on "COMINT impact on international trade" sets out, with many
detailed sources, the case that from 1992 to date Europe is likely to have
sustained significant employment and financial loss as a result of the U.S.
government policy of "levelling the playing field". The report does not
address whether the U.S. position that such interventions were and are
justified by corrupt and or unfair behaviour by foreign competitors or
governments are reasonable or, in fact, are true.

But it is not necessary to show that intelligence information has been given
directly to U.S. corporations for major economic damage to be assessed to
have occurred. The boundaries of such estimates could lie between $13
billion and $145 billion. The only certain observation is that the exact
figure will never be known.

Although failing to find new reports of European business losses beyond
those appearing in the American media in 1994-1996, the Echelon committee
has found that even if it were proven that bribery was involved, this does
not make NSA activities of this kind legal in Europe. The draft report
points out that:



 "The American authorities have repeatedly tried to justify the interception
of telecommunications by accusing the European authorities of corruption and
taking bribes. It should be pointed out to the Americans that all EU Member
States have properly functioning criminal justice systems. If there is
evidence that crimes have been committed, the USA must leave the task of law
enforcement to the host countries. If there is no such evidence,
surveillance must be regarded as unproportional, a violation of human rights
and thus inadmissible."




Just a week ago, former CIA director Woolsey repeated his claims of European
bribery at a meeting in New York. In the context of any such activities
conducted at NSA's British and German stations, this now appears to be an
admission of unlawful conduct.

According to the draft report, "under the terms of the ECHR, interference in
the exercise of the right to privacy must be proportional and, in addition,
the least invasive methods must be chosen. As far as European citizens are
concerned, an operation constituting interference carried out by a European
intelligence service must be regarded as less serious than one conducted by
an American intelligence service".

Not least, this is because European citizens or companies could only get
legal redress for such misconduct in national courts, not American courts.


 "Operations constituting interference must therefore be carried out, as far
as possible, by the German or UK authorities, particularly when
investigations are being conducted for law enforcement."



The draft committee report concludes that "there would seem to be good
reason ... to call on Germany and the United Kingdom to take their
obligations under the ECHR seriously and to make the authorisation of
further intelligence activities by the NSA on their territory contingent on
compliance with the ECHR".


The IC2001 papers


Four new studies on "Interception Capabilities - Impact and Exploitation"
were commissioned by the Temporary Committee on the Echelon Interception
System of the European Parliament in December 2000. The new studies update
and extend the previous EP report,  "Interception Capabilities 2000",
<http://www.europarl.eu.int/stoa/publi/pdf/98-14-01-2en_en.pdf> which was
prepared in 1999. They cover the use of communications intelligence (COMINT)
for economic purposes, legal and human rights issues, and recent political
and technological developments. Among the key topics covered are the
documentary and factual evidence for the existence of the COMSAT
(communications satellite) intercept system known as "ECHELON".

These studies were presented to the Echelon Committee at its Brussels
meeting on 22 and 23 January 2001. The fourth study, on new political and
technical developments, was presented only in the form of a slideshow. These
studies are published with permission from the secretariat of the Echelon
Committee.


ECHELON and its role in COMINT

 IC2001, paper 1
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/special/ech/7747/1.html

This paper summarises the evidence for the existence of ECHELON as a global
interception system. It records official admissions about the secret UKUSA
agreement that links English-speaking signals intelligence organisations.
The paper also provides detailed answers to questions put by the Committee.
It points out that very few media reports have provided original new
information about Echelon, and that many press reports have enlarged on the
nature of the interception systems and their capabilities, without evidence.


COMINT impact on international trade

 IC2001, paper 2
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/special/ech/7752/1.html

Paper 2 sets out, with detailed sources, the case that from 1992 to date
Europe is likely to have sustained significant employment and financial loss
as a result of the U.S. government policy of "levelling the playing field",
introduced in 1991. It also refers to:

 Annexe 2-1
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/special/ech/7743/1.html
Background papers about the U.S. Trade Promotion Co-ordinating Committee
(TPCC) and the Advocacy Center, including statements of purpose

 Annexe 2-2
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/special/ech/7744/1.html
A questionaire for U.S. companies to answer in order to determine whether or
not they are deemed "American" and thus qualify for official assistance. The
questionnaire is also on the  internet.
http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/advocacy/question.htm

 Annexe 2-3
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/special/ech/7749/1.html
Documents revealing the CIA's role in U.S. trade promotion, obtained under
the Freedom of Information Act.

Annexe 2-4 U.S. trade "Success stories" affecting Europe - financial and
geographical analysis (Editors note: Online version of Annexe 2-4 will
follow soon) Many of the stories can be viewed  online
<http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/advocacy/advosucc.htm>

For example, this  report
http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/advocacy/Enronin1.htm
concerns the controversial power plant at Dabhol, India.


COMINT, privacy and human rights

 IC2001, paper 3
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/special/ech/7748/1.html
This paper reveals that Britain undertakes to protect the rights of
Americans, Canadians and Australians against interception that would not
comply with their own domestic law, while offering no protection of any kind
to other Europeans. This and other background papers provided to the Echelon
committee have prompted them to observe that "possible threats to privacy
and to businesses posed by a system of the ECHELON type arise not only from
the fact that is a particularly powerful monitoring system, but also that it
operates in a largely legislation-free area."


Other Reports


The committee were also given copies of three key articles about US
intelligence and economic activity:

 "Why We Spy on Our Allies",
http://cryptome.org/echelon-cia2.htm
by James Woolsey, former director of the CIA, Wall Street Journal, 17 March
2000.
"It's true that we use computers to sort through data by using keywords.
Have you stopped to ask yourselves what we're looking for?"

"U.S. spying pays off for business" by Bob Windrem, NBC News Online, 15
April 2000 Originally published at  MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com/news/394993.asp
This link is broken, but an alternative copy is here
http://www.dei.uc.pt/majordomo/sociedade/msg01132.html
and on other sites.

"U.S. companies have benefited when U.S. intelligence redirected its Cold
War assets towards economic intelligence."

"  U.S. steps up commercial spying
http://www.msnbc.com/news/403435.asp
- Washington gives companies an advantage in information", by Bob Windrem,
NBC News Online, 7 May 2000. Again, the link has recently been broken, but
an alternative copy is at  www.gn.apc.org/cndyorks/caab/articles/spying.htm.
"Documents, all published during the Clinton administration, appear to
confirm reports that America's electronic eavesdropping apparatus was
involved in commercial espionage."




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