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            Presented By: ALOC - Australias Legion of Cyberpunkz

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                      Email:/ phrost_byte@hotmail.com

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                              E C H E L O N :
            A THREAT TO OUR LIBERTIES AND VIOLATION OF OUR RIGHTS.
                                  V1.0
                    ------------------------------------
                             W R I T T E N  B Y

                                << HOOL >>
                            hool5400@yahoo.com
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*Version 1.0 released October 1998
*Dedicated to those who resist conformity and fight for our rights.
*Greets to :ALOC members, somatic, bob, gummi bear, lucus, luzza,  slimie.
*This file may be distributed in electronic form freely, though if it is included
in any publications, ezines or the like, please send an informative email to the
author, just so I know how far it has spread, and what people think.
*WRITTEN IN SIZE 9 MONACO- ANYTHING ELSE MAY RESULT IN DISTORTION.
//----------------------------------\\

___OVERVIEW___
The purpose of this file is to alert users of the telecommunication
infrastructure of Australia (land, sat, cell, etc.) whether it be Telstra, Optus
or another carrier, that there is a strong possibility that this data is being
routinely intercepted and analyzed for specific data.  This file is aimed at
Australians, but this surveillance network is by no way limited to Australia. 
This is a GLOBAL THREAT, so please, read the file, and even if you won't believe
it exists until you have proof that you can put in your hands, think about it. 
The phrase "open you mind" seems appropriate at this time. 

The extent our lives can be monitored (both with distance and stealth) makes 1984
look like a fairytale.  Big Brother is watching, and unlike 1984, most people
dont even realize it.  There are people watching, listening, and otherwise
invading our privacy.  We should NEVER forget this.

There are many aspects of surveillance that would scare people to know.  If the
aforementioned notion of Echelon surprise you, have a look at some other aspects
that will not be covered here:

-FACT:  A laser can be pointed onto your window from a distance, and can pick up
the vibrations on your window.  These vibrations will give away conversations and
other audio that occurs in your room.

-FACT: Telephones can be tapped from the exchange, no physical contact at your
house/office is necessary.  In Australia the police require a warrant to tap your
phone, but cops get these with little grievances, so dont bet on them not being
able to get one.

-FACT:  Using a technology called TEMPEST, the display on your VDU (monitor)
can be seen on another from a distance.  This is due to the electro magnetic
radiation transmitted from the electron-gun at the back of the VDU which is used
to display your graphics.  Stationing a van out on your street and pointing an
antenna towards your house will allow  your screen to be viewed.  Shielding for
this threat is expensive and if youre not in America difficult to obtain (export
restrictions are the cause of this...like encryption).

-FACT:  Closed circuit cameras can be very small these days.  Using optical
fibre, these can be pointed through windows, door bases, ceilings, etc.

-FACT: Satellites are in existence that magnify to an amazing degree.  There is
no doubt in my mind that the American government have such resolution from these
that they can read a document that you have in your hands.  This can be used for
good, like the inspection of chemical weapons disarmament, though I suspect it is
often used for less noble things.

Yep, very scary...but perhaps Echelon takes the cake.

___INTRODUCTION TO ECHELON___
OK, the closest this system has ever been to becoming widely know can be
attributed to a book.  This book is called Secret Power (1996) and was written
by Nicky Hagar and focused on the New Zealand part of the system (controlled by
their GCSB).  Since this book was written, the issue has popped up every now and
again, but has still never reached this level of interest people should have
about it.  A noteworthy fact is that Hagar interviewed more than 50 people
closely associated with the program, surely an undeniable number for a
conspiracy story.

If 98% of people where needed for Telstra before their caller ID system could
be implemented (as it would an invasion of privacy if a user was unaware that
their phone number was being transmitted), then surely a similar percentile of
the population should be aware that their communications are being
indiscriminately intercepted and analyzed for specific data.  A discrepancy?
Well, I guess the Caller ID system DOES officially exists...

This worldwide system was initially setup by the NSA (National Security Agency)
in America.  The NSA (obscure names of departments seem to be a prerequisite for
the systems players) basically calls the shots for the entire network.   This
network systematically intercepts data and searches it for predefined keywords.

The interception of data couldnt be difficult if the money was there (nothing is
difficult with money), and the cooperation with the country was also there.  It
is a matter of intercepting the data before it has gone from Point A to Point B,
and in Australia particularly, there is generally a long distance between the
two.  Signals are shot through repeater station, optical fibre, and a general
mishmash of lines.  All it takes is a line leading from somewhere on the network
into a warehouse or office building to get access to the flowing data.  A few of
these such lines, strategically placed, would intercept a sizable portion of the
Australian telecommunication network.

If you think You cant intercept telephone communications...it would require one
bloody person for every call being made at any particular time!, well, thats
unrealistic.  Look at what we can do on a standalone PC today, voice recognition!
 The computers that governments and militaries have now could easily transcribe
multiple conversations simultaneously.  If we can do one voice at a time on a
busted ass Pentium, just think supercomputer.

E-mail, or other communication through the TCP/IP protocol suite could be
intercepted (or more accurately duplicated at the transport layer), and probably
is a godsend for these people as it would almost certainly require less
processing power to analyze in comparison to voice.

These stations will always have a massive amount of data to process, as there is
always a continuing flow of data flying around the world.  When this data enters
the system, it is grepped for keywords from the dictionary, and if these keywords
are found in the message, it is stamped (time, origination and destination) so as
to be enable analyses by people throughout the world at a later stage.

Each station in the world where this interception/analyses is conducted has its
own dictionary where the keywords vary.  Some keywords are on every dictionary
system, though some are only on a single dictionary.

It makes sense to me that the US government has restricted the export of anything
other that 40 bit DES (something which should be considered suspect anyway as
they no doubt have a backdoor put in) for the reasons of if they encounter an
encrypted document, it can be decrypted with ease.  Fuck DES, it will do no good
against echelon.

___WHERE IS THIS CONDUCTED?___

-USA by NSA (NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY)
-NEW ZEALAND by GCSB (GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY BUREAU)
-UK by GCHQ (GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS HEADQUARTERS)
-CANADA by CSE (COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY ESTABLISHMENT)
-AUSTRALIA by DSD (DEFENCE SIGNALS DIRECTORATE)

Echelon is conducted on a global scale from countrys like Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, USA, and the UK.  The term UKUSA covers these countries of the
network.  The UKUSA agreement of 1948 (its not an equal or democratic thing, the
US is the senior partner of the nations).  I have seen conflicting information
as to where this is exercised, and as far as my analysis can tell, there are some
stations specifically targeting satellites, and others targeting things like land
lines.  All of the key Intelsat Satellites (carrying digital signals) are
targeted through the network.

In Australia, Pine Gap (near Alice Springs and run by the CIA), seems to be the
likely candidate for land and other.  The satellite dishes in Geralton, Wester
Australia are reportedly available to intercept data of both Indian and Pacific
ocean satellites.  Shoal Bay near Darwin, Northern Territory, is also rumored to
be used to target Indonesian Satellites.

In New Zealand, the GCSB conducts at least some of its data interception in
Waihopai.

The GCHQ has had the finger pointing at an inconspicuous building at 8 Palmer
Street, and The Menwith Hill station in Northern England.  Menwith Hill is the
biggest in the entire echelon network with its radomes capable of snatching
significant quantities of communications in Europe.  The station has almost 5
acres of buildings.  BT has recently told of how they have connected 3 optical
fibre cables to the station- capable of carrying in excess of 100,000
simultaneous telephone calls. 

Finally, Canada has Leitrim, just south of Ottawa snatching data from Latin
American satellites.

In all these case, if a keyword is found in the data, it is tagged and sent to
the requesting country (according to the AN APPRAISAL OF TECHNOLOGIES OF
POLITICAL CONTROL document).  The interstation communications are conducted
through highly encrypted cables, but for sensitive data, the government wouldnt
have it any other way.



___PUBLIC ATTENTION___
Recently, the issue has been raised in all seriousness, in a report called AN
APPRAISAL OF TECHNOLOGIES OF POLITICAL CONTROL (see URL at EOF) that was
commissioned in 1997 by The Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament.
 Included in this report is a section that official confirms the existence of the
system.  Sadly, By the way, if you have the time you might want to try reading
the entire document, its the kind of thing that starts with a broad topic, then
explains every little detail things to do with government control over people
(i.e. an entire section on INTERROGATION, TORTURE TECHNIQUES & TECHNOLOGIES.

*Also recently, Wired News has had some articles such as Eavesdropping on
Europe (30 September 1998), Did NSA scuttle Echelon Debate? (5 October 1998)
and Spying on Spies (27 October).

*The New York Times has run a few related articles.  Such as European Study
Paints a Chilling Portrait of Technology's Uses, (Feb 24 1998) which can be
found on their website.

*The US Journal also drew attention to the issue in an article called ECHELON:
AMERICA'S SPY IN THE SKY in their 15 June 1998 issue.

*The Baltimore Sun ran an article on Sep 19 1998 issue,  called NSA listening
practices called European `threat'.  European Parliament report accuses agency of
widespread spying.

As you can see, there has been quite a few articles from people trying to draw
attention to an issue we should be concerned about, though these seem to be
largely ignored by the general public.  Its not a conspiracy theory people, go
and think about this!


___SUMMARY___
Apologies for putting forward such a one sided argument above, I initially
intended to be unbiased in the analysis, though found it difficult.  There is no
doubt in my mind that this system exists.  And if you are to further investigate,
Im sure you will feel the same way also.  I am yet to see a decent argument as
to why this COULD NOT happen, though have many documents describing the technical
details and how IT DOES work.

Would the Australian government give its internal communications to the
Americans?  I think so.  Australia has proved themselves committed to the keeping
the relations with the USA good, even if the only positive thing to come out of
it is an alliance with the big guys.

This system may have been an important aspect of intelligence during the cold
war, weeding out spies and the like, but now it is just a gross invasion of
privacy and one that is undemocratic.  I dont recall a majority of people
approving of this, the majority of people dont even know the system exists.  If
they were to know, there is no chance that the majority of people would approve. 
A snowballs chance in hell, or so to speak.

Its not right to control people.  Its not right to think you know whats best
for people.  Its not right to sit back and be controlled.  These things should
not be tolerated but far too often are ignored so as to not make waves.  1984 may
have past, but perhaps Orwell was right, Big Brother is watching all that we do
and has been doing so before even 1984.

The internet is where the information of the new age is distributed.  Out here it
is where every person can say what they feel, can argue, and can agree.  So the
internet, the voice of the people and the only TRUE democracy, may well be the
last, best hope for the truth to come out...lets hope so.



___RELATED WEBSITES___

NSA WEBSITE
<http://www.nsa.gov>

DSD WEBSITE
<http://www.dsd.gov.au>

GCHQ WEBSITE
http://www.gchq.gov.uk/

CSE WEBSITE
http://www.cse.dnd.ca/

NEW YORK TIMES
<http://www.nytimes.com>

US JOURNAL WEBSITE
<http://www.usajournal.com>

DAILY TELEGRAPH
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000602131144806&rtmo=f3YfvMNs&atmo=99999999
&pg=/et/97/12/16/ecspy16.html>

BBC NEWS STORY
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/despatches/newsid%5F40000/40671.stm>

AN APPRAISAL OF TECHNOLOGIES OF POLITICAL CONTROL
<http://jya.com/stoa-atpc.htm>

WIRED NEWS
<http://www.wired.com/news/>

CODENAME: ECHELON
<http://www.qainfo.se/~lb/echelon.htm>

COVERT ACTION QUARTERLY
< http://caq.com/CAQ/CAQ59GlobalSnoop.html>

Mario's Cyberspace Station: Information Warfare: ECHELON
<http://public.srce.hr/~mprofaca/echelon.html >

Have Phun!
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