EU report on ECHELON

Subject: Draft European Parliament report on Echelon

       "The existence of a global system for intercepting
       private and commercial communications (the Echelon
       interception system)... is no longer in doubt,"

       European Parliament report, May 4, 2001

       http://fas.org/irp/program/process/europarl_draft.pdf



Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 17:11:09 -0400
From: TheGolem <resh@atlantic.net>
Subject: [PNEWS] FYI: ECHELON
To: PNEWS-L@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU

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From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@IGC.ORG>
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ON ECHELON

"The existence of a global system for intercepting private and commercial
communications (the Echelon interception system)... is no longer in doubt,"
concludes a new draft report for the European Parliament.

The May 4 draft report was prepared immediately before a delegation from
the European Parliament arrived in Washington seeking meetings with U.S.
intelligence officials. The delegation, which was rebuffed by the CIA, NSA
and other agencies, had sought to present its concerns over the reportedly
systematic interception (under the loose and inaccurate rubric "Echelon")
of private communications for economic espionage purposes.

The draft report, which will be published in final form next month, traces
the evolution of the Echelon controversy and the authors' understanding of
the issue. "Analysis has revealed that the system cannot be nearly as
extensive as some sections of the media have assumed."

Perhaps most interesting, the report places Echelon in the context of
ongoing discussions over whether to establish a joint intelligence entity
for members of the European Union.

"Further cooperation between the intelligence agencies of the Member
States, well beyond the existing forms of cooperation, cannot be avoided,"
the report concludes. "It is inconceivable that the intelligence services
will be the last and only area not affected by the process of European
integration.... Strong European industries need joint protection against
economic espionage from outside the European Union."

As for Britain, the United States' partner in many aspects of security,
"intelligence gathering may be precisely the issue which forces the United
Kingdom to decide whether its destiny is European or transatlantic."
The text of the unpublished May 4 draft, authored by Gerhard Schmid for
the European Parliament's Temporary Committee on the Echelon Interception
System (867 kB PDF file), is posted here:

http://fas.org/irp/program/process/europarl_draft.pdf