Perhaps they go to far with their snooping. Spy stations are all around the world. Is it being used for things other than the security of the USA? Let's catch the bad guys but don't hurt the good guys.

It is all about national security and tapping all the info passing through the airways.

Good or Bad ?

-- friendofforum (xxx@yyy.now), February 27, 2000

Answers

Dear Friend,

The fact is it doesn't make any difference if Echelon spied, except as proof of state of mind of a single group, a fine legal point.

The Net is terra ingnito (or incognita for purists). Anyone who believed he or she was "secure" in this environment has been proven to be laboring under a delusion.

Remember TEOTWAWKI? Welcome to it. The "World" is a construct that requires universal concensus. That no longer exists.

Echelon was a late comer.

mike

-- mike in houston (mmorris67@hotmail.com), February 27, 2000.

Newsday

(for educational purposes only)

"NSA Defends Eavesdropping Policy

By ALICE ANN LOVE Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Reacting to a spate of charges, a low-profile U.S. government spy agency is defending to Congress controversial information-gathering that allegedly includes eavesdropping on ordinary Americans.

The National Security Agency mailed a letter to all members of Congress last week that says: ``We want to assure you that the NSA's activities are conducted in accordance with the highest constitutional, legal and ethical standards, and in compliance with statutes and regulations designed to protect the privacy rights of U.S. persons.''

The letter, provided to The Associated Press, was signed by Kenneth A. Heath, the NSA's chief of staff for legislative affairs. It noted that the CBS's ''60 Minutes'' was airing a report on Sunday that criticizes the agency's activities.

The NSA is less well known by the American public than other U.S. spy agencies, such as the CIA. A joke in the intelligence community was that NSA was so secret that its initials stood for ``No Such Agency.''

In the CBS broadcast Sunday, a former Canadian intelligence agent said NSA cooperates with Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand to run a satellite listening operation. The eavesdropping operation, known as Echelon, allegedly monitors phone calls, e-mails and faxes in order to sift out useful information about foreign governments, drug trafficking and terrorism.

As an example, the Canadian, Mike Frost, said one woman ended up in Echelon's database as a possible terrorist because she told a friend on the phone that her son had ``bombed'' in a school play.

In addition, the European Parliament in a report last week accused the United States of using Echelon for commercial spying -- a kind of industrial espionage -- to help American companies win contracts over European competitors.

State Department spokesman James Rubin refused in a Feb. 23 briefing to confirm whether Echelon exists, but said the NSA ``is not authorized to provide intelligence information to private firms,'' and operates ``in strict accordance with American law.''

In its letter to Congress, the NSA said that, as a matter of policy, it does not publicly confirm or deny specific intelligence activities.

``However, we can tell you that NSA operates in strict accordance with U.S. laws and regulations,'' the letter said.

Attached to the letter are several pages that describe legal constraints under which the NSA does its business, including a flow chart showing how activities are supervised by the Defense and Justice departments, as well as House and Senate committees on intelligence.

Also, the papers note that Americans are entitled by law to request to see all government records about themselves, including the NSA's.

Nevertheless, the American Civil Liberties Union has been requesting congressional hearings on Echelon for nearly a year. In a letter sent to the House Government Reform Committee in April 1999, the ACLU said: ``It is important that Congress investigate to determine if the Echelon program is as sweeping and intrusive as has been reported.''

AP-NY-02-27-00 1637EST

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 27, 2000.

A good starting point to learn more about Echelon and NSA is < a href="http://www.echelon.wiretapped.net/">http://www.echelon.wiretappe d.net/.

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), February 27, 2000.

Oops, here's a working link http://www.echelon.wiretappe d.net/

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), February 27, 2000.

Ya don't have ta worry bout a thang long as ya don't break de law....thang is they got dem laws that makes ya crimnal no matter whut ya do....so bout de best thang ya can do is roll with de punches....cuz dey ain't a DAMN thang ya kin do bout it.

-- canthappen (n@ysayer.com), February 27, 2000.

Wasn't it mentioned at the end of segment that when things go digital it's going to screw their program up and they'll have to start all over again with a new technology?

So, let's all go digital.

-- Lurkess (Lurkess@Lurking.XNet), February 28, 2000.

Who decides what bad.

That crappy 10 minute segment is what's know as a "modified-limited- hangout".

-- bobby (robertkennedy@yahoo.com), February 28, 2000.