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02/15/2004 Archived Entry: "Intrigue."
Intrigue.
Atrios has posted about a story which appeared on FreeRepublic (shower vigorously after visitng) in which John Loftus maintains that UK spies are eavesdropping on Democratic presidential candidates. Many of the posters on Atrios comments are dismissing it as tin foil hattery.
Not so fast. Loftus says:
It's a juicy way of running a smear campaign behind the works. We have been doing that for about 50 years and it started with president Roosevelt. He had signed a secret treaty with Britian in 1943 that let them each set up listening posts on each other's soil with no search warrants. It's a great little scheme. So the British can use American computers to bug American politicians, and the Americans can use British computers to bug British politicians and each side can truthfully say that they aren't spying on their own citizens. They are just trading information under the table.
Actually, there is an agreement in place between the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand, which essentially fits the description that Loftus provides. It's called Echelon. We covered Echelon on Blah3, literally years ago - pre-9/11, as a matter of fact. Back in February of 2000, K wrote this for Blah3:
In my life thus far, I think that I have now seen it all. I agree with Conservative Congressman Bob Barr on something. It seems that Senator Barr agrees with me and countless others on the topic of the NSA and Echelon. There is a bill that has recently passed stating to the effect that after the holiday, the NSA will be forced to report to Congress what they have been doing with all the money they have received. Last time this request was made, the NSA pretty much told them that it was all classified information, and there was no reason for them to have it. The House Commitee on Intelligence made the request this past Fall, and was denied the documents.
As you know from previous paranoid rants of mine, the NSA and the Echelon system are omnious monitoring systems that have been in place since the end of WW2. Originally they were used for the purpose of keeping an eye on the former USSR. In the days since the breakup of the USSR, they have been used most successfully for corporate espionage, and less successfully for keeping track of when India and Pakistan would develop nuclear weapons. Supposedly, this satelite system between the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand is not being used, nor has it ever been used, to monitor US systems. However, if you go to www.echelonwatch.org, you will find articles on how the Australian Echelon branches are being used to gather much more information than we are being told about.
And Bob Barr wants to stop all this. Of course, I am going to be rather cynical about him, and think that it is mostly of concern that letters to his mistresses could be intercepted, but -who cares? At least there is finally some action in Congress regarding this. Bob Barr has been rather critical of the NSA, and his press release is located on the Echelon Watch site listed earlier. The gist of the statement is simply that he had heard news reports os a Project Echelon System intercepting the American citizens' electronic transmissions (ie, telephone, fax, email) and was going to request an more in depth report on this -to make sure that this one branch of the government is not abusing the technology that it has.
And in another blow to the NSA, EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Centre) asked a federal court to look into the release of more documents regarding surveillance of American citizens. These are more documents that the House Commitee on Intelligence had asked for earlier in the year and was denied.
The Bush administration has proven time and time again that they're not above using every resource available to them for political advantage. Loftus may not be as loony as some would like to think he is on this one.
Replies: 2 people speak up
everyone should just assume that they are being watched, listened to, or monitored in some way at all times. dont say anything over the telephone that you wouldnt say in a police station, assume that all emails are read, and keep your blinds shut (not that it matters, the police have infrared that can see through walls, they use it to bust people for growing pot in their attics, and directional laser microphones that can listen through walls from a great distance). just assume that anything you say above a hushed whisper with the lights out, and the water running in the sink, is overheard. hell, satelite technology can read you license plate from space. its all raving paranoia, but it is also all true. its just the world we live in. if it can be done, it is being done, and you can bet its not being done for our benefit.
Posted by justin @ 02/15/2004 05:40 PM NY
I dunno about all this. Seems to me that something like that just couldn't be kept quiet for fifty years.
Of course if it is true the media will find out!
hahahahahahahah!
Posted by salvage @ 02/16/2004 12:50 PM NY
