Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Global spy system ECHELON confirmed at last – by leaked Snowden files
The Register ^ | August 2, 2015 | Duncan Campbell

Posted on 08/03/2015 6:04:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

I stepped from the warmth of our source's London flat. That February night in 1977, the air was damp and cool; the buzz of traffic muted in this leafy north London suburb, in the shadow of the iconic Alexandra Palace.

A fellow journalist and I had just spent three hours inside, drinking Chianti and talking about secret surveillance with our source, and now we stood on the doorstep discussing how to get back to the south coast town where I lived.

Events were about to take me on a different journey. Behind me, sharp footfalls broke the stillness. A squad was running, hard, toward the porch of the house we had left. Suited men surrounded us. A burly middle-aged cop held up his police ID. We had broken "Section 2" of Britain's secrecy law, he claimed.

These were Special Branch, the then-elite security division of the British police.

For a split second, I thought this was a hustle. I knew that a parliamentary commission had released a report five years earlier that concluded that the secrecy law, first enacted a century ago, should be changed. I pulled out my journalist identification card, ready to ask them to respect the press. But they already knew that my companion that evening, Time Out reporter Crispin Aubrey, and I were journalists. And they had been outside, watching our entire meeting with former British Army Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) operator John Berry, who at the time was a social worker....

(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: beseeingyou; bigbrother; echelon; espionage; privacyrights; snowden; surveillance; tm
Six page article.
1 posted on 08/03/2015 6:04:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yea us tinfoilers sure are wrong a lot...

Not.


2 posted on 08/03/2015 6:09:11 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is news? Anyone who been paying attention has known this since Billy Jeff was getting BJs in the oval orafice.


3 posted on 08/03/2015 6:16:08 PM PDT by AFreeBird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I first learned about Echelon with I was in the Army Security Agency. The brains for this operation was then at Ft Huachuca, Az. I think that was very early 1978. The guys in the Ops platoons who worked with the Spooks knew all about it. Not much of a secret. Funny, though, I never talked about until now. I guess I can keep a secret. But its a’’ out of the bag now


4 posted on 08/03/2015 6:18:11 PM PDT by realcleanguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: realcleanguy

Even when I was still in canadastan, a bud of mine at the RCMP told me about it, and this right after 9/11.


5 posted on 08/03/2015 6:37:22 PM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

6 posted on 08/03/2015 6:40:13 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Ive given up on aphostrophys and spell chek on my current device...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: max americana

It has been another way to marginalize anyone complaining about domestic spying or any govt secrecy. Everyone knew about it but talking about it got the powers that be, media included, labeling you a fruitcake.

Just another form of social conditioning for that which was yet to come/now here.


7 posted on 08/03/2015 6:40:56 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

But we’ve known about it since the Clinton Presidency.


8 posted on 08/03/2015 6:42:55 PM PDT by Savage Beast ("The politicians scattered like roaches" --Ann Coulter")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
EU Commission 2001 Report on Echelon - (2001/2098(INI))
9 posted on 08/03/2015 6:45:30 PM PDT by Cboldt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet; Old Sarge; EnigmaticAnomaly; Califreak; kalee; TWhiteBear; freeangel; ...
Image and video hosting by TinyPicImage and video hosting by TinyPic
10 posted on 08/03/2015 6:57:59 PM PDT by LucyT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: realcleanguy

USAICS August - October 1978.


11 posted on 08/03/2015 7:04:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (TED CRUZ. You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: realcleanguy

I didn’t learn about it until the early or mid 1990s.


12 posted on 08/03/2015 7:55:23 PM PDT by Jane Austen (Recall Gov. Nikki Haley, aka Nimrata Randhawa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: max americana

One world gov’t seems easy now.


13 posted on 08/03/2015 7:58:41 PM PDT by huldah1776
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Savage Beast

It’s been around since the Truman presidency. You are late to the party.


14 posted on 08/03/2015 8:08:16 PM PDT by Henry Hnyellar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Jane Austen
In the early days of the Internet, there were "Jam ECHELON" days. People sent or forwarded e-mails laden with the key words that the system was supposedly sniffing for.

Everyone just sort of got bored with it, after a while.

15 posted on 08/03/2015 8:35:38 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bump for later.


16 posted on 08/03/2015 8:42:26 PM PDT by Rebelbase ( NASCAR 2015: "Bootlegger to boot licker"--FReeper Crim)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Page 5 of your article shows the NSA illegally eavesdropping on Republican Senator Strom Thurmond’s private phone call made FROM INSIDE THE CAPITOL Building.

Illegal. Treasonous.


17 posted on 08/03/2015 9:25:15 PM PDT by Southack (The one thing preppers need from the 1st World? http://tinyurl.com/ktfwljc .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

bttt


18 posted on 08/04/2015 12:12:15 AM PDT by wildbill (If you check behind the shower curtain for a murderer, and find one.... what's yoIur plan?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Henry Hnyellar

It’s not the first time I’ve gotten to the party late.


19 posted on 08/04/2015 7:35:42 AM PDT by Savage Beast ("The politicians scattered like roaches" --Ann Coulter")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson