ECHELON mentioned twice on R4

[Owen Lewis]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Quentin Campbell" <Q.G.Campbell@newcastle.ac.uk>
To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Sent: 05 July 2000 08:02
Subject: ECHELON mentioned twice on R4


> For those of you who monitor references to ECHELON in the media you might
> note that the "Today" program on BBC Radio 4 this morning took two
> pot-shots at ECHELON.
>
> The first at about 06:15 reported a French judicial(?) enquiry into the
> role of ECHELON (and of Britain being used) as a tool for economic
> espionage against France. The reporter was the BBC correspondent in Paris,
> James Kumerasamy (sp?). Ironically it was the French attempts to bribe
> Saudi officials in 1994 that the Americans allegedly intercepted and
> reported to the Saudi government, scuppering the Airbus deal in favour of
> American plane makers.
>
> The second report was at 06:45 and consisted of an interview with Jean
> Lambert, an MEP(?), and from what I caught of it dealt with the European
> Parliament's investigation into ECHELON.

There is a definite element of Cloud Nine about all of this.

Commercial/industrial/fincancial espionage is a reality of the world we have
lived in for 25 years or more. The US  squealed like stuck pig about it in
the late 80s and early 90s, possibly to attract congressional funding for
their own efforts in the field.

Among others the Israelis, French, Russians, other members of the old Soviet
bloc and Americans have been caught with their hand in the till and named at
least once.

Russian commercial espionage runs back at least to the time of Peter the
Great. The Israelis also appear not to draw any distinction between
commercial espionage and other espionage in the service of the state.

The French have been caught at it most flagrantly on several occasions. One
of the latest occurred during recent Airbus negotiations in France. The UK
team were bugged and the details of  their negotiating position were passed
to the French team. This came to light noisily because the leader of the
French team was both appalled and embarassed by what had happened, refused
to be a party to it and returned the papers with apologies  - and apparently
unopened  - to his UK counterpart.

In my view the EU 'investigation'of  Echelon is not at all what it seems to
be and I have had the pleasure of discussing that with Duncan. The next
25-50 years are going to see major changes in international alignments,
already begun, come to completion. This will not (cannot?) be done without
the manipulation of public opinion and the thumping of tubs.
>
> No doubt there will be more detail on the BBC web site.

Sadly, no doubt you are right.


Owen Lewis