by Well I see misinformaion is alive and well, and I might as well throw
my a new light on it. Everyone hates Bush ... ok, I am conservative,
and I personally don't like him either. I voted for Ronald Regan, and
God Bliss him, I miss that anti-soviet STATESMAN!
With that said, there was ease-dropping on American phone, fax, and
internet communications LOOOOOONG before 9/11. Please lets all stand
and give a round of applause for PROJECT ECHELON!
Now this progam, KNEW it was breaking constitutional law. So in order
to circumvent those *** things we call rights, RAW data was first
collected, then sent to a foreign entity for data reduction. Once
done, it was then sent back to the United States for evaluation/action.
NSA, OSI, and some that we don't even know about had a hand in this.
Yes yes, its the easy dumb ass way to just say X-Files, but for those
of us who REALLY understand the Washington "Star Chambers", know that
this stuff is not to be taken lighty.
Well I am about to lead some of you to water, and some of you will die
of thirst. But for those of you who enjoy learning, no matter the
ending emotional result, I will paste documented proceedings of the
Austrailian Parliment concerning Echelon, and its legalities (enjoy):
Senator BROWN (Tasmania) (6.47 p.m.) --I congratulate Senator Cooney
for that speech and particularly for his concern that there is a
tendency for legislative creep in this act and his concern that we have
to be very vigilant about legislation like this, which is the reason I
do not support it. The first parts of it which are to do with being
able to more effectively tap in on criminals does not concern me, but
the proposal from the second reading speech of the minister does
concern me. He said:
The foreign communications warrant will enable the interception of
particular communications which cannot be identified by reference to
specific services or named individuals--
and he goes on to say:
This is a characteristic of the sophisticated digital technologies
which are increasingly *** in modern telecommunication systems.
The bill limits the powers to issue this category of warrants to
interception for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence. To
reduce the possibility of inadvertently intercepting communications
between Australians, these warrants may be issued only in relation to
foreign communications.
What it does not say is that this opens up the whole arena of spying
for commercial purposes and to the spying on all Australian
telecommunications going overseas. We know from the remarkable Sunday
program on Channel 9 called Big Brother is Listening on 23 May last
year that there is enormous facility these days, particularly through
the installations at Geraldton and Waihopai in New Zealand with massive
computers and dictionaries to pick out calls from amongst the millions
of faxes, emails and phone calls and to scan these so that every
conversation going out of this country is being listened into--and,
moreover, the information and the scanning of those calls can go direct
to Washington without any Australian intervention.
I will be asking the minister tomorrow to give more information
about this process, this tearaway modern communication which is not
dealt with under this legislation. In fact, I am very concerned that
this legislation gives some legitimacy to this process of comprehensive
spying which is not confined to Australia or the United States--it is
carried on around the world. I believe that citizens should know about
it and be aware of the enormous potential damage that can accrue from
it, and tomorrow I will give the Senate some specific cases where this
form of intelligence has been abused in the political arena, in the
economic arena and used against the interests of ordinary citizens
speaking on mobile phones in the street. (Time expired)
Debate interrupted
Senator BROWN (Tasmania) (9.31 a.m.) --I was saying before the debate
on the Telecommunications (Interception) Legislation Amendment Bill
2000 was adjourned yesterday that there is more to this legislation
than meets the eye, or at least there is more to the change to modern
communications than this legislation can deal with. At the outset I
might just say that if there are some senators missing from the chamber
this morning it may well be due to the traffic jams which have been
caused by the V8 car racing being imposed on Canberra at the moment. I
believe the delay is up to 40 minutes for some people making the
approach outside Parliament House at the moment. That aside, I refer to
Channel 9's Sunday program in May last year when reporter Ross
Coulthart interviewed New Zealand author and researcher Nicky Hager. Mr
Hager talked about the giant computer systems which use dictionary
systems to track down selected phone calls, faxes and Internet
communications coming in and out of Australia and indeed going between
other countries. One of these facilities is at Geraldton in Western
Australia, and most Australians know very little about it. Mr Hager
said:
One of the defining features of the Echelon system--
that is, this giant computer tracking system on everybody's phone
calls--
is that it is a move away from what is the most effective way to spy on
our enemies to a system which is the most effective way of spying on
everyone.
That is the reality of the modern world. While this bill points us
towards intervention in phone calls for criminals, drug handlers and
spies, in effect what it is not doing is saying that our whole spying
system is being moved to an international system which spies on
everybody's phone calls. Most Australians are not aware of that.
The bill does refer to intervention in foreign phone calls--phone
calls going out of this country--but what it does not say is that
everybody's phone calls are being listened to, that everybody's phone
calls are being scanned and, moreover, that the check on this system is
not within our national boundaries. Australia has an arrangement with
the UK, the United States, Canada and New Zealand whereby the
downloading of selected phone calls--the intercepted calls which the
Americans, in particular, want to listen to--go straight to Washington.
I will be asking the government during the committee stages of this
debate what control Australia has over this spy system based here in
Australia. I think we will find that it is close to zero; that in fact
this information is being relayed straight to Washington and to other
countries without proper intervention by the Australian authorities.
When this bill says, `Let's intervene in certain phone calls made by
criminals and people with an intent that is not in Australia's
interests,' it is really missing the point--that is, that everybody's
phone calls are being listened in to and, as far as I know, this
parliament has no control over that. This parliament is not informed
about it. This parliament is not a watchdog on behalf of citizens. This
parliament does not know what our spy systems are doing and, more
particularly, it does not know what the foreign spy systems are doing
which are getting the information out of the Australian infrastructure.
We are not in an age where this is simply spying--or even primarily
spying--in the defence interests of this country; we are in an age
where commercial interests are at the forefront in spying. Indeed,
President Clinton has made it very clear that, as far as the United
States is concerned, the intelligence agencies are there in the
interests of America's economic supremacy, its corporate interests.
Information being taken from these spy facilities, including here in
Australia, is passed on to the corporate system--the Forbes 500 and the
big multinational corporations--because it is in the interests of those
big systems to get the drop on their competitors around the world. The
Sunday program pointed to a number of cases where an advantage had been
given to either US or Canadian countries--in one case, a wheat deal in
favour of Canada, because the Canadians had picked up a phone call
coming out of a car in the United States--a call to do with a United
States bid for a world market. There was another extraordinary case
cited in the Channel 9 Sunday program of 23 May last year. Prime
Minister Thatcher of the United Kingdom was presumably able to get
information on two of her ministers through the Canadian connection of
this spying system--that is, the UK arm of it was kept clean while the
Canadians picked up information on two UK ministers about whom the
Prime Minister of the UK of the day was not sure. Is that the intent of
a spy system in which Australia is involved? What halt does this
legislation put on that sort of activity occurring in the international
arena against the interests of Australian people in general, let alone
elected Australians? Maybe the government will be able to disclaim that
extraordinary situation, as highlighted on the Sunday program. If so, I
would like to hear how.
legislation does not allow for overseas phone calls to be
intercepted where an Australian citizen is involved at the other end.
Tell me about it! I believe that that is already occurring all over the
world through this massive intercept system of telecommunications. I
believe that this piece of legislation is nothing more than a
diversionary titbit. It does nothing to reassure me--and will do
nothing to reassure those few Australians who know about this spying
system--that there are very clear guidelines, controlled by the elected
members of this nation, on this massive international spy system. I
reiterate: it is no longer in the nation's interest that this spy
system be contained. There are no guidelines --or, if there are, let
them be brought before this Senate--to say that this spy system is
confined to working in Australia's national interests and against the
interests of those who might engage in criminal or political activities
that
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