Europe Is Listening [GSTRF reference]
wired.com
wired.com
updated 3:00 a.m. 13.Feb.99.PST
by Niall McKay
5:10 p.m. 2.Dec.98.PST
The European Union is quietly getting ready to
approve legislation that will allow the police to
eavesdrop both on Internet conversations and
Iridium satellite telephone calls without obtaining
court authorization.
The legislation is part of a much wider
memorandum of understanding between the EU,
the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and
Norway, a nonmember European nation. That
agreement allows authorities to conduct telecom
surveillance across international borders,
according to a Europol document leaked to
members of the European Parliament.
"Security measures are often necessary in the
cases of terrorism or organized crime," said
Glyn Ford, a member of the European
Parliament for the British Labour Party and a
director of the EU's Civil Liberties and Internal
Affairs Committee. "But what we need is some
sort of democratic control. It seems to me that
many security services are a law unto
themselves."
That will presumably be a topic of discussion
when the European Council of Ministers meets
behind closed doors Thursday to update a 1995
wiretap agreement known as the Legal
Interception of Telecommunications Resolution.
If approved, it would permit real-time, remote
monitoring of email, as well as of calls placed on
satellite telephone networks such as those
maintained by Iridium and Globalstar. Unlike
most laws in Europe, the agreement will allow
law enforcement to listen in without a court
order.
"This is a US export," said Marc Rotenberg,
director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center. "It's a European version of the
Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act." The act, passed in 1984, was
intended to allow law enforcers to tap the digital
lines of tomorrow, just as they tap analog phone
lines now.
Ironically, in September, the European
Parliament called for accountability of Echelon,
the US National Security Agency's spying
network that is reportedly able to intercept,
record, and translate any electronic
communication -- telephone, data, cellular, fax,
email, or telex.
Under European law, representatives of each
member nation can pass legally binding
resolutions. Further, the resolutions don't require
the approval of either the European Parliament or
the individual parliaments of EU members.
1 of 2 Next Page >>
___________________________________________________________________
Europe Is Listening Page 2
5:10 p.m. 2.Dec.98.PST
continued
Many European Parliament members are
outraged that the Council of Ministers has been
acting in secret. They are especially concerned
about the inclusion of non-EU nations in the
agreement.
Patricia McKenna, a representative for Ireland's
Green Party, will raise the issue in Parliament
this week. She also intends to ask Europe's
Justice and Internal Affairs Council to "justify the
secrecy and lack of consultation surrounding
these initiatives."
McKenna is requesting what she described as
an "open debate on the crucial and far-reaching
measures, with enormous potential impact in the
realm of privacy."
Another member of the European Parliament
believes that the so-called "update resolutions"
will have staggering implications for personal
privacy.
"This legislation is not just a technical update,"
said Johannes Voggenhuber, an Austrian
representative for the European Parliament. "It
places the onus on the telecommunications
carrier to provide a watertight back door to
police."
The European Council for General Security
prepared the amendment with technical
assistance from the FBI, according to the
Europol document leaked.
The four major satellite telephone operators --
Iridium, Globalstar, Odyssey, and ICO -- will be
required by the law to provide access to
European law enforcement through ground
stations in France, Italy, England, and Germany.
Iridium officials could not be reached for
comment.
It is unclear how the memorandum of
understanding will affect US citizens.
"I find it very hard to believe that a foreign nation
-- any foreign nation -- could eavesdrop on US
citizens," said John Pike, a security analyst with
the Federation of American Scientists.
"It's one thing for the FBI to try and track
terrorists across international borders, but it's
entirely another to let Europeans tap US
citizens' telephones."
The FBI would neither confirm nor deny any
relationship between the United States and the
other nations involved in the memorandum of
understanding. However, Rotenberg said such
provisions are already in place under the 1994
Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act.
While the new European law is being sold to EU
member states as a means of combating what
the legislation calls "serious and organized"
crime, there is no clear definition of this phrase.
"It simply concerns any punishable offense,"
said Tony Bunyan, director of Statewatch, a
European civil liberties group. |
