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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: w molloy who wrote (697)	8/9/1999 9:28:00 AM
From: Jeff Vayda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

Maybe the EU will go with a nice secure CDMA technology sooner than we think.... smh.com.au LEGAL BATTLE Europeans angered by US espionage By SIMON DAVIES in London Europe is discreetly gearing up for one of its most unusual legal battles. At stake is the future of the world's most secretive intelligence organisation, America's National Security Agency. The NSA is in the business of eavesdropping on the world's communications networks for the benefit of the United States. In doing so, it has built a vast spying operation that reaches into the telephone systems of nearly every country. Over the past year, members of the European Parliament have learnt that the NSA, in collusion with the British Government, has created the means to intercept almost every fax, e-mail and telephone call within the European Union. The revelation has irritated governments throughout Europe, culminating in a current Italian judicial inquiry into the legality of the NSA's activity. The issue has erupted now because of two recent European Parliament studies that confirm the existence in Britain of a network of communications intelligence bases run by the NSA. The first report, An Appraisal of the Technologies of Political Control, confirmed that the NSA had established a surveillance capacity over the entire European communications network. It also described a grid of supercomputers, known as Echelon, capable of scanning vast areas of the communications spectrum to detect keywords. Of key interest: the NSA's commercial espionage was being enhanced. Its claim is that the NSA has been routinely intercepting sensitive traffic relating to bids, takeovers, mergers, investments and tender offers, all for US economic benefit. Questions have been raised by MPs in Germany, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. Last September, the plenary session of the European Parliament debated the activities of the NSA. In a consensus resolution, the Parliament demanded more openness and accountability. Any thoughts that these matters were simply paranoid musings by fans of The X-Files were scuttled in June when the second report, Interception Capabilities 2000, set out the technical specifications of the interception system. The report revealed details of a secret plan to create a "seamless" web of telecommunications surveillance across all national boundaries. The strategy was advised by national security agencies and by the FBI, which with Brussels set up a top-secret planning organisation called the International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar. In time, two vast systems - one designed for national security and one for law enforcement - would merge and, in the process, would cripple national control over surveillance activities. The US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has ordered the NSA to hand over documents relating to Echelon. The NSA has for the first time in the committee's history refused, claiming lawyer-client privilege. Mr Bob Barr, a Republican in the House of Representatives, has introduced an amendment to the fiscal 2000 Intelligence Authorisation Act requiring the directors of the CIA and the NSA and the Attorney-General, Mrs Janet Reno, to submit a report outlining the legal standards being employed within project Echelon in order to safeguard the privacy of American citizens. The NSA's silence has fuelled the present inquiry by the Rome judiciary, which will determine the extent to which the NSA's activities may breach Italian law. - Los Angeles Times