22 March 2000. Thanks to Bo Elkjaer and Kenan Seeberg.
More Echelon articles and interviews at: http://www1.ekstrabladet.dk/netdetect/echelon.iasp
Ekstra Bladet, Denmark, March 8, 2000
The names of the organizations targeted by Echelon are now starting to surface. Today, we can reveal that the Red Cross has been singled out as a possible target for the world-wide surveillance system known as Echelon.
By Bo Elkjaer and Kenan Seeberg
The Echelon surveillance system is an organization consisting of military intelligence services from the USA and all the other NATO member countries, including Denmark. Echelon is allegedly capable of listening in on nothing short of three million phone conversations, telefaxes and e-mails every minute. The fact that the Red Cross has been singled out as a target for the spies is evident in new documents unearthed by Ekstra Bladet up from the hideaways of American military services.
TERRORISTS AND DICTATORS
The revealing documents come from an internal briefing session about new objectives for "Our Changing World". They involve a series of 25 slides which were used for a lecture during a conference held in 1999 by the US military’s Air Force Intelligence Agency.
The conference was held for representatives from the US computer and defense industries that deliver equipment to the electronic spies. The lecture was given by an unnamed officer from the 544th Intelligence Group of the Air Force Intelligence Agency.
This same intelligence group is directly connected with Echelon in official US documents.
SPIES ON A FISHING HOLIDAY
The tenth slide depicts an angler - who represents the intelligence service. The fisherman has a large net for catching fish the bugged subjects. The next slide shows the monitored messages being forwarded to the ‘customers’, i.e. the military services, who get their intelligence information from the 544th Intelligence Group via Echelon.
Slide 11
Slide 18 shows some of the ‘fish’ caught by Echelon. Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, Osama Bin Laden, terrorists and hostile dictators. The words "Check 12!" are written at the bottom of the slide. This is Air Force slang for "look forward!". By looking forward in the slide series, you come to the revealing picture, slide 19.
Slide 18
Slide 19 shows some of the "new fish" the spies are trying to catch hackers, disgruntled employees, NGO’s and the Red Cross. "Friend or foe?" is the slide’s rhetorical question.
Slide 19
The 544th Intelligence Group spells it out on the slide:"Our world is changing. There are a lot of fish in a lot of unfamiliar ponds. They are mobile, diverse and technology has made them advanced."
THE ECHELON CONNECTION
The slide show was made to demonstrate to the American industrial representatives what the everyday work of the 544th Intelligence Group is all about and why the Group must constantly be on the lookout for potential new enemies and surveillance targets. This same 544th Intelligence Group is part of the Echelon network, which is specified in the Group’s instructions from 1991 stating that they shall "maintain and operate an ECHELON service".
In 1994, the Echelon-related assignments of the 544th Intelligence Group were additionally expanded. This is stated in the services’ own 1995 yearbook in the chapter entitled "Activation of Echelon Units". To put it briefly, the 544th Intelligence Group is one of many special units behind Echelon’s operations.
Moreover, the 544th Intelligence Group has singled out the Red Cross - and all kinds of other relief organizations and humanitarian associations - as possible foes of the USA’s intelligence service.
DOCUMENTATION
544 Intelligence Group assigned to "maintain and operate an ECHELON site".
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/09-01.htm
(Link leads to the National Security Archive in Washington.)
ACTIVATION OF ECHELON UNITS.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/12-01.htm
(Link leads to the National Security Archive in Washington.)
[Cryptome note: The following USAF AIA pages have been inactivated; see slides 18 and 19 above. For a copy of the AIA Power Point slide show, see: http://www.datashopper.dk/~boo/544_indu/ ]
'Our changing world'. Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, Osama Bin Laden. Targets of Echelon in a 'changing world'.
http://www.aia.af.mil/homepages/cc/inddays/544_indu/sld018.htm
(Link leads to Airforce Intelligence Agencys website at www.aia.af.mil.)
'Our changing world'. Red Cross singled out as possible target for surveillance.
http://www.aia.af.mil/homepages/cc/inddays/544_indu/sld019.htm
(Link leads to Airforce Intelligence Agencys website at www.aia.af.mil.)