This is the transcript from the February 27, 2000 broadcast of 60 minutes -- little has changed:
ECHELON; WORLDWIDE CONVERSATIONS BEING RECEIVED BY THE ECHELON SYSTEM MAY FALL INTO THE WRONG HANDS AND INNOCENT PEOPLE MAY BE TAGGED AS SPIES
STEVE KROFT, co-host:
If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it's run by the National Security Agency and four English-speaking allies: Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
The mission is to eavesdrop on enemies of the state: foreign countries, terrorist groups and drug cartels. But in the process, Echelon's computers capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world.
How does it work, and what happens to all the information that's gathered? A lot of people have begun to ask that question, and some suspect that the information is being used for more than just catching bad guys.
Steve interviews Mr. Mike Frost who spent 20 years working for the Canadian branch of Echelon. They talk about Echelon's scope:
KROFT: We can't see them, but the air around us is filled with invisible electronic signals, everything from cell phone conversations to fax transmissions to ATM transfers. What most people don't realize is that virtually every signal radiated across the electromagnetic spectrum is being collected and analyzed.
How much of the world is covered by them?
FROST: The entire world, the whole planet--covers everything. Echelon covers everything that's radiated worldwide at any given instant.
KROFT: Every square inch is covered.
FROST: Every square inch is covered.
KROFT: Mike Frost spent 20 years as a spy for the CSE, the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, and he is the only high-ranking former intelligence agent to speak publicly about the Echelon program. Frost even showed us one of the installations where he says operators can listen in to just about anything.
FROST: Everything from--from data transfers to cell phones to portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs...
KROFT: Baby monitors?
FROST: Oh, yeah. Baby monitors give you a lot of intelligence.
KROFT: This listening post outside Ottawa is just part of a network of spy stations, which are hidden in the hills of West Virginia, in remote parts of Washington state, even in plain view among the sheep pastures of Europe.
The remote parts of WA State are not that remote. The transmissions to submarines are part of Jim Creek's function but there is a major listening activity there as well. There are a few other sites near Seattle. Back to 60 Minutes:
KROFT: The National Security Agency won't talk about those successes or even confirm that a program called Echelon exists. But it's believed the international terrorist Carlos the Jackal was captured with the assistance of Echelon, and that it helped identify two Libyans the US believes blew up Pan-Am Flight 103.
Is it possible for people like you and I, innocent civilians, to be targeted by Echelon?
FROST: Not only possible, not only probable, but factual. While I was at CSE, a classic example: A lady had been to a school play the night before, and her son was in the school play and she thought he did a--a lousy job. Next morning, she was talking on the telephone to her friend, and she said to her friend something like this, 'Oh, Danny really bombed last night,' just like that. The computer spit that conversation out. The analyst that was looking at it was not too sure about what the conversation w--was referring to, so erring on the side of caution, he listed that lady and her phone number in the database as a possible terrorist.
KROFT: This is not urban legend you're talking about. This actually happened?
FROST: Factual. Absolutely fact. No legend here.
James Bamford has been doing an excellent job of chronicling the NSA. I read his first one: "Puzzle Palace" and he has two more out: "Body of Secrets" and: "A Pretext for War" Those people who are trying to tar and feather President Bush for his wiretaps of people in the USA trying to telephone suspected terrorists overseas need to realize that this sort of activity has been going on since the technology became available in the 1960's. This doesn't condone the activity. I am just saying that Clinton was doing it too, all Presidents were doing it.
