THE INDEPENDENT
SATURDAY, 11 APRIL 1998
link to article
By John Lichfield in Paris



     BRITAIN belongs to a consortium of electronic espionage
agencies in the Anglo-Saxon world which systematically eavesdrops
on business and economic secrets in European Union countries. 

     This allegation will be made next month in a report
commissioned by the European Parliament, which will denounce
Britain's role as a double-agent, spying on its own European
partners. 

     A draft of the report, leaked to the French newspaper Le
Figaro, says British intelligence services belong to a network
called Echelon, which also includes United States, Australian and
New Zealand spy agencies. The network intercepts and shares
information from 100 million private telephone, fax and e-mail
messages a day. 

     Although this global bugging operation combs the airwaves
for classic intelligence and criminal information, it also
targets sensitive business and economic secrets, especially in
Europe. Key words, such as the names of companies or commodities,
are fed into the computers at listening stations in Britain, the
US, Australia and New Zealand. Telephone messages containing
these words are automatically intercepted and recorded. They are
then sent to the National Security Agency, the American
electronic intelligence service, in the suburbs of Washington DC.

     Information, including business information, which might
interest the individual Echelon countries is decrypted, analysed
and sent back.

     "It is profoundly shocking and should provoke a general
outcry," said Jean-Pierre Millet, a French lawyer specialising in
computer crime. "Britain's European partners have a right to be
furious but [the British] won't abandon their pact with the US."

     According to Le Figaro, other EU governments have known of
the existence of Echelon, and Britain's part in it, for seven
years. They have chosen to make no public complaint but instead
warn companies of the dangers of transmitting sensitive
information on international telephone lines, which use satellite
links.

Copyright 1998 Newspaper Publishing PLC

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