'THEY' MAY BE LISTENING

YOU may not have heard of Echelon, but if you've called over to Europe
lately, it has probably overheard you.

Echelon is a global communications surveillance system that allows our
government to listen in on international phone calls and intercept e-mail
and faxes, all without a warrant or court order. In addition to spying on
criminal and espionage activities, Echelon also has been known to eavesdrop
on Princess Diana and Amnesty International.

This may all sound like a bad movie by Albert Broccoli -- American spy
agency run amok -- but the nightmare scenario is true.

According to two recent reports made to the European Parliament, Echelon
tries to intercept all international cellular, fiber-optic, microwave and
satellite traffic from around the world, including North America. The voice
and data communications are then sent through a filtering system that is
programmed to look for certain code words and phrases, like names of
individuals and organizations.

The filters also search for particular people using voice recognition
technology. Anything flagged by the filters is then sent to the intelligence
agency that requested it. Echelon is a joint operation between the U.S.
National Security Agency and the intelligence agencies of England, Canada,
New Zealand and Australia.

If the reports about the extent of spying are accurate, then American
overseas conversations and data transmissions are being intercepted without
any form of judicial or legislative oversight.

So far Echelon has been operating under the radar screen of the American
public. Internationally, though, government watchdogs and the media have
been on to it for years. As early as the 1970s, British researchers
uncovered information on a burgeoning international surveillance network.
They discovered this by simply connecting the dots -- visually connecting
the posted microwave towers in the United Kingdom, which were situated on
hilltops always in line of sight to each other. After mapping this
transmission path, they were arrested and charged with violating Britain's
Official Secrets Act.

In 1996, Echelon was further revealed in a book by New Zealand author Nicky
Hager. "Secret Power" exposed the massive reach of Echelon and the fact
that, as opposed to Cold War spy networks, it was designed to eavesdrop
primarily on nonmilitary targets: businesses, political organizations,
governments and individuals.

Echelon is particularly disturbing to nations that are competing
economically with its members. This month, in the Electronic Telegraph
International News, Tony Paterson reported from Berlin that the United
States is using Echelon to conduct industrial espionage against German
businesses.

A former NSA employee who refused to be identified appeared on German
television last year and disclosed that the American government has spied on
the German energy company Enercon. Satellite information was used to monitor
phone and computer transmissions between the company's research facility and
its production plant. Information on Enercon's secret invention, which
turned wind power into electricity much more efficiently, was then turned
over to an American firm, according to the NSA source. When Enercon
attempted to market its product in this country, it found the American
company had already obtained a patent on the idea and sought a court order
to ban the sale of Enercon's products.

But it's not just governments and businesses that have to worry. Apparently,
international charities and human rights groups have been targets of
Echelon's big ears. A British intelligence operative told London's Observer
that both Amnesty International and Christian Aid have been spied on. Before
her death, the NSA had been collecting the personal conversations of
Princess Diana. An intelligence expert suggested it was possibly because our
government didn't like her activism in support of a treaty to ban land
mines.

Because Echelon is steeped in secrecy, the NSA refuses to even acknowledge
its existence. But if the NSA isn't willing to be accountable to the media,
it should be accountable to Congress.

Both the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., have
called for congressional hearings into Echelon and whether it is violating
federal foreign surveillance statutes and the Constitution. At a recent
conference on computers, freedom and privacy, Barr called on Congress to
"exercise aggressive oversight of government transmission, retrieval,
storage and manipulation of private personal information."

It is not hard to envision the Echelon system being used to infiltrate
political advocacy organizations both here and abroad in the style of J.
Edgar Hoover. Without congressional and judicial oversight, the NSA and the
executive branch can use this ubiquitous spy machine to whatever mischievous
and unconstitutional means they wish. Which is what they appear to be doing
now.

Robyn E. Blumner is a columnist at the St. Petersburg Times. E-mail:
blumner@sptimes.com