EUROPEAN UNION MAY INVESTIGATE U.S. GLOBAL SPY COMPUTER NETWORK

The European Union is considering launching a full-scale investigation
into whether the National Security Agency is abusing its massive and
highly advanced surveillance network to spy on government and private
groups around the world.

NSA's Cold War-vintage global spying system, code-named Echelon,
consists of a worldwide network of clandestine listening posts capable
of intercepting electronic communications such as e-mail, telephone
conversations, faxes, satellite transmissions, microwave links and
fiber-optic communications traffic, according to a report commissioned
by the Scientific and Technological Options Committee of the European
Parliament, which is the legislative body of the European Union. A
summary of the report, which briefly discussed Echelon, was published
last month.

"All e-mail, telephone and fax communications are routinely
intercepted by the [NSA], transferring all target information from the
European mainland via the strategic hub of London, then by satellite
to Fort Meade in Maryland via the crucial hub at Menwith Hill in
the...[United Kingdom]," according the report, "An Appraisal of the
Technologies of Political Control."

Menwith Hill's Silkworth computer uses voice recognition, optical
character recognition and data information engines to process the
collected electronic signals and then forwards the processed messages
to NSA, said Patrick S. Poole, deputy director of the Center for
Technology Policy at the Free Congress Research and Education
Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank specializing in
privacy issues. "These programs and computers transcend
state-of-the-art, [and] in many cases they are well into the future,"
Poole said.

Originally, the United States and the United Kingdom agreed to use the
network to spy on the Soviet Union and communist states during the
Cold War. But Echelon's mission in later years shifted to tracking
terrorists and criminals and other nonmilitary organizations.
Eavesdropping on nonmilitary groups has European lawmakers and privacy
advocates worldwide concerned that NSA may be abusing its powers.

Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, a London-based civil
liberties watchdog organization, said the original report was only the
first of several stages in the investigation, and the European
Parliament is planning to fund an independent study of Echelon in the
coming months. "There's enough interest [throughout the EU] to warrant
a full-scale specific investigation [of Echelon]," Davies said.

Despite what Davies described as "an extraordinary amount of effort
being made to silence inquiring minds," the European Parliament and
various privacy advocates also plan to form a "conference of
whistle-blowers" by March 1999 in an effort to "force these agencies
to the table and to account for themselves," Davies said.

Eduard McVeigh, a spokesman for the European Parliament in London,
said the committee has not yet decided what action to take in light of
the report. "I get the impression they are not likely to do anything
with it until after the European elections next June," McVeigh said.
Still, several members of Parliament felt it was an urgent matter that
requires further investigation, McVeigh said.

The privacy debate surrounding Echelon also has raised concerns in the
United States, Poole said. "Apart from directing their ears toward
terrorists and rogue states, Echelon is also being used for purposes
well outside its original mission," he said. For example, Poole said,
in the 1980s Echelon was used to intercept electronic communications
of Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), civilian political groups in Europe,
Amnesty International and Christian ministries.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry