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[Small Business Show]  [Business Sunday] [News] [Click here to go home]
 [Image]                                        Sunday May 23, 1999
 [Cover Story]
 [Image]                                        [More...]
 Big Brother is listening                       Backgrounder
 Reporter: Ross Coulthart                       Full Transcript
                                                [Image]
 In this Sunday investigation, Australia's      Related Stories
 spy-chiefs acknowledge for the first time
 this country's role in an international        [Also This Week]
 spying alliance that is monitoring the         Feature: Euro Spy
 overseas phone, fax and email messages of      Report
 every Australian – indeed, everyone on the     [Image]
 planet.                                        Arts: Mornington
                                                Peninsula
 This top-secret American operation, known as   [Image]
 Echelon, spies on the rest of the world and,   Senator Meg Lees
 as Sunday reporter Ross Coulthart reveals,     [Image]
 may even be used against Australia.            Film: A Touch of Evil
                                                [Image]
 Among the people Coulthart talks to is a
 former spy for Canada's Communications
 Security Establishment, the arm of the UKUSA   [Image]
 intelligence alliance, which includes
 Australia, Britain, the US, Canada and New
 Zealand.

 Among the things he was asked to do was to
 spy on two of Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet --
 the request coming from then British Prime
 Minister Thatcher -- and bug the mobile phone
 of Margaret Trudeau, the wife of the then
 Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau.

 The former spy, Mike Frost, explains why he
 thinks the Echelon system is dangerous: "I
 say, never over-exaggerate the capacity of a
 system such as Echelon. Never ever
 over-exaggerate the power that these
 organisations have to abuse a system such as
 Echelon. Don't think it can't happen in
 Australia. Don't think it can't happen in
 Canada, because it does."

 In an unprecedented statement to the Sunday
 program, the director of Australia's Defence
 Signals Directorate (DSD), Martin Brady,
 reveals what spying the DSD allows on
 Australian citizens and companies. DSD also
 officially acknowledges for the first time
 that it is a signatory of the hitherto secret
 UK-USA alliance, that endorses cooperation
 with counterpart intelligence organisations
 in the United Kingdom, the US, Canada and New
 Zealand. The DSD statements will be available
 on this site on Monday.

 DSD also details to the Sunday program, some
 of the checks DSD maintains over its
 extraordinary spying powers, which until now
 have all remained strictly classified in an
 internal DSD document called Rules on Sigint
 and Australian Persons.

 As the program reveals, Australia is
 routinely monitoring any fax, phone or data
 communications passing through satellites
 over the Indian and Pacific Ocean. The
 interception of these communications is
 controlled by a so-called "dictionary system"
 that scans all communications simultaneously
 with the use of powerful super-computers that
 have been programmed with key words, key
 numbers and even specific voice patterns.
 Some of the intercepted messages (which do
 include communications by Australians) are
 sent to Australia's DSD but the bulk of the
 intelligence from Australia's important
 Geraldton base is sent automatically to
 America without scrutiny by Australian eyes.
 This complex computer surveillance system is
 known by the codename "Echelon".

 Coulthart travelled to the United States to
 interview former spies with the American
 National Security Agency (NSA) and
 intelligence commentators. They warn that,
 with the end of the Cold War, the NSA is and
 has been using its intercept facilities
 around the world, including Australia, to
 procure valuable commercial intelligence. The
 program details a number of reported examples
 where the NSA has used the Echelon system to
 give American companies a trade advantage.

 The program asks if, in the light of strong
 evidence from overseas, Australia is not
 being naïve in its relationship with its
 American allies – they have been and continue
 to be our solid allies in defence but can we
 trust them not to abuse this extensive spy
 system to give their companies a trading
 edge. The program also raises concerns,
 including allegations from a former spy who
 worked for the NSA, that this powerful spy
 system has been abused and threatens the
 privacy of every citizen.

 Australia's Inspector-General of Intelligence
 and Security, Bill Blick, tells the program
 that he is certain Australia can trust DSD
 and the American allies who spy with DSD on
 Australian soil through facilities such as
 Geraldton in WA and Pine Gap in the Northern
 Territory. The IGIS' written statement to
 Sunday will be available on this website on
 Monday.

 And DSD director Martin Brady details how the
 classified Sigint Rules “…do provide
 mechanisms to permit DSD to monitor and
 report foreign communications involving
 Australians in some special carefully-defined
 circumstances such as the commission of a
 serious criminal offence; a threat to the
 life or safety of an Australian; or where an
 Australian is acting as the agent of a
 foreign power.”

  [Image]     Echelon is a total complete
  Ex-spy Mike invasion of an individual's
  Frost       privacy. (Mike Frost)

 DSD tells the Sunday program that Australians
 are spied on infrequently and “safeguards are
 provided to ensure that the privacy of
 Australians is not compromised.” Indeed, the
 spy-chief reveals how the Sigint Rules
 generally “…prohibit the deliberate
 interception of communications between
 Australians in Australia; the dissemination
 of information relating to Australian persons
 gained accidentally during the course of
 routine collection of foreign communications;
 or the reporting or recording of the names of
 Australian persons mentioned in foreign
 communications.”

 But the program reveals how even inside DSD
 there is concern that these rules are not
 enshrined in legislation. Nearly half a
 decade after the inquiry into ASIS,
 Australia's overseas spy service, recommended
 all the spy services all be put under an act
 of parliament, DSD still only operates at the
 whim of a directive of politicians in
 cabinet.

  [Image]       With the end of the cold war,
  Reporter Ross the new spying game is
  Coulthart     commercial intelligence...
                (Coulthart)

 And, in the light of evidence Sunday has
 obtained from overseas spies, can we trust
 our UK-USA allies?

 To read more, click Full Transcript at the
 top right of this page.

  [Image]         Countries no longer have
  Satellite in    allies, they only have
  front of Oz     interests. (Madsen)

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