[FYI] ECHELON 1973

[Horns@t-online.de (Axel H. Horns)]

[Historischer Stoff, so wie es aussieht. Ueber die Qualitaet ist 
natuerlich nichts bekannt  --AHH]

http://jya.com/nsa-40k.htm

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17 February 1999. Thanks to Duncan Campbell. 

After the Ramparts 1972 article this is the second public report on
NSA's global signals interception program. Transcribed from slightly
copier-cropped hardcopy; missing text = XXXXX. 



Nation Review (AU) 1973 

Uncle Sam and his 40,000 snoopers 

The following is an interview with a former US operative, now in
Australia, of America's National Security Agency ... 

Question: You've worked for the US government's National Security
Agency for a number of years. It's a global operation, but does it do
much down here in Australia and in the surrounding Pacific? Is it
relevant to us? 

Answer: Yes, it's relevant. You may already have heard that your
Defence Signals Division (DSD) is linked to the NSA. On paper, DSD has
a major responsibility within the NSA net, work for China, southeast
Asia and the Pacific. In practice, NSA supplies manpower, equipment
and knowhow to DSD, just as it does to GCHQ and CBNRC [see glossary]. 

[...]

What were you listening for in Germany? 

Berlin monitors the high echelon Soviet military traffic and the East
German internal traffic. We were interested in East German party
policy, popular discontent, typical anecdotes and complaints made by
party officials to headquarters. 

Who told you what to look for? 

Each unit has a given task. Apart from that the NSA circulates TECHINS
[technical instructions], which are policy papers, given to people on
the basis of their "need to know". By the way, this is one place the
Ramparts article went wrong. It talked about TEXTA as the bible of the
NSA. TEXTA are basically installments of an operating manual, which
list call signs and frequencies of the other side's communication
system. 

You've mentioned the British a couple of times. Are they just fronting
for the US, or do they have their own electronic operation? 

The British maintain a much lower profile. Under GCHQ (General
Communications Headquarters) there's MI8 the government outfit, and
the Special Signals Division which is the army organisation under MI8.
The German headquarters are at Braunschweig. Their operations are on
the tactical level. They depend on the US for strategic stuff. In
Germany they tend to concentrate on Poland. They mainly operate from
the northern part of the former British zone. In Berlin, they have a
separate building on the Teufelsberg, and live on RAF Gatow. 

[...]

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