[FYI] (Fwd) Wired: Echelon Furor Ends in a Whimper

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

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From:           	Owen Blacker <owen.blacker@wheel.co.uk>
To:             	"UK Crypto list (E-mail)" <ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Subject:        	Wired: Echelon Furor Ends in a Whimper
Date sent:      	Thu, 5 Jul 2001 10:16:56 +0100 
Send reply to:  	ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk


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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44984,00.html

| Echelon Furor Ends in a Whimper 
| By Steve Kettmann <kettmann@aol.com>
| 3:00 p.m. July 3, 2001 PDT 
| 
| STRASBOURG, France -- In the end, a year of hard work boils down to
this: | Echelon exists and the Europeans don't like it, but there
isn't much they | can do except wring their hands in impotent fury as
the Americans | continue spying on whomever they please. | | The
resolution approved Tuesday by a European Parliament committee set up
| to investigate the satellite-based surveillance system condemned |
Echelon's existence but, aside from agreeing to step up meaningful |
rhetorical pressure on the Americans, achieved very little. | | The
committee officially wrapped up its inquiry late Tuesday by passing |
more than 60 of 160 amendments before approving the entire resolution,
| 27 to 5. There were two abstentions. | | Some of the amendments
sought to add a harder edge to the language of | committee head
Gerhard Schmid of Germany, whose 113-page report was | hailed for its
balance and fairness, which is often politician-speak for | blandness.
| | Giuseppe di Lello Finuoli of Italy, one of three vice chairmen,
protested | that the committee's emphasis on legalisms would not
prevent Europeans | from having their e-mail, faxes and phone
conversations monitored by nosy | Americans, along with their
English-speaking partners, England, | Australia, New Zealand and
Canada. | | Di Lello Finuoli believes the system widely known as
Echelon -- which | Schmid's report says may or may not be accurate --
will continue to | operate with impunity. | | "That failure to protect
European citizens will have been endorsed by the | failure to take
action," Di Lello Finuoli said through the official | translator. | |
"Everything will continue on as it has in the past. It is possible to
| conduct espionage from one country of the European Union on another
| without any consequences. This group has done some very good work,
but I | think the mountain has given birth to a mouse." | | That's how
his remarks were translated, at any rate. | | Schmid defended his
support of European investment in decryption, not | just encryption,
which some critics see as de facto acknowledgement that | Europe has
its own plans for an Echelon-type system. Then he hurried out | of the
meeting room, waving off questions and saying his comments would |
come at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday morning. | |
Nevertheless, committee chairman Carlos Coelho pronounced the year
long | inquiry a success, saying that given the parliament's diverse |
constituency -- one with a legendary reputation for fractiousness and
| squabbling -- he was pleased by the level of consensus. | | "I don't
think any of the amendments we approved was anything quite |
different," Coelho said. "But there are more references to the United
| States than what was in the draft." | | For example, Amendment No
105 "Calls on the Member States to negotiate | with the USA a Code of
Conduct similar to that of the EU." | | Not exactly the kind of tough
talk expected to cow the Bush | administration, but it may have some
symbolic value if the full European | Parliament | approves the
committee's resolution in September. | | Then there's Amendment No 94,
stating that the committee "regards it as | essential that an
agreement should be ... signed between the European | Union and the
United States stipulating that each ... should observe ... | the
provisions governing the protection of the citizens and the |
confidentiality of business communications applicable to its own
citizens | and firms...."   | | In other words, knock off the
industrial espionage, Yank. | | That expands on previous language
urging the UN secretary general to push | for Article 17 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political | Rights to be updated
so that it "guarantees the protection of privacy, | into line with
technical innovations." Article 17 also calls upon the | United States
to sign this "Additional Protocol," so that individuals can | submit
complaints to the Human Rights Committee set up under the | covenant. 
 | | Language was also added referring to "authoritative sources"
confirming a | US congressional report which estimated that economic
intelligence | funneled from the government could give US companies up
to $7 billion in | added contracts. | | Damning stuff, at least
compared with the cautious tone taken by Schmid | in his report, or
even in the amendments he offered Tuesday, all of which | were passed.
| | One of Schmid's seven amendments, for example, noted that "the US
| intelligence services do not merely investigate general economic
facts | but also intercept detailed communications between
undertakings, | particularly where contracts are being awarded, and
they justify this on | the grounds of combating attempted bribery....
(This) detailed | interception poses the risk that information may be
used for the purpose | of competitive intelligence- gathering rather
than combating corruption, | even though the US and the United Kingdom
state that they do not do so." | | This focus on industrial espionage
reflects the general thinking of many | in the European Parliament
that the threat to commerce is as much a | concern as potential
violations of individual privacy rights. But it was | criticized by
some committee members, at times quite fiercely. | | "We are being
completely hypocritical," said Alain M Krivine of France. | "All
countries are engaged in political and (industrial) espionage. It is |
just a question of power, and the United States has the most power. It
is | part and parcel of globalization. However, the United States are
not the | only ones who are promoting capitalism this way." | |
Copyright © 1994-2001 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. |
<http://hotwired.lycos.com/home/copyright.html>

- - -- 
Owen Blacker
Senior Software Developer / InfoSec Consultant    Wheel: Clerkenwell
See http://www.owens-place.org.uk/pgp.html -- more about my PGP keys
Sig  0x00036874 | d39f b776 fa20 c125 b0e2  aa6d 555e 4126 0003 6874

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