intelligence gathering ECHELON IRELAND for computer activists

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday June 30, 2002 22:23 by INFO WAR - E HIPPY http://www.statewatch.org/eufbi/eufbi08.htm

the Revolution will be Digitised

Irish Intelligence Services including the Irish Defence Forces Military Intelligence G2 Branch and the Garda Special Branch C3 Section who deal with terrorism and counterintelligence (and political radicals) as well as the Army Rangers intelligence gathering division. Ireland has long been sucking up to its EU paymasters...

Irish Intelligence Services including the Irish Defence Forces Military Intelligence G2 Branch and the Garda Special Branch C3 Section who deal with terrorism and counterintelligence (and political radicals) as well as the Army Rangers intelligence gathering division.
Ireland has long been sucking up to its EU paymasters (note political attack on RTS and many recent Anti war Anti Globalisation protests) and is keen to prove its self willing and able to carry on the fine tradition of brutal repression of the Anti Capitalist movement, keeping in mind that Irelands host the EU presidency in 2 years time.
Anyone who thinks that political espionage, infiltration, surveillance etc. is only something that happens in other countries or on TV, and couldn’t possibly be happening in little ole Ireland... WAKE UP...
Picture GARDA CCTV Store St Dublin

Its not happening it happened
It is vital that political, social and environmental movement bodies, particularly those involved in communications, try to maintain up-to-date knowledge of echelon methods if they are to guard against having sensitive material read
the net is tightening...

The Phoenix, May 5, 2000, Vol. 18 No. 9, Pgs 20-21
PADDIES JOIN GLOBAL SPY NETWORK

THE ABOLITION of Ireland's neutral status has been accelerated by a secret agreement with the American and British governments - without even a nod in the direction of the Oireachtas or the Irish public - to join a state-of-the-art, global telecommunications spying apparatus. This is revealed in a special European commission report on the Anglo- American integrated, world-wide network of electronic intelligence collection platforms (120 satellites and ground stations) code-named ECHELON. It produces military, political and economic intelligence by intercepting telecommunications and clandestinely plundering computer files.
In June, Ireland will become part of a secret alliance, joining Canada, Australia and New Zealand to help America's NSA (National Security Agency) and Britain's GCHQ (Government Communications HQ) communications spy system ms to snatch computer secrets from all over the world.
Spy bosses in Washington and London sucked Ireland into ECHELON with fascinating ingenuity. First approaches came from the FBI in 1993 to Garda HQ and the Department of Justice to join a mysterious body called ILETS (International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar). So closely involved has Ireland become with ILETS that in 1997 Dublin Castle was chosen as the venue for a meeting of ILETS and ECHELON experts. Information about ILE TS is not made available on "security" grounds. So secret are the arrangements about ILETS that the European Parliament report describes it as "a previously unknown international organisation."
Ostensibly, ILETS is about co-ordinating international phone tapping by police agencies to combat organised crime and drugs smuggling. Most people are against crime - the way they are against sin - and claiming that ECHEL ON is about controlling crime is a clever ploy. But ECHELON is not a police surveillance system - it is run by the US and British intelligence services for military, political and economic reasons - as the mission statements of both the NSA and GCHQ make clear.
ECHELON uses the same basic technology as the Internet, enhanced by gigantic computers, to trawl through millions of phone calls, e-mail and faxes searching for key characteristics. It has been compared by experts in Brussels with a series of giant vacuum cleaners in space which suck up communications and re-transmit them to fixed points where they are monitored by super-computers and sifted for specific intelligence.
The ECHELON spies on friend and foe alike (Robert Maxwell and Tiny Rowland where among its targets). While the CIA claims it is used for monitoring the Russian Mafia or mad Muslim Osama Bin Laden and his embassy-bombing c hums in Afghanistan the reality is that ECHELON is about keeping America great (and Britain hanging on its coat-tails) through stealing information from economic rivals by hidden electronic and non-traceable means.
ECHELON is the 21st century grandchild of a wartime radio-monitoring network spawned by the secret 1941 agreement - the UK-USA Communications Intelligence Pact. During the Cold War the UK-USA Pact incorporated Canada, Australia and New Zealand using old technology to monitor multi- channel telegraph systems and short wave radio. But in a series of technological leaps, this scattered network used for spying on the Soviets and their allies metamorphosed into ECHELON.
Two things have created this super-spy web - the development of ultra-fast, huge-capacity computer systems and the now common use of microwave radio links to carry burgeoning telecommunications traffic throughout the world. It was once a "passive" system which merely monitored target traffic. But ECHELON now has an "active" component which allows NSA or GCHQ analysts to covertly "hack" into information on the hard disks of computers linked into any telecommunications system, including the Internet.

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the Irish Intelligence Services including the Irish Defence Forces Military Intelligence G2 Branch and the Garda Special Branch C3 Section who deal with terrorism and counterintelligence. I estimate that there are today at least 35 ñ 45 foreigners engaged in espionage, operating clandestinely in the Irish Republic. (Though, when, recently, I asked, Commandant Pauline O'Connell, Head of Irish Military Intelligence in Dublin, for confirmation, she said, it couldn’t possibly comment on that)

Through the seventies ñ until today, such activities as intelligence gathering, subversion and counter-intelligence have been a constant, if largely hidden, part of the Irish political, military and economic scene.
There have been main four main factors that have been responsible for this: The Troubles ñ The possibility of Eire joining NATO ñ Eires EU membership and Irelands emergence as the IT centre for Europe.
The main British intelligence services, SIS (MI6) and MI5, usually have distinct areas of responsibility and operation. MI6 tasked with overseas operations and MI5 (working with the British Police Special Branch) operating domestically in a counterespionage and anti-terrorism role. Exceptionally, both MI5 and MI6 operated ñ at the same time ñ in Eire. As the conflict in Northern Ireland escalated, so did the number of British security and intelligence organisations operating clandestinely throughout the island of Ireland. So much so, there was a real danger of British spooks bumping, unknowingly, into other British spooks, with potentially tragic results. So the UK Government appointed an espionage Supremo to oversee British spying on the Island. The man chosen was the former head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield. The new organisation: The Joint Coordinating Intelligence Department was known, cryptically as ìThe Department Oldfield coordinated the activity of MI6, MI5, 14 Intelligence Company (14 ISC), the SAS, the Force Research Unit (FRU), RUC Special Branch, RUC Special Patrol Group ëBronzeí Section and the Special Military Intelligence Unit

The building of the radar station at Mount Gabriel in County Cork (as part of BACKBONE) and the proposal that Ireland might join NATO attracted the interest of the newly established Soviet Embassy in Dublin. According to a former senior KGB officer, both the KGB and GRU had six people at their Rezidentura. Now, while the GRU or military intelligence service will be targeting Irelands burgeoning IT industry, the SVR (ex-KGB) have been increasing their targeting of US and British citizens who are visiting or based in Ireland. It is believed that, because they are relaxed in the Irish environment, they are more susceptible to attempts by the Russians to recruit them. The SVR has been very active in Ireland in recent years.
One reason is a result of the significant Irish involvement with the Russian aviation industry - including engineering, maintenance and livery painting, airport management, catering management and joint-ventures. The US security and intelligence services have also been active in Ireland. While the CIA presence has been minimal, the FBI and the Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) have a significant presence. A concern over terrorism and the drug links with Colombia has driven this interest. Other intelligence services and their reason for operating include the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and their interest in the activities and welfare of German nationals (following terrorist targeting) . MOSSAD, the Israeli secret service has watched the activity of the Libyan Intelligence Service in Ireland. The former South African Bureau of State Security (BOSS) has been shown to have based several of its ventures on Irish soil and the French intelligence agency, the DGSE, are thought to have targeted Irish technology.
In fact the fasted growing area of skulduggery is that of commercial and industrial espionage conducted not only by the French, but Chinese, Israeli, Japanese, South African and even the Americans too. Often these are people working within a host company from whom they attempt to garner commercially sensitive information. While trained in the tradecraft and elicitation techniques of the traditional intelligence agencies (including how to avoid counterintelligence measures) they are actually civilians. It is an inevitable downside of Irelands vanguard position on the IT front. These threats, as well as the continuing cancer of Irish terrorism, are dealt with by the Irish intelligence and security services.#

They are very much real, quiet and effective

One very interesting document that relates to this question should be studied by everyone involved in social justice campaigning work using the Internet. It was produced for US military intelligence and is called The Zapatista Social Netwar in Mexico.*5) It shows how activists from a wide range of social movements, operating particularly through the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), were able to affect the course of events in Mexico and stop the Mexican army from defeating and destroying the Zapatista guerrilla army. The document calls for the development of new methods by the US military to counter the work of what it calls netwarriors, who use the Internet for social campaigning purposes. It believes the military needs to do this so it can come to the assistance of governments friendly to the US and its free market policies that become threatened by Netwar. A central point in the document concerns the need to closely monitor the activity of social movement campaigners using the Internet. This points to a very real use of ECHELON against movements working for social justice. It is doubtful if the study itself could have been produced without information already gained through US state spying on Internet activity. It shows much more knowledge than the Mexican government itself had of what was behind the international movement that developed in support of the Zapatista army

States all over the world have always carried out surveillance. They see it as an essential part of their existence. Many businesses also see surveillance as indispensable, both to find out what their rivals are doing and to keep watch on their employees as part of maintaining control over them
The Internet has grown up as an area of relative free debate and discussion not under the control of governments and big business. Voices can be heard that are suppressed in other media. Many movements campaigning for social justice have taken advantage of this. The danger for us now is that government regulation and policing of the Internet may close the tremendous possibilities before we have even begun to use them.
Movements already using the Internet for social campaigning work are becoming aware of the increasing threat to their activities from state surveillance and regulation. They are beginning to prepare ways of fighting back. It is essential that labour Internet activists work with them and assist them on this. Considerable debate is taking place within the APC on defending Internet rights and those of us operating within APC should involve ourselves in this discussion. GreenNet, the APC affiliate in Britain, is planning to lobby and campaign against the proposed legislation giving police access to email. They will be starting an online discussion on this which will include debate on the international implications of government and police surveillance of the Internet.
I hope this document can make labour media activists more aware of state surveillance and echelon activity and alert them to the dangers over its extension to the Internet. We need to plan an organised response

The Campaigners' Computer Maintenance Mantra
This is my computer. There are many like it but this one is mine.
My computer is my campaigning tool. Campaigns are my life.
I must master my computer as I must master my life.
Without me my computer is nothing.
Without my computer my campaigns are nothing.

I must protect my computer. I must secure the building and the room it is in.
I must prevent thieves or private investigators stealing my data and my computer.
I must connect my equipment to a single power point to isolate it with one switch.
I must disconnect my modem when it is not in use

I must maintain my computer to keep it operating efficiently.
I must regularly conduct system maintenance to prevent errors.
Every month I must check my system for viruses.
I will scan the file system for errors. I will de-fragment the drives if they need it.
I will check the operating system for itinerant temporary files and delete them.
I will delete or copy onto disks unwanted or surplus files in my work area.

I must back up my data REGULARLY.
'Regularly' means when I finish major work or do system maintenance.
I will secure my backed up data in a place where it is safe from fire and theft.
In case of raids I will occasionally give copies of my back ups to trusted friends.
Before shutting down I will always check that the backed up files are readable.

I will practice computer security better than I practice safe sex.
I will check any files received by email or on disk for viruses.
I will not execute any new programs before they have been scanned for viruses.
I will disable all the macros of any documents I receive before opening them.

As a campaigner who uses a computer this mantra will guide my life.
My computer and myself are defenders of the Earth.
Those who would destroy the world have better computers than we do.
But we will win because we have superior morals and motivation.
So be it until we dance on the ruins of the multinational corporations,
and sustainable development is attained.

THE CONSTITUTION
The Right to Privacy
As an individual, you have a right to privacy, so your private written communications and telephone conversations cannot be deliberately, consciously and unjustifiably interfered with. However, your right to privacy may be limited or restricted by legislation in the interests of the common good, public order and morality

http://cryptome.org/echelon-ie.htm
echelon Ireland

http://www.alternative-ireland.com/echelon.html
echelon Ireland

good links

Echelon
In July 2000 the European Parliament decided to set up a temporary committee on the global interception system known as ECHELON. Over the course of its work, the Committee heard presentations from representatives of national secret services, and from experts in the fields of communications, interception technology, encryption technology and business security, as well as from academics, legal experts and investigative journalists
Parliament concluded that the ECHELON system's capacity to track phone calls, faxes and e mails has grave implications for the protection of individuals' right to privacy, and that present European and international legislation is not sufficient to protect EU citizens against possible abuses of the system.
Parliament called on Member States to draw up a Code of Conduct which would guarantee all European citizens protection of privacy, as defined in Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

http://www.statewatch.org/eufbi/eufbi08.htm
http://www.echelonwatch.org/
http://www.infowar.com/class_2/class_2.shtml