yes, let us talk about no such agency for a moment.
over the last several years, there has been all this froofrah concerning the bushit surveillance, the avoidance of the fisa court, etc.
but the controlling surveillance role of ECHELON goes unmentioned. by progressives, demtillians, reptillians, and the media.
ECHELON has been surveilling the communications of amerikan citizens, amerikan corporations, for several decades now. and this surveillance is conducted with no regulation...as far as i know, it is conducted at the whim of the potus and his subordinates.
and ECHELON would seem to be a program that the purportedly progressive, "anti-statist" advocates in the usa prefer to avoid discussing. i recall a pacifica show, the monitor[mark bebawi/pokey anderson], that talked about the bush spying on the citizenry as if it was something new.
i sent bebawi this fascinating investigation into ECHELON that was conducted by a kiwi journalist, nicky hager. entitled SECRET POWER. after receiving this book, for many months, bebawi would continue to tell his audience that he would be delving into ECHELON soon. hasn't happened yet.
ECHELON is the real deal. a surveillance project conducted by usa, australia, uk, nz, canada.
and it uses sheepdipping. for example, the usnsa breaks the law and appropriates the records of your communications[email,telephonic, banking, et alia] it then transfers those "takings" to the computer banks of another ECHELON partner, who returns them to the usnsa as if it was the interceptor. not only is ECHELON a stasi program, but it is a laundering program.
and it antedates all of the bushit surveillance that has gotten publicity. while all that goes on, ECHELON continues its data mining. unmentioned.
ECHELON's initial work goes back into the ronnie raygun era, to the best of my knowledge. but it was really up and running during the era of blowjob bill. and it has never stopped running.
Posted by albertchampion at January 22, 2007 10:01 PMYou got some links to illuminate your post?
Posted by Duckman GR at January 23, 2007 09:40 AMWikipedia has a nice page on the subject with links too.
Posted by gtash at January 23, 2007 11:58 AMGood enough, thanks!
Posted by Duckman GR at January 23, 2007 01:30 PMand you could always read hager's book. SECRET POWER: NEW ZEALAND'S ROLE IN THE INTERNATIONAL SPY NETWORK. ISBN #0908802358.
amazon did not make this book available for many years. i have not checked to see if it is available now.
it was published by craig potton publishing in nelson, new zealand in 1996. i found it when i was in nelson trout fishing in that area of the south island.
when i wanted some more of these books a few years back, i ordered them from potton directly.
hager was[may still be] a great journalist. this book is as comprehensive an investigation into ECHELON as you will ever see in ink.
by the way, in 1996, i found wellington, nz so full of spooks that i labelled it the new berlin.
lastly, since you seemed to know so little about ECHELON, let me say this, there are a lot of stories that you will be missing if you are confined to the conus, and read only conus-published journals, periodicals, etc.
here are some stories that got virtually no air in the conus,
matrix-churchill
bcci
operation gladio
the treuhandenstalt
oddly enough, these stories received a real "airing" in the TIMES OF LONDON.
and while we are on the subject of the TIMES, as a print rag, it stopped being distributed in the conus some months ago. its disappearance intrigued me. because the observer disappeared simultaneously. why did this happen?
i can only speculate. but do you think it might have something to do with a london trial of a "charged" muslim terrorist, who during the blair-clinton balkan war was being run by mi6 and the cia? a muslim member of the al-fresco staffed kosovo liberation army? and that someones want this story disappeared in the conus?
the progressive left gave blowjob bill a bye for his deceits and his homicidal actions in the balkans. why? was it the zionist orientation of so much of the amerikan left?
and i still get dyspepsia when i think about the amerikan left applauding old blowjob and his efforts to exterminate iraqis. and so many other "wogs" as the brits preferred to describe them.
succinctly, the bill's party won't be too much different from the georgist party. no matter how much you might wish it to be so.