[sacw] Global Satellite Spy System-Insiders Report

[Harsh Kapoor]

=46YI
Harsh Kapoor
---------------------------------

ECHELON WAS MY BABY

Ekstra Bladet meets former Echelon spy. In spite of illness and angst, she
now reveals how illegal political surveillance was carried out.

by Bo Elkj=E6r and Kenan Seeberg.

Photos: Martin Lepee

LAS VEGAS (Ekstra Bladet): "Even though I felt bad about what we were
doing, I was very pleased with the professional part of my job. I don't
mean to brag, but I was very good at what I did, and I actually felt like
Echelon was my baby." Ekstra Bladet meets Margaret Newsham in her home
in a sleepy Las Vegas suburb. For obvious reasons we are omitting the
name of the town where Margaret Newsham is trying to lead a normal life.
She has never mentioned her past to her neighbors. A past in which
Margaret Newsham has been in close contact with the very core of the most
secretive world of all worlds. Margaret Newsham helped build the
electronic surveillance system known as Echelon. Today she has broken
off connection with the world of espionage and lives in constant fear
that 'certain elements' in the NSA or CIA will try to silence her. As a
result, she sleeps with a loaded pistol under her mattress, and her best
friend is Mr. Gunther-a 120-pound German shepherd that was trained to be
a guard and attack dog by a good friend in the Nevada State Police.
She sent the dog to a 'babysitter' before we arrived, since "he doesn't
let strangers come in to my house," she says with a faint smile. Only
once before has Newsham told anybody about her work as an Echelon spy:
during closed, top-secret hearings held by the US Congress in 1988.
Today, Margaret breaks eleven years of silence by telling the press for
the very first time about her work for the most extensive espionage
network in the world. Margaret Newsham decided to talk with Ekstra Bladet
even though her doctor advised her not to meet with us. "Since I have high
blood pressure, my doctor thinks it's risky for me to talk with you, but
it's a chance I'm willing to take." DEATH SENTENCE Newsham has gone
through hell ever since she was fired from her job at Lockheed Martin
where she designed programs for Echelon's global surveillance network.
When asked to work on a project in 1984, she refused because she
believed it could harm the US government. Shortly after, Echelon's
wirepullers in the National Security Agency (NSA) made sure that she was
fired by Lockheed Martin. Immediately afterward, she sued her former
employer for wrongful dismissal and contacted the internal security
commission, DCAA, which arranged the closed hearings. "Ever since, I
have felt like I was under so much pressure that it has had a fatal
influence on my health," says Margaret Newsham, who up to now has
survived a seizure which left her totally paralyzed. All she had left was
her sense of hearing when she was admitted to the hospital. "I could
hear the doctor pronouncing my death sentence, while my husband and three
children stood by my side. The only thing that kept me going was the
thought that if I died, I would lose my case. That thought was what
brought me back to life." After regaining her mobility, Newsham suffered
a cardiac arrest, and two years ago she underwent surgery for a malignant
tumor. Today, she dryly states that she is living on borrowed time, which
perhaps explains why she chooses to stand forward at this time.
SPYING ON POLITICIANS "To me, there are only two issues at stake here:
right or wrong. And the longer I worked on the clandestine surveillance
projects, the more I could see that they were not only illegal, but also
unconstitutional." Margaret Newsham is not pleased with herself for
participating in spying on ordinary people, politicians, interest groups
and private companies, which is exactly what she did for 10 years, from
1974 to 1984. Both the satellites and the computer programs were
developed at Lockheed's headquarters in Sunnyvale California, and in
1977, she was stationed at the largest listening post in the world at
Menwith Hill, England. "On the day at Menwith Hill when I realized in
earnest how utterly wrong it was, I was sitting with one of the many
"translators". He was an expert in languages like Russian, Chinese and
Japanese. Suddenly he asked me if I wanted to listen in on a conversation
taking place in the US at an office in the US Senate Building. Then I
clearly heard a southern American dialect I thought I had heard before."
"Who is that?" I asked the translator who told me that it was Republican
senator Strom Thurmond. 'Oh my gosh!' I thought. We're not only spying
on other countries, but also on our own citizens. That's when I realized
in earnest that what we were doing had nothing to do with national
security interests of the US." KNOWLEDGE IS POWER In all its
complicated simplicity, the American intelligence agency, NSA, together
with intelligence agencies in England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand,
has established a system of satellites and computer systems that can
monitor by and large all electronic communication in the world: phone
conversations, e-mails, telexes and telefaxes. A number of other countries
are affiliated as third or fourth party participants, including Denmark.
The fundamental concept of the system is to get access to all important
political movements in hostile and allied countries alike and to keep an
eye on all important economic movements. Knowledge is power, and the NSA
knows it. Furthermore, NSA's spies function as the only primary authority
to supervise who receives what information and what it is used for.
"Even then, Echelon was very big and sophisticated. As early as 1979 we
could track a specific person and zoom in on his phone conversation while
he was communicating. Since our satellites could in 1984 film a postage
stamp lying on the ground, it is almost impossible to imagine how
all-encompassing the system must be today." ECHELON WAS NSA'S IDEA
Who came up with the name Echelon? "The NSA. Lockheed Martin's
alphanumeric code was P415. What did you actually do? "Unfortunately,
I can't tell you all my duties. I am still bound by professional secrecy,
and I would hate to go to prison or get involved in any trouble, if you
know what I mean. In general, I can tell you that I was responsible for
compiling the various systems and programs, configuring the whole thing
and making it operational on main frames [large computers, ed.]."
Which part of the system is named Echelon? "The computer network itself.
The software programs are known as SILKWORTH and SIRE, and one of the
most important surveillance satellites is named VORTEX. It intercepts
things like phone conversations." APPROVED BY THE CIA You worked as
an agent for the NSA, but were employed by a private company? "Yes, it
is almost impossible to tell the difference between NSA agents and
civilians employed by Lockheed Martin, Ford and IBM. The borderlines are
very vague. I had one of the highest security classifications which
required the approval of the CIA, the NSA, the Navy and the Air Force.
The approval included both a lie detector test, and an expanded personal
history test in which my family and acquaintances were discretely checked
by the security agency." The sky darkens over the cascading neon lights
of Las Vegas when Margaret Newsham tells of countless infringements of
security regulations and about her colleague who suffered brain damage
when she partipated in the development of the Stealth bomber. Though
Margaret Newsham is totally exhausted, she also seems relieved. "This
is the first time I have ever told anyone some of the things I told you
today. But now I want to get Mr. Gunther soon so I feel safe again. She
measures her blood pressure and looks very alarmed. "I had better go to
the doctor tomorrow morning, so maybe we should meet later on in the
day." When she returns with Mr. Gunther an hour later, the dog inspects
every room before Margaret goes in. The last thing she does before falling
asleep on her king size bed is to check her pistol to make sure it is
still loaded. Facts: Lockheed Martin is the largest supplier of
munitions to the US military services and to their intelligence agencies,
the NSA and the CIA. During the eighties, Lockheed Martin took over
LORAL Space Systems and Ford Aerospace which also deliver monitoring
equipment to the espionage agencies. Margaret Newsham worked for the NSA
through her employment at Ford and Lockheed from 1974 to 1984. In 1977
and 1978, Newsham was stationed at the largest listening post in the
world at Menwith Hill, England. She received on-the-job training at NSA
headquarters at Fort George Meade in Maryland, USA. Ekstra Bladet has
Margaret Newsham's stationing orders from the US Department of Defense.
She possessed the high security classification TOP SECRET CRYPTO.
According to information found by Ekstra Bladet in the Pentagon's
databases, the NSA had 38,613 employees in 1995. This figure does not
include the many employees at private companies who work for the NSA.
Ekstra Bladet has documented the existence of Echelon in a long series of
articles over the last months. Denmark is affiliated with the Echelon
network as a third party, and the most important Danish listening post is
located at Aflandshage on the island of Amager. I SOLD MY
LIFE TO BIG BROTHER "Denmark's ministers can believe whatever they want
to. I know Echelon exists, because I helped make the system." For the
second day running, former Echelon spy Margaret Newsham tells about the
'Black World' of espionage-and the fatal consequences it is had on her
life. Half of her espionage colleagues are dead today. "The
surveillance was incredibly target-oriented. We were capable of singling
out an individual or organization and monitoring all electronic
communication-real time-and all the time. The person was monitored
without ever having a chance to discover it, and most of the information
was sent with lightening speed to another station using the enormous
digital capacity at our command. Everything took place without a search
warrant." Was all the information forwarded to NSA headquarters at Fort
George Meade in Maryland? "Not all of it, but quite a lot." Does the
system use programs that are capable of virtually scouring the airwaves
based on certain categories and trigger words? "That's one of the ways it
functions, yes. It's like an Internet search engine. By restricting your
search to specific numbers, persons or terms, you get results that are
all related to whatever you enter. BREACH OF SECURITY Ekstra Bladet
meets the former surveillance spy, Margaret Newsham, in her home just
outside Las Vegas. By talking to Ekstra Bladet, she chooses to break her
silence and tell us as much as she considers to be reasonably safe.
Because Newsham is still subject to the omert=E0 of the intelligence
services. According to this stringent code of silence, she is not allowed
to reveal anything about her espionage activities for the NSA. "But it is
hard for me to live with the fact that I sold my life and my freedom of
speech to the largest intelligence service of the US government." On the
whole, it is difficult for Margaret Newsham to lead a normal life, even
though she wants to do that most of all. In 1984, she was dismissed by
Lockheed Martin, which built espionage equipment for NSA. Ultimately,
she refused to work on a project which she felt was a security risk. She
was 'terminated' as they called it-and she sued them for wrongful
dismissal. BILLION DOLLAR SWINDLERS "I experienced security breaches
almost every day both at Lockheed's headquarters in Sunnyvale, California
and at Menwith Hill, England. Sometimes it was utterly absurd. At a
barbecue party held by colleagues from the department responsible for
developing the 'invisible' Stealth bomber, the barbecue kettle was made
of the same material that made the bomber invisible to hostile radar
systems. Another time, somebody had coffee mugs made and all of them were
covered with prints of highly classified Echelon stations. But they were
also involved in actual swindling. Lockheed Martin undercut other
companies to get NSA project contracts, after which they illegally
transferred money and manpower to meet the contract. Since they could
swindle others for hundreds of millions of dollars, they were capable of
anything. That made them very deceitful, and in my eyes, they jeopardized
the security of the United States Government." Was the US Government
informed about the clandestine projects? "No. That's why we called them
'Black Programs". The government didn't really know what was happening or
what the many billions were actually being used for. And I felt very
loyal both to the government and to the American Constitution, which was
constantly being infringed. The world of espionage was also called 'The
Black World' because most of the operations were carried out in secrecy,
beyond any control." Since her dismissal, Margaret Newsham has been under
heavy pressure, because her case against Lockheed Martin could mean that
an open court case would shed light on the NSA's 'black projects'. Among
other things, the case deals with swindling for more than 10 billion DKK
(ca. 1.4 billion USD), and for the time being, her lawyer has provided
her with legal assistance that is the equivalent of 140 million DKK (ca.
20 million USD). PREMATURE DEATHS The case has had a fatal effect
on her health. Since '84 she has had a seizure that left her totally
paralyzed, survived a cardiac arrest, and on top of everything else is
suffering from cancer. Today, she lives on borrowed time and suffers from
high blood pressure. "It didn't help any when my husband asked for a
divorce after I had survived my cardiac arrest. He is chief of security
at Lockheed Martin and has also been under a lot of pressure. He was
grossly harassed because of his affiliation with me," Newsham says. She
lives alone now and has struggled to maintain contact with her three
children and six grandchildren. Today, she lives in a quiet Las Vegas
suburb. Not even her neighbors know about her past. "NSA's activities
have not only affected me, but also my former espionage colleagues at
Lockheed. Nearly half of the people I worked with on clandestine projects
are either dead or mortally ill today. For example, my former boss on the
Echelon project, Robert Looper, died prematurely of heart failure, and
Kay Nickerson, who worked on developing the Stealth bomber, died of brain
damage." But how could half of your former colleagues die prematurely?
"I don't know how to explain it, but at one point we discovered that
Lockheed's headquarters in Sunnyvale are built on top of a highly
radioactive dumping ground." What did they die of? "Heart failure,
cancer, inexplicable seizures and brain damage. Even I am going to die of
cancer before my time. But I have my lawyers, my doctor and my children
and grandchildren to support me. They are the people I am fond of."
What gives you the courage to continue? "The fact that the NSA, CIA and
NRO (National Reconnaissance Organization) are carrying on illegal
espionage against the rest of the world. They say they are doing it to
catch drug criminals, gunrunners and the like. But that doesn't give them
the right to do what they're doing. They are constantly breaking the
law." ECHELON IN DENMARK In Denmark, leading politicians and
ministers deny any knowledge of Echelon beyond what they read in the
newspapers. "Now they can read about me then. I am living proof of
Echelon's existence. I configured and ran a lot of Echelon's programs."
Margaret Newsham shows us the order that stationed her at Menwith Hill,
the specifications for some Echelon programs and other internal
documents. We found discarded computer remnants at the Aflandshage
Listening Post in Denmark designated "VAX RED". Does that mean anything
to you? "Yes, as a matter of fact it means two things. You see, I worked
on VAX computers myself, and they were used on the Echelon project.
"The color RED probably refers to the classification level. Because the
security system is based on the fact that only very few people have an
overall picture of everything that goes on. Therefore, some employees have
red tags, some purple, some blue and so on. That means that they are only
allowed to work with certain parts of the projects, i.e. the ones that are
classified under the same color. As a result, very few employees have a
complete picture of what is really going on. Since my tag had all the
colors, I had a good overview. I was also the one who made the back-up
files." BIG BROTHER CONTROLS US Can you understand how some people
find it hard to believe that a system like this really exists? "Yes,
but it is real. We are spying on our own citizens and the rest of the
world-even our European allies. If I say 'Amnesty' or 'Margaret Newsham',
it is intercepted, analyzed, coordinated, forwarded and registered-if it
is of interest to the intelligence agencies. I spoke with a radiologist
recently, who had done exactly the same thing I had, only ten years
later, in 1991, under 'Operation Desert Storm'. If only I could tell you
everything, then you would understand that Echelon is so big, it's
immensity almost defies comprehension." Margaret Newsham does not regret
that she has been a pariah in the US intelligence community since her
break with the NSA in 1984. A break that cost her her husband, her job
and her health. Is there anything you would you have done differently?
"Not for a second. It is important for the truth to come out. I don't
believe we should put up with being controlled by 'Big Brother' in the
future. But we put up with it now." EXTRA FACTS For ten years,
Newsham worked for the US munitions and computer firms Signal Science,
=46ord Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. They had contracts for the
development and upgrading of Echelon satellites and computers which the
companies designed for the intelligence agency NSA. The NSA cooperates
closely with the CIA and NRO (National Reconnaissance Organization).
=46or two years, Newsham shared the responsibility for the day-to-day
functioning of Echelon's computer network at Menwith Hill, England. In
classified documents, which are in the possession of Ekstra Bladet,
Menwith Hill is referred to as 'the largest station in the service'.
Denmark participates on a third-party basis in UKUSA, an electronic
surveillance agreement. THE MINISTER FOR THE DEFENCE ADMITS.
"Denmark participates in a global surveillance system," admitted the
Minister for the Defense Hans H=E6kkerup under heavy pressure. As one of
the first governments in the clandestine Western intelligence
cooperation, H=E6kkerup acknowledged during a joint council in the Danish
Parliament's Europe Committee last Friday that the FE (Intelligence Agency
of the Danish Armed Forces) participates in the interception of electronic
communication. Does this occur in cooperation with the NSA, which manages
the so-called Echelon? "I can't confirm that, but I can tell you that
the FE has been intercepting signals ever since the Second World War-and
we're still doing it." Can you confirm that this takes place at
Aflandshage on the island of Amager? "Yes, it does, and the facilities
out there have been continuously expanded over the years. We both collect
and process information from satellites. " Is this cooperation in
compliance with the law? "Yes, it is." The Minister for Defense was
summoned to a joint council by parliament member Keld Albrechtsen who was
quite astonished by the Minister's admissions. Up to now, the ministries
of Defense, Justice and Research have actually denied any knowledge of
the controversial global surveillance systems. The Minister stated that
such satellite systems exist and that Denmark is included in them, but
that this system is not called Echelon. He also stated that we have the
capacity to collect and exchange information with the intelligence
agencies of other countries. Do you have any guarantee that Danish
citizens are not being illegally monitored and registered? "No,
unfortunately." He evaded the question of whether the law is obeyed in
regards to the cooperation with the secret services of other countries.
So this system provides no guarantee for the security of life and property
for the ordinary citizen. He also to refused to go into detail on the
question of whether the operations occur in cooperation with other
countries. Another parliament member of the Europe Committee, Knud Erik
Hansen, asked at the meeting if the facilities also spied on the
commercial satellites, i.e. the ones that transmit signals like telephone
conversations. He unfortunately evaded that question, too, but now the
Minister for Justice must be brought to order so he can assure us that
both private and commercial communication is not being monitored
illegally. THEY SPY ON ORDINARY PEOPLE "They spy on
companies and interest groups," says Duncan Campbell, who has looked at
the listening post at Aflandshage near Copenhagen in Denmark. "The
facilities at Aflandshage are hardly distinguishable from the Echelon
installation in New Zealand." Physicist and technology expert Duncan
Campbell has no doubt. Denmark is involved in illegal surveillance
together with the other primary participants in the so-called Echelon
system, the US, England, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
"My best guess is that the facilities at Aflandshage were additionally
expanded shortly after the end of the Cold War. In 1990 or perhaps a
little later." What does that mean? "Well it means that Aflandshage is
in any case not part of NATO's defense against Russia and the other East
Bloc countries like it was before. Everything indicates that the large
parabolic antennas and accompanying buildings are used in the same way as
the facilities in the other countries: to intercept communication from
commercial satellites that transmit the phone and fax conversations of
ordinary people. And to forward the intercepted information." BREACH
OF DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES In addition to his physics degree, Duncan
Campbell is also a journalist and has closely cooperated with a group of
British women who are protesting against the largest listening station in
the Echelon system. It is located in a beautiful area on Menwith Hill
near Birmingham, England. With the help of cunning tricks, the women have
sneaked into the base more than a hundred times and removed thousands of
classified documents from the secretive base. With the help of these
papers, and from information from anonymous agents, Campbell has acquired
a unique knowledge which last year resulted in an extensive report on
the global surveillance, ordered by the European Parliament. "The
problem is that most democratic countries have laws that protect the
sanctity of private life and do not allow the lawful political activities
of their citizens to be monitored and registered. In order to monitor
someone, you must have grounds for suspicion and be authorized to do so by
a judge. Echelon is a total breach of these principles. A great number of
categories are coded into the system, and under each category there are
even more code words. Many of the words are used in normal daily
conversation. Not only the rights of ordinary people are infringed;
Echelon also monitors interest groups like Amnesty International,
Greenpeace and private companies. Several examples of industrial espionage
exist in which the US intelligence service has passed on information to US
companies that was intercepted from satellites. BREAKS THE LAW How
can you be so sure that this is possible? I have seen the footage taken
inside the systems while they were in operation. Both from Menwith Hill,
England and Waihopa, New Zealand. TV-Free from New Zealand succeeded in
filming in the Waihopa base, and the operations room was almost
completely devoid of staff. The process is totally automated and operates
at lightening speed. In addition, I also made a documentary for which we
set up a tiny parabolic antenna beside the base on Menwith Hill. The
information it intercepted was unbelievable after we positioned it to
listen in on the same satellite at which the large parabolic antennas in
the base are aimed." Isn't it reasonable that the system has the
capability to monitor terrorists and the like? "Sure it is. But there
is all the difference in the world between conventional surveillance and
monitoring and this system in which the law is consistently and
constantly being broken by the very people who should be making sure that
others obey the law. They are purely and simply exchanging information
which is illegal for the local intelligence agencies in the individual
countries to collect." Is it still called Echelon? "The code name
Echelon is only part of the entire system, and everything seems to
indicate that they have switched codes. Last I heard it was
'Magistrand'."

COPYRIGHT 1999: EKSTRA BLADET-COPENHAGEN, DENMARK