…and the truth shall set you free” is the inscription in the lobby of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters. The ways of getting that truth include an immense global surveillance system called Echelon run by the National Security Agency (NSA) in partnership with many other American allies such as its top-secret British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The inclusion of American allies in the Echelon program is seen by many outside observers as a way of getting around American laws which effectively prohibit CIA or NSA activities inside the borders of America itself. Hi-tech government spying inside the USA by the GCHQ, who then share what they find with the NSA, is seen as one covert way the sitting Executive Branch of the U.S. Government can find out things it otherwise might not (or by law, should not) know.
Urban techno-myth? Maybe not. In the past two weeks the British newspaper The Observer has reported a running story about a supposed NSA memo to GCHQ that details American plans to bug phones and emails of key UN Security Council members in New York involved in voting for or against the current Iraq resolutions before them. The White House neither confirms or denies the story, which has been virtually ignored by American media except for The Drudge Report, which focused primarily on use of British spelling in an American memo. The Observer stands by its story and has since reported on increased levels of discomfort within GCHQ over their current activities as well as the arrest of a 28-year-old woman who supposedly leaked the NSA memo to the British press. Since these Observer revelations have occured in their Sunday editions, it might be worth checking them out this Sunday…
So…what’s the truth?