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Old 05-02-2002, 08:52 AM
sfc_darrel sfc_darrel is offline
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Default Northwest Spy Station

NORTHWEST SPY STATION SEES ALL, HEARS ALL -- AND KEEPS IT ALL TO ITSELF

By JAMES LONG

On a blustery April morning in 1941, several truckloads of Depression-era government workers arrived at a muddy field along Portland's Northeast Halsey Street near 148th Avenue. They began digging holes, not sure what for. But the holes had to be very precise.

Three young men with survey equipment checked and rechecked each location, consulting frequently over a roll of plans they unfurled in the pelting rain. A tall spruce pole went into each hole. Most had cross-pieces for wire to be strung in various diamond shapes. Soon the field resembled a fleet of ships sunk to the mast. This peculiar undertaking drew the curiosity of the only other human in the area, a turkey farmer who wandered across the street and asked in a friendly way what the workers were up to. He never got a clear answer and went back to feeding his turkeys, pondering the strange ways of government.

The farmer could not have known that he and his gobbling flock were now neighbors of one of America's most secret electronic spy stations of World War II and the Cold War that followed. It lasted almost three decades, then gave way to a newer, far more advanced station near Yakima that combs the airwaves for the likes of Osama bin Laden.

The new station sits on the edge of a U.S. Army base outside Yakima in the apple-growing region of central Washington. Experts who follow intelligence matters say the station is part of something called Echelon, a controversial effort to gather everything moving through the air in international communications:

Every private phone call. Every fax. Every e-mail. Every company memo. Every merchandise order. Every wired invoice. Every ship-to-shore telex. Every money transfer. Every bank transaction. Every sales pitch. Every birthday greeting. Every valentine. Everything resembling a radio wave.

The reason for all this snooping, they say, is that intelligence agencies realized long before Sept. 11 that not every national security threat comes from big, lumbering targets like the North Korean missile command. Private-practice enemies like Mohamed Atta are out there, too, they say, and may be chatting on their mobile phones.

Location no longer a secret Francis McCann, a Federal Communications Commission radio engineer who helped design and build the Halsey Street station, enjoyed telling the story years later and gave the first hint about Echelon.

He mentioned that the Halsey operation's "functions" had been moved "to another state." He never said where. But this was 1971, which was very shortly after the National Security Agency opened its post near Yakima.

Since then, the new station's cover has grown so thin that it's possible to get directions to it from the Yakima Valley Visitors and Convention Bureau.

A long article. Read at...
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/ne...020428-nsa.htm

No doubt security is unhappy about this. The froze this winter and now they'll bake this summer.
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  #2  
Old 05-09-2002, 08:44 AM
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Keith_Hixson Keith_Hixson is offline
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Default SFC Darrel, Came across a young man

I was buying some office supplies and was having some difficulty finding a particular toner for an old copier. Anyway I ended up at a computer and office equipment supply shop down by the Yakima airport. Met a youngman in their who was with the Navy. He was a electronics specialist who worked at the site. He told me there are several other sites like this in North America. He said they can pick up any radio signal ever made. If you are using a cell phone they can monitor your phone calls. They can also monitor anyone's e-mail. Of course he emphasized there are billions of signals going out all the time. But, If by [court order] they know your e-mail address or cell phone number and frequency they can monitor you. Now that so much is done by radio and lazer signals and satellite it really is easy to monitor people. They know more about us than what we think! They have people from every branch of service out there and civilians. It is exceptionally well guarded. You must have the highest security rating to even get close to the place.

To me it is very scary. Corrupt people in high places could really abuse all this technology. You get someone with a McCarthy attitude and none of us would be safe.

The Plus is that we can monitor corrupt governments and mafia types around the world. It was my understanding that only the Feds have access to this. It could be a great tool for local police but I can see a lot of abuses.

Yes, Big brother is really here.

Keith
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Old 05-09-2002, 09:16 AM
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David David is offline
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They do not even need the large stations to do this anymore. There are several variations of mobile systems that can fit in a van allowing them to sit across the street from you and monitor your computer and all other devices you own. I do not mean by bugging your devices or using distance hearing devices, I mean by monitoring the actual electro magnetic output of the devices.


Here are a couple links

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0...2097%2C00.html

http://cryptome.org/nt1-92-1-5.htm

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Old 05-09-2002, 10:57 AM
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Keith_Hixson Keith_Hixson is offline
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Default I'm a little paranoid about all this.

I believe I'm ethical and moral and pay my bills on time and only get a speeding ticket once ever twelve years. I don't drink or do drugs but I am involved in politics. I know if someone wanted to blackmail even the best of us they could twist things around make almost anyone look bad.

I'm curious, is it only the three of us that are a little nervous about all of this?

David, these big stations can do things that are unbelievable. Beyond our imagination. The young tech could only give an over view as that which was described in the newspaper. Beyond that his lips were sealed. But he did say, "you can't believe what kind of information we can pull up almost anyone in the industrialized nations. Scary to say the least.

Keith?
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Old 05-09-2002, 12:29 PM
blues clues blues clues is offline
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Post Keith i've been worred about this for a long while and with all the

new laws that have been passed in the last year or so people don't know what is being done in the name of saving us from the bad guy's,i've aways said the people of this country would jump up and down if they came in and took all of our right and did away with them.but the way our rights are being taken away is little by little some they will be all gone,and it dosen't look like it will be very much longer.and am i nervous you can bet your sweet ass on that.

razz.
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Old 05-09-2002, 05:14 PM
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Keith_Hixson Keith_Hixson is offline
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Angry The Possibilities of Abuse are staggering

The possibilities of Abuse are staggering. Yet we must keep one step ahead of the competition. It's a great tool, no doubt about it but it could rob us of all our rights real quick.

Keith
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Old 05-10-2002, 05:53 AM
xgrunt xgrunt is offline
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Thumbs down Trust Us We Know Best

is the justification for the further intrusion into our privacy. My problem is that the goals of some of of those in power in the government and the true needs of our country do not coincide. I have a large problem trusting the government as the track record speaks for itself- Nam, Watergate, Iran-gate, 280 dead Marines in Lebanon, The Gulf War effort that was not allowed to finish of Saddam and now the info that the FBI in D.C. has been alerted at least 2 mos before 9/11 about the large number of Arabic flight students. I have a bumper sticker that sums up my feelings well- I love my Country but fear my government. One fact of the anti-terrorism bill that was hurriedly passed is that nowhere in the bill do they define what a terrorist is-so anyone can be labeled a terrorist if they are engaged in activities that pisses-off those in power. Our liberties are being nibbled away in the name of security.
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Old 05-10-2002, 07:48 AM
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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago" we would do well to listen. But we won't. We as a nation are to lazy to stay informed. We are much to busy entertaining ourselves.

www.actionamerica.org/echelon/index.html
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Old 05-10-2002, 09:03 AM
Drywall Drywall is offline
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Default The mail box bomber

was caught less than one hour after he used his cell phone. On last nights news they described how it's possible to triangulate a cell phone location. "They" said it was out in the empty spaces of Nevada so it was pretty easy. Of course in a more populated area it would take longer. The point is, is that it can be done. After all, cell phones are just small radios. And now cell phone manufacturers want to place a chip in them to make it even easier to find them. Big Brother indeed.
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Old 05-10-2002, 09:10 AM
xgrunt xgrunt is offline
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Default Gulag

Have read and keep A.S.'s "Gulag A...." on my bookshelf. The Learning Channel had a excellent documentary on last nite for 2 hrs called "Gulag." It was very unnerving as they would interperse interviews from inmates, Guards and Gulag Staff. The same mindset that can run Atomic Tests, chemical tests etc on their service people and fight them years later on health care can and will do what's in their interests not the countrys.
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