			Foreign Correspondent

		      Inside Track On World News
	    By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
		 Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>

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BIG BROTHER'S BIG EARS
by
Eric Margolis 16 Nov 95

There was outrage this week to charges that a top secret
Ottawa spy agency was eavesdropping on communications of  
Canadian citizens, as well as on those of friendly nations.
This reminds me of Henry Stimson's famous remark about
espionage.

When creation of an American spy agency was proposed to 
Secretary of War Stimson in the late 1930's, he sniffed, 
`gentlemen do not read one another's mail!'

Modern states have no such scruples. All modern industrial
powers maintain electronic intelligence(elint) operations
that listen in to phone, fax, telex and modem transmissions
going in or out of their territories.

In Canada, the Communications Security Establishment(CSE) 
routinely monitors communications of embassies in Ottawa, as
well as international commo traffic. Charges by a former CSE
employee that the agency listened in to trade talks with
Mexico and South Korea are perfectly plausible, if sharply
embarrassing.  So, unfortunatly, are charges that CSE's big
ears also picked up conversations by Canadian citizens.

Doing the latter is quite illegal.  Yet it's also
unavoidable. Modern elint technology hoovers up vast amounts
of electronic data across a wide frequency spectrum.  The 
data stream is then sifted and analyzed.  Inevitably,
private conversations get sucked into the system.  This is
particularly true of investigations into terrorism, money
laundering, and other international criminal activities.

The world's largest elint system, America's National
Security Agency, monitors  worldwide transmissions. Some are
specifically targeted; others randomly scanned, using key
`buzz' words that activate surveillance.  NSA's big ears
also pick up `private' communications of American and
Canadian  citizens.

Much of this information avalanche remains crude data.
Neither NSA or CSE has the time, manpower or money to listen
in to everything.  The only agency that did was the KGB, 
during the golden days of the Soviet Union. 

Random security sampling of communications inevitably leads
to problems.  Earlier this year, it was revealed that one of
Spain's security service had monitored the calls of King
Juan Carlos.  Britain's MI5 taped calls by members of the
royal family, including notably silly drivel by the Prince,
sure CSE has the prime minister and all Quebec separatists on tape. 

That, unfortunatly, is the nature of our increasingly
transparent electronic world.  The more communications
improve, the less secure they become. A citizen's right to
private communications can no longer be guaranteed. 
Technology has overtaken law.

At the same time, the Cold War's end left too many spies
with too little work. Many agencies  accordingly switched to
commercial spying. France's spy agency, DGSE, was accused of
bugging first class seats on Air France.  Last spring,
France charged five CIA agents  with industrial espionage,
something the French are very good at themselves. Russia,
Israel and China have saved hundreds of millions in R&D by
stealing American military and civilian technology. Now, to
the thunder of anguished `eeks,' it turns out that even
squeaky-clean Canada may not be above  a little commercial
eavesdropping.

I suspect that another big elint scandal may soon erupt,
probably in Washington.  NSA's big ears pick up streams of
highly sensitive business data that gives its analysts
advance knowledge of movements on the commodity, currency
and stock markets.

Might NSA play the markets to generate `special' operating
funds?  Or the CIA, or the US government, for that matter?
The temptation for modestly-paid government employees to
sell business information to outside speculators must be
strong. Nor are cash-strapped government agencies above
temptation. This column believes some `black' projects and
deep-cover operations may have long been financed by secret
government speculation on world financial markets.

More `hear no evil' legislation probably won't work.  Unless
you have high-tech encryption gear, assume all electronic
communications are compromised.

In spite of all our electronic wizardry, whispering remains
the safest form of communication. 

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