Signals Intelligence By Alliances, Nations And Industries

Signals intelligence by alliances, nations and industries comprises signals intelligence (SIGINT) gathering activities by national and non-national entities; these entities are commonly responsible for communications security (COMSEC) as well.

Many US and allied SIGINT activities are considered Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) and carry the special security marking "HANDLE THROUGH COMINT CHANNELS ONLY", which is abbreviated as the suffix CCO to the security classification. SECRET SIGINT material would be marked (S-CCO). For exceptionally sensitive TOP SECRET material, there may be an additional codeword, such as (TS-CCO-RABID).

UKUSA Agreement

SIGINT and security procedures are closely coordinated under what is called the UKUSA Community, which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States cooperating in a major SIGINT activity codenamed ECHELON. Of the UKUSA partners, NSA is the US element, Britain's is the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Canada's is the Communications Security Establishment and a few other small groups, Australia's is the Australian Signals Directorate, and New Zealand's is the Government Communications Security Bureau.

ECHELON

It is fair to say that there is ''something'' called ECHELON, and it is very large. There is no unclassified definition of what it really does, and there are conflicting unofficial reports on its capabilities and operations. Duncan Campbell is the source of much information, but many of his claims have been challenged by independent sources. It is a 2000 report, and his claims that NSA has published no details of its operations is not the case in 2007. Another extensive report is that of the European Parliament in 2001. Campbell himself refined his definitions a year later. His "strict" definition of ECHELON is that it is a satellite interception component of the partners of the UKUSA Agreement. Even among the UKUSA members, according to Campbell, there may be other satellite interception stations not called ECHELON, probably in Australia and possibly in Great Britain.

It is generally accepted that ECHELON is a cooperative system, principally among the UKUSA Agreement partners, to intercept satellite, microwave, and other communications around the world, searching for information of interest to its members. The geographic distribution of the members allows much more effective worldwide coverage. This article does not replace the separate ECHELON Wikipedia article, but will complement it.

Campbell cites Jeffrey Richelson as defining, in the 4th edition of ''The American Intelligence Establishment'', an "official" list of "third party" participants in ECHELON (or perhaps the UKUSA SIGINT alliance) as Norway, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Austria, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. Campbell further indicated that US payments to Norway and Denmark were stopped in 1992, and those countries intended to do their own satellite interception.

There are also conflicting reports about the relationship, if any, between ECHELON and US government warrantless monitoring wanted by the George W. Bush administration. Many reports focus on ECHELON's capability to intercept signals transmitted through free space, such as microwave and communications satellites. Given that much of the world's communications have moved to optical fiber cables, which are difficult but not impossible to intercept.

Much ECHELON specification is based on clues, such as noting the geographic location of various large satellite receiving antennas, then plotting the vertical and horizontal coordinates of the parabolic "dish" of the antenna. These can be correlated with the known positions of communications satellites to project that the antenna is intended to receive the signals of a particular satellite.

Other countries may be cooperating with the UKUSA countries, including Ireland and Switzerland. There are also conflicting reports about France cooperating with ECHELON, but also operating an independent capability.

Confirmation of ECHELON

Two internal NSA newsletters from January 2011 and July 2012, published as part of the Snowden-revelations by the website ''The Intercept'' on August 3, 2015, for the first time confirmed that NSA used the codeword ECHELON and provided some details about the scope of the program: ECHELON was part of an umbrella program codenamed FROSTING, which was established by the NSA in 1966 to collect and process data from communications satellites. FROSTING had two sub-programs:
* TRANSIENT: for intercepting of Soviet satellites
* ECHELON: for intercepting of Intelsat satellites
A first satellite ground station for the ECHELON collection program was built in 1971 at a military firing and training center near Yakima, Washington. The facility, which was codenamed JACKKNIFE, became fully operational in May 1973 and was connected with NSA headquarters at Fort Meade by a 75-baud secure teletype orderwire channel.

NATO

Communications and data exchange electronics are intended to be interoperable among NATO members, although not all countries will share sensitive data. Tactical information usually will be shared.

ASEAN and related groups

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) consists of ten countries of the region: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei and Laos. Five of the ten countries have concerns with Islamic terrorism, and most are also concerned with piracy. Formed in 1967, the countries also shared several decades of concern over Communist threats. Their cooperation improved over time, although there still was support from outside powers.

Given Singapore's small but potent military, it made basing arrangements in Singapore, in Malaysia and the Philippines. Thailand and Malaysia have a good record working together against the Communist Party of Malaysia.

For some years, the ASEAN countries have held annual intelligence summits. It is unclear, however, if intelligence ties preceded or followed the development of military relationships. The author poses the challenge, "Do arrangements such as ECHELON exist outside the relationships between "great" powers? Literature shows that broad relationships exist among regional powers for various reasons. In the case of ASEAN, states brought together to fight communist insurgency find that they can maximize security by cooperating in covert operations and intelligence sharing."

Technology has accelerated ASEAN intelligence cooperation. For example, Malaysia and Singapore jointly monitor the South China Sea electronically. It is reasonable to assume that the less sensitive aspects of SIGINT, such as Direction finding are part of that surveillance. Other sources include the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) of Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia, which includes three members of the UKUSA alliance with strong national SIGINT organizations.

Spurred by terrorism concerns, the ASEAN states, in May 2002, agreed on an Action
Plan that provided for enhanced cooperation in intelligence sharing and coordination of anti-terror laws. In August 2002, ASEAN and the United States issued a “Joint Declaration . . . to Combat International Terrorism," which was followed by an ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting on terrorism, to be jointly sponsored by Malaysia in the US. The US proposed that a regional counterterrorism training center be established in Malaysia. Accompanying the Anti-Terrorism Center is an intelligence-sharing agreement among Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand, a first meeting of which was held in Manila in January 2003. An obvious question, without a simple answer, is how much SIGINT capabilities these countries have.

Some of these countries are reluctant to get too close to the US, involving nationalist issues in the Philippines and Islamic parties in Malaysia and Indonesia. Singapore, among the regional nations, seems most comfortable in exchanging intelligence information with the US, especially receiving SIGINT in return for HUMINT. Singapore has established sharing between the US PACOM Joint Intelligence Center and Singapore’s Joint Counterterrorism Center, and Singapore also is leading in accepting US goals for maritime security, with a Strategic Goods Control law in January 2003. That law made Singapore the first major port to meet US homeland security rules for cargo. Singapore wants more US X-ray equipment, and possibly MASINT sensors.

US relations to ASEAN or other groups may be more domestically acceptable, in countries suspicious of the US, than bilateral arrangements. There are obvious reasons for regional nations wanting US intelligence support, including SIGINT. Nevertheless, the eagerness of the US to help against Islamic groups strikes at local sensitivities.

Other coalitions

UN and other, often ''ad hoc'' international coalitions have no predefined SIGINT interoperability; establishing even basic communications interoperabilities is one of the first and most urgent tasks of any coalition.

National SIGINT

Australia

Australia's main organization is in the Australian Signals Directorate. It operates collection stations for multilateral and national use. Australia has systems interoperable with UKUSA, and ECHELON.

Canada

Canada has the Communications Security Establishment and several other groups, especially military tactical groups. Canada has systems interoperable with NATO nations, UKUSA, and ECHELON.

China

China's main SIGINT effort is in the Technical Department, or Third Department of the General Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, with additional capabilities, primarily domestic, in the Ministry of State Security (MSS). SIGINT stations, therefore, are scattered through the country, for domestic as well as international interception. Prof. Desmond Ball, of the Australian National University, described the largest stations as

:*the main Technical Department SIGINT net control station on the northwest outskirts of Beijing
:*large complex near Lake Kinghathu in the extreme northeast corner of China

Some Western analyses of the third Department claim it maintains a staff of more than 130,000, though this figure cannot be independently confirmed.

Cuba

While Cuba had traditionally been a Soviet client, it both has been developing indigenous capabilities, including equipment design and manufacture, as well as having Chinese-operated stations on its soil. Within the Cuban intelligence ministry, a Counter-Electronic Warfare Department was established in 1997, at the same level as the Technical Department and the Foreign Intelligence Department. In 1992, a tactically oriented Counter-Electronic Warfare Department was created. The national intelligence organization also runs electronic warfare and SIGINT for the Air Force and Navy.

Russia and China, at various times, have operated or are operating intercept stations in Cuba, as well as Cuban-operated facilities. The largest and best-known, Lourdes SIGINT Station, was shut down by Russia in 2001, along with the Russian station at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. Four ground stations (q.v.) are in Cuba, two of which are operated by China.

Denmark

Denmark is a NATO member and thus has access to a wide range of SIGINT equipment and techniques. A journal article (information from abstract on Ingentaconnect) from 2001 states that all four countries of Scandinavia, including NATO members Denmark and Norway, and neutral Sweden and Finland, cooperated in collecting SIGINT on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Norway and Denmark did not allow American personnel in their intercept centers, but did receive American financial and technical help. The author suggests Sweden, while neutral, cooperated with US and UK intelligence in the early stages, and possibly later, in the Cold War.

The Danish Sigint service, Forsvarets Central Radio, was also active at the same time, and fed the U.S. data from 8 stations located from Greenland to Bornholm. US funds from the 1950 agreement were cut off, to Norway and Denmark, in 1992, and those two countries planned to do their own satellite interception. The Pusher HF/DF system used by Denmark is not designed for satellite but for terrestrial interception; it is not clear what, if any, effect that the reported US funds cutoff had on the Pusher system output.

The Danish periodical, ''Ekstra Bladet'', on September 18, 1999, published an article titled "WHERE THE SPIES ARE LISTENING—Take a walk with us through the most secretive secrets of the FE (the Intelligence Agency of the Danish Armed Forces). The authors describe a visit to an apparent SIGINT collection facility, called Sandagergård, at Aflandshage south of Copenhagen. Sandagergård is operated by the Danish intelligence agency. According to the article, Denmark has participated, since 1947, in ECHELON. Denmark participates in the global surveillance system known today as UKUSA, and known in the press as Echelon. The agreement was reached with Cdr. P .A. Mørch, then second in command of FE, with the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA was formed by the National Security Act of 1947, and, by 1947, the OSS had been dissolved although there were interim agencies that might have negotiated an agreement.

The agreement was that the Americans were to supply the equipment free of charge. Denmark's payment was to allow a large American ear to listen in on everything that was intercepted by Denmark's FE agents. In 1950, the agreement was formalized by Commander Finn Haugsted and Minister of Defense Rasmus 'Jetfighter' Hansen. The article cites Cdr. Mørch's memoirs as the source, and says he refers to the Danish SIGINT organization as 'the Social Democrat's Child'. Under the agreement, the US was to supply the technical equipment, while Denmark would supply the land and staff.

In 1999, however, Frank Jensen, the Social Democratic Minister of Justice and former Minister of Research (responsible for Denmark's telecommunications) denied knowledge of ECHELON.

When the journalists visited the Sandagergård facility, they saw a Pusher HF/DF system, which is a smaller version of the Wullenweber intercept & direction-finding antenna, and two radomes. Discarded paper and packing materials identified shipments of products from IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, Microsoft and Unisys. They also identified a SIGINT post at Skibsbylejren near Hjørring.

This report clearly shows that Denmark operates SIGINT equipment. It cannot be determined, from this information alone, if the operation is for Danish use only, in support of NATO, or indeed part of ECHELON. Denmark hosts the regional NATO command for the Baltic Approaches (BALTAP) from a base at Karup.

In September 1999, Minister for Defense Hans Hækkerup said Denmark cooperates with other countries on surveillance, but would not identify the countries or agencies. According to the authors, the US 650th MI Group is the sole point of contact to NATO.

Finland

During the Soviet era, Finland, while ostensibly neutral, was reported to be cooperating with the other Scandinavian countries in obtaining SIGINT on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The Finnish Defence Intelligence Agency is responsible for SIGINT in addition to geospatial (GEOINT) and imagery intelligence (IMINT).

France

The French intelligence agency DGSE has responsibility for national-level SIGINT, including a ship and the currently inactive aircraft. There are multiple land-based sites.

A French Army publications mentions Emeraude as an apparently tactical SIGINT "listening module". Press reports suggest there is another system, nicknamed Frenchelon in the press, run by DGSE and possibly providing economic intelligence to French industry.

Germany

After the end of the Cold War, Germany treated military-related SIGINT differently from other nations, making it a part of the defense-wide electronic warfare organization rather than an intelligence organization. The first unit was set up in Osnabruck in 1957. In 1959, German and Dutch SIGINT personnel met to establish a long-standing, especially close cooperation. Today Germany operates many different SIGINT platforms.

Greece

Greece's main SIGINT organization is Branch E of the national (civilian) intelligence service, ''Ethniki ypiresia pliroforion'' (EYP). Branch E reports to the Deputy Director General A, who reports to the Director General.

The military has limited tactical capabilities, interoperable with NATO. A 12-day major exercise in Greece, Trial Spartan Hammer (TSH) ‘06, involved 2,000 personnel from 14 NATO countries and 15 NATO agencies, including the SIGINT & ESM working group (SEWG) under the NATO Joint Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Capability Group. It was the second NATO joint Signal Intelligence/Electronic Warfare (SIGINT/EW) demonstration. Canadian Forces involved included the Electronic Warfare Centre (CFEWC), HMCS Iroquois, 772 EW Squadron, the Joint Intelligence Fusion Capability and the Directorate of Space Development.

Hungary

Hungary's signals intelligence agency is called "Nemzetbiztonsági Szakszolgálat" (National Security Special Service). It is under the control of the Minister for the Interior and provides signals intelligence services to the police, the national intelligence service, the counter-intelligence service, the military national security service and the prosecutors' offices.

India

India implements AWACS and SIGINT using the Israeli Aircraft Industries Phalcon, which is installed in Russian Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft, the same aircraft used for Russia's own A-50 AWACS. India also uses homegrown AWACS, the DRDO Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) which uses Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft as platform.

Multiple agencies are involved in the SIGINT and allied roles(such as ELINT, TELINT etc.) Those involved with Defence Intelligence report to the Ministry of Defence and agencies involved with external intelligence report to the Secretary(R&AW).

Ireland

The Irish Defence Forces Communications and Information Services Corps (CIS) and Directorate of Military Intelligence are responsible for SIGINT and cyber surveillance in Ireland, supported by the ''Garda Síochána'' (Irish National Police) Crime & Security Branch (CSB). The Republic of Ireland operates a policy of military neutrality. However, it is understood that the military and police intelligence agencies in Ireland cooperate with the ECHELON network, sharing information and receiving information in return.

Israel

SIGINT operations in Israel are run by Unit 8200, which sits under the command of the Israeli Intelligence Corps.

Japan

In 1996, Japan created its first post-WWII major intelligence organization, the Defense Intelligence Headquarters

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