🚀 go-pugleaf

at least the 1970s,
but the ECHELON system has been designed to interconnect all these computers
and allow the stations to function as components of an integrated whole.

Under the ECHELON system, a particular station's Dictionary computers contain
not only its parent agency's chosen keywords, but also a list for each of the
other four agencies. For example, each New Zealand site has separate search
lists for the NSA, GCHQ [British], DSD [Australia], and CSE [Canada] in
addition to its own.

So each station collects all the telephone calls, faxes, telexes, Internet
messages and other electronic communications that its computers have been
pre-programmed to select for all the allies and automatically send this
intelligence to them.

This means that New Zealand stations are being used by the overseas agencies
for their automatic collecting - while New Zealand does not even know what
is being intercepted from the New Zealand sites for the allies. In return,
New Zealand gets tightly controlled access to a few parts of the system.

The GCSB computers, the stations, the headquarter operations and, indeed,
GCSB itself function almost entirely as components of this integrated system.

Each station in the network - not just the satellite stations - has Dictionary
computers that report to the ECHELON system


P37
United States spy satellites, designed to intercept communications from orbit
above the earth, are also likely to be connected into the ECHELON system.

These satellites either move in orbits that criss-cross the earth or, like
the Intelsats, sit above the Equator in geostationary orbit.

They have antennae that can scoop up very large quantities of radio
communications from the areas below.

A final element of the ECHELON system are facilities that tap d