Want to know the hardware behind Echelon?

March 3, 2005 12:46 PM

Want to know the hardware behind Echelon? The other day I posted a book (Chatter) review about NSA. In this follow-up, the equipment used. "Aside from using the system for industrial espionage and bypassing international and national laws to listen in on people, it is also used to listen out for people like Osama bin Laden and assorted terrorists in the hope of preventing attacks."
posted by Postroad (7 comments total)

Impressive and scary at the same time.

Well put.
posted by gwint at 1:26 PM on March 3, 2005

that article was posted on /. way back in october. there's the wikipedia entry which provides about 10 times more information than it does. it's been discussed here quite a few times. here's an interview with the architect. european union report. report to congress. aclu faq. article on the "history structure and function" of echelon

and plenty more out there.
posted by reflection at 1:38 PM on March 3, 2005

internet archive of aclu faq
posted by reflection at 1:57 PM on March 3, 2005

The other day I posted a book (Chatter)

Postroad - That would be your FPP of yesterday that you're referring to? The one that's still quite available to everyone (and has only 16 comments)? The one where you could have posted the one link in this FPP, as part of a comment, rather than starting a new thread?
posted by WestCoaster at 1:58 PM on March 3, 2005

Postroad - That would be your FPP of yesterday that you're referring to? The one that's still quite available to everyone (and has only ...

Thanks for the helpful relevant on topic information!
posted by iamck at 3:48 PM on March 3, 2005

OK, I think reflection's post above sums up my feelings. But I'll also point out that if the writer of this one article gets wrong a basic technology fact, then I don't trust the rest of what he says, either.

"A DSP chip turns analogue signals from a sensor or recorder into digital information usable by a computer. Digital cameras will use a DSP to turn the light signals coming through the lens into digital picture element, or pixel, information."

Does he mean an A/D converter? Because that's what turns analog signals into digital info. DSPs are Digital Signal Processors, which, duh, process signals that are already digital.
posted by surlycat at 4:02 PM on March 3, 2005

i think i've been living in a hole. i thought echelon was something they'd made up on alias. thanks.
posted by Igor XA at 10:07 PM on March 3, 2005