Man makes it harder for the government to spy on us
by: Robert D. Brooks
(today) VANCOUVER, BC: In case you didn't know already, the US and UK governments - through their secret ECHELON program - are spying on every phone call, fax and email on Earth. They have read this page - and they have read every single email you sent this month.
That happy birthday email you sent to your best friend - they read it. That's Mother's Day phone call to your Mother - they listened in on that one too.
The top-secret Echelon program gets away with this illegal wire-tapping by utilizing a loop-hole in intelligence law - the United States and Britain aren't allowed to spy on their own citizens - but, there's no restrictions about them spying on foreigners. So, the Brits spy on Americans - and the Americans spy on the Brits. Then, the two countries just swap all their info. Exactly as if they were doing it themselves, but technically not.
The program was created decades ago to spy on Eastern Bloc communications, but is now aimed at fighting terrorism - and it's own citizens.
But, now, Alberto Vargas (no relation to the pin-up artist) is fighting back.
Alberto is the owner of 'The Terrorist Chatter Engine' - a web page that creates and sends an email full of terrorist watch-words when a user pushes a button. For instance an email created by this engine might look something like the following:
by: Robert D. Brooks
(today) VANCOUVER, BC: In case you didn't know already, the US and UK governments - through their secret ECHELON program - are spying on every phone call, fax and email on Earth. They have read this page - and they have read every single email you sent this month.
That happy birthday email you sent to your best friend - they read it. That's Mother's Day phone call to your Mother - they listened in on that one too.
The top-secret Echelon program gets away with this illegal wire-tapping by utilizing a loop-hole in intelligence law - the United States and Britain aren't allowed to spy on their own citizens - but, there's no restrictions about them spying on foreigners. So, the Brits spy on Americans - and the Americans spy on the Brits. Then, the two countries just swap all their info. Exactly as if they were doing it themselves, but technically not.
The program was created decades ago to spy on Eastern Bloc communications, but is now aimed at fighting terrorism - and it's own citizens.
But, now, Alberto Vargas (no relation to the pin-up artist) is fighting back.
Alberto is the owner of 'The Terrorist Chatter Engine' - a web page that creates and sends an email full of terrorist watch-words when a user pushes a button. For instance an email created by this engine might look something like the following:
Brother Muhammad,
Praise be to Allah! The ammonium nitrate arrived safely for the farm.
Pleased to receive your notes about the power of the nuclear plant.
Death to Israel.
Said
PS. The elephant walks at night (on the 13th).
Praise be to Allah! The ammonium nitrate arrived safely for the farm.
Pleased to receive your notes about the power of the nuclear plant.
Death to Israel.
Said
PS. The elephant walks at night (on the 13th).
The idea is: Flood the system with as many phoney intercepts as possible - until the system becomes useless and the governments involved are forced to stop spying on their citizens. For instance, every day, Echelon looks through about 3 billion communications. It's computers then look for specific keywords to flag each email or phone call as being suspicious or not. So, if your email contains the chemical ingredients required for bomb-making - or anti-Bush propaganda - or the names of Arab charities - it gets flagged and looked at closer.
But, Alberto's site aims to throw a wrench into that system. By producing massive amounts of phoney emails with those specific keywords, Echelon's computers will end up flagging far more communications than they should - producing a backlog and a massive amount of additional work for the spy agency.
Since the web site went active last week, according to Alberto, his servers have sent over 500,000 emails for web surfers who visited his site.
This hasn't gone unnoticed by the NSA. Mysterious 'agents' have shown up at his house in the middle of the night several times. And, Alberto has been threatened with prosecution for aiding and abetting a terrorist network. But, Alberto isn't too worried:
"The only way they can prove that I am threatening national security is to admit that they are actually spying on everyone - and they'll never admit to that. And, until they do, I'm going to keep fighting for our freedom. True freedom. We're literally living in the age of Big Brother now. Bush is reading every email you send, and listening to every phone call you make - and there aren't millions of protesters in the streets. Think about that!'
Sources inside Echelon (who spoke on condition of anonymity) confirmed that the influx of bogus chatter in recent weeks had crippled the system. "It's a nightmare! It's like those scenes you see in the movies - everyone's running down the hallways, pulling their hair out and tossing paper about. It's crazy."
Neither the US nor UK governments would even confirm the existence of the Echelon program, let alone talk to us about the subject.
story by Robert D. Brooks (www.damnthe.com)
Related Links:
Alberto's Site: The Terrorist Chatter Engine
The NSA - National Security Agency
ECHELON - The UK/USA agency that is spying on every email you send
But, Alberto's site aims to throw a wrench into that system. By producing massive amounts of phoney emails with those specific keywords, Echelon's computers will end up flagging far more communications than they should - producing a backlog and a massive amount of additional work for the spy agency.
Since the web site went active last week, according to Alberto, his servers have sent over 500,000 emails for web surfers who visited his site.
This hasn't gone unnoticed by the NSA. Mysterious 'agents' have shown up at his house in the middle of the night several times. And, Alberto has been threatened with prosecution for aiding and abetting a terrorist network. But, Alberto isn't too worried:
"The only way they can prove that I am threatening national security is to admit that they are actually spying on everyone - and they'll never admit to that. And, until they do, I'm going to keep fighting for our freedom. True freedom. We're literally living in the age of Big Brother now. Bush is reading every email you send, and listening to every phone call you make - and there aren't millions of protesters in the streets. Think about that!'
Sources inside Echelon (who spoke on condition of anonymity) confirmed that the influx of bogus chatter in recent weeks had crippled the system. "It's a nightmare! It's like those scenes you see in the movies - everyone's running down the hallways, pulling their hair out and tossing paper about. It's crazy."
Neither the US nor UK governments would even confirm the existence of the Echelon program, let alone talk to us about the subject.
story by Robert D. Brooks (www.damnthe.com)
Related Links:
Alberto's Site: The Terrorist Chatter Engine
The NSA - National Security Agency
ECHELON - The UK/USA agency that is spying on every email you send
fake news from: DamnThe.com