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75-518: Nine Eyes or 9-Eyes may refer to: Organisations [ edit ] Nine Eyes (signals intelligence) , an enlargement of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance of countries Intelligence School 9 or Nine Eyes, a part of the British Government which recruited Christiaan Lindemans Arts and entertainment [ edit ] "Nine Eyes", a song on

150-517: A Republican US senator, were being collected by the NSA. Congressional investigators determined that "targeting of US political figures would not occur by accident, but was designed into the system from the start." Also in 1988, an article titled "Somebody's Listening", written by investigative journalist Duncan Campbell in the New Statesman , described the signals intelligence gathering activities of

225-614: A delegation travelled to Washington, D.C. to attend meetings with US officials from the following agencies and departments: All meetings were cancelled by the US government and the committee was forced to end its trip prematurely. According to a BBC correspondent in May 2001, "The US Government still refuses to admit that Echelon even exists." In July 2001, the Committee released its final report. The EP report concluded that it seemed likely that ECHELON

300-488: A direct clash between China's government and governments of the Five Eyes alliance. In the months that followed, the United States restricted technology exchanges with China. The newspaper reported that these events were seen by Beijing as a "fight ... waged with the world’s oldest intelligence alliance, the Five Eyes." Starting in 2019, Australian parliamentarians as well as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prompted

375-537: A former NSA communications analyst reported to Ramparts magazine that the Agency had developed technology that "could crack all Soviet codes". In a 1988 piece in the New Statesman called "Somebody's listening", Duncan Campbell revealed the existence of ECHELON , an extension of the UKUSA Agreement on global signals intelligence . The story detailed how eavesdropping operations were not only being employed in

450-599: A key element in the intelligence and security landscape of each member country, providing them a strategic advantage in understanding and responding to global events. The following table provides an overview of most of the FVEY agencies that share data . The informal origins of the Five Eyes alliance were secret meetings between British and US code-breakers at the British code-breaking establishment Bletchley Park in February 1941, before

525-643: A number of European politicians such as Esko Seppänen of Finland, the European Commission hindered these investigations . In the United States, congressional legislators warned that the ECHELON system could be used to monitor US citizens . On 14 May 2001, the US government cancelled all meetings with the Temporary Committee on ECHELON. According to a BBC report from May 2001, "The US Government still refuses to admit that Echelon even exists." In

600-508: A program code-named "ECHELON". Bamford described the system as the software controlling the collection and distribution of civilian telecommunications traffic conveyed using communication satellites, with the collection being undertaken by ground stations located in the footprint of the downlink leg. A detailed description of ECHELON was provided by the New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager in his 1996 book Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in

675-573: A report published in 2001. In July 2000, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System was established by the European parliament to investigate the surveillance network. It was chaired by the Portuguese politician Carlos Coelho , who was in charge of supervising investigations throughout 2000 and 2001. In May 2001, as the committee finalised its report on the ECHELON system,

750-679: A secret government code name , is a surveillance program ( signals intelligence /SIGINT collection and analysis network) operated by the five signatory states to the UKUSA Security Agreement : Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, also known as the Five Eyes . Created in the late 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during

825-641: A secret signal station at Morwenstow , near Bude in Cornwall , England. The station intercepted satellite communications over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans . Soon afterwards, the US National Security Agency (NSA) built a second signal station at Yakima , near Seattle , for the interception of satellite communications over the Pacific Ocean . In 1981, GCHQ and the NSA started the construction of

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900-408: Is a method of sorting captured signal traffic, rather than a comprehensive analysis tool. On 5 September 2001, the European parliament voted to accept the report. The European Parliament stated in its report that the term ECHELON is used in a number of contexts, but that the evidence presented indicates that it was the name for a signals intelligence collection system. The report concludes that, on

975-488: Is an Anglosphere intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are party to the multilateral UK-USA Agreement , a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence . Informally, "Five Eyes" can refer to the group of intelligence agencies of these countries. The term "Five Eyes" originated as shorthand for a "AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US Eyes Only" ( AUSCANNZUKUS ) releasability caveat . The origins of

1050-736: The Cold War , GCHQ and the NSA shared intelligence on the Soviet Union , China, and several eastern European countries known as "Exotics". Over the course of several decades, the ECHELON surveillance network was developed to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies. In 1953, SIS and the CIA jointly orchestrated the overthrow of Iran's Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh . From 1955 through 1975 during

1125-512: The Cold War , the ECHELON project became formally established in 1971. By the end of the 20th century, it had greatly expanded. The UKUSA intelligence community was assessed by the European Parliament (EP) in 2000 to include the signals intelligence agencies of each of the member states: Former NSA analyst Perry Fellwock , under the pseudonym Winslow Peck, first blew the whistle on ECHELON to Ramparts in 1972, when he revealed

1200-523: The European Parliament indicated that separate but similar UKUSA systems are in place to monitor communication through undersea cables, microwave transmissions, and other lines. The report to the European Parliament points out that interception of private communications by foreign intelligence services is not necessarily limited to the US or British foreign intelligence services. The role of satellites in point-to-point voice and data communications has largely been supplanted by fiber optics . In 2006, 99% of

1275-551: The NSA and GCHQ up to the present. UKUSA was extended to include Canada in 1948, followed by Norway in 1952, Denmark in 1954, West Germany in 1955, and Australia and New Zealand in 1956. These countries participated in the alliance as "third parties". By 1955, a newer version of the UKUSA Agreement officially acknowledged the formal status of the remaining Five Eyes countries with the following statement: At this time only Canada, Australia and New Zealand will be regarded as UKUSA-collaborating Commonwealth countries. During

1350-697: The Soviet Union . Peacock held the title of supervisor-E (espionage) and had top-secret security clearance. He retired from the ASIO in 1983 and died in 2006. During the Falklands War in 1982, the United Kingdom received intelligence data from its FVEY allies as well as from third parties like Norway and France. In 1989, during the Tiananmen Square protests , SIS and the CIA took part in Operation Yellowbird to exfiltrate dissidents from China . In

1425-856: The UK Foreign Secretary issued a joint statement criticising the exclusion of opposition candidates by Hong Kong national security law and urging China to respect human rights and freedoms in Hong Kong in accordance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration . In response, the Chinese Government claimed the Hong Kong elections were fair and criticised the Five Eyes for interfering in Hong Kong's domestic affairs . The Five Eyes leaders held their first known public meeting at Stanford University 's Hoover Institution in California in

1500-706: The Vietnam War , Australian and New Zealander operators in the Asia-Pacific region worked to directly support the United States while GCHQ operators stationed in British Hong Kong as part of GCHQ Hong Kong were tasked with monitoring North Vietnamese air defence networks. In 1961, SIS and the CIA jointly orchestrated the assassination of the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba , an operation authorized by out-going US President Dwight D. Eisenhower

1575-757: The post-war world. On 17 May 1943, the UK and US governments signed the British–US Communication Intelligence Agreement, also known as the BRUSA Agreement , to facilitate co-operation between the US War Department and the British Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) . On 5 March 1946, the two governments formalized their secret treaty as the UKUSA Agreement , the basis for all signal intelligence cooperation between

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1650-643: The Australian broadcasting channel Nine Network that the DSD "does co-operate with counterpart signals intelligence organisations overseas under the UKUSA relationship ." In 2000, James Woolsey , the former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency , confirmed that US intelligence uses interception systems and keyword searches to monitor European businesses. Lawmakers in the United States feared that

1725-445: The ECHELON Interception System stated, "It seems likely, in view of the evidence and the consistent pattern of statements from a very wide range of individuals and organisations, including American sources, that its name is in fact ECHELON , although this is a relatively minor detail". The US intelligence community uses many code names ( see , for example, CIA cryptonym ). Former NSA employee Margaret Newsham said that she worked on

1800-504: The ECHELON system could be used to monitor US citizens. According to The New York Times , the ECHELON system has been "shrouded in such secrecy that its very existence has been difficult to prove." Critics said the ECHELON system emerged from the Cold War as a "Big Brother without a cause". The program's capabilities and political implications were investigated by a committee of the European Parliament during 2000 and 2001 with

1875-541: The Echelon network was being used to intercept not only military communications, but also private and business ones. In its epigraph to the report, the parliamentary committee quoted Juvenal , " Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes . " ("But who will watch the watchers"). James Bamford, in The Guardian in May 2001, warned that if Echelon were to continue unchecked, it could become a "cyber secret police, without courts, juries, or

1950-410: The FVEY alliance has become the subject of a growing amount of controversy in parts of the world: Beginning with its founding by the United States and United Kingdom in 1946, the alliance expanded twice, inducting Canada in 1948 and Australia and New Zealand in 1956, establishing the Five Eyes as it is today. Additionally, there are nations termed "Third Party Partners" that share their intelligence with

2025-402: The FVEY can be traced to informal, secret meetings during World War II between British and American code-breakers that took place before the US formally entered the war. The alliance was formalized in the post-war era by the UKUSA Agreement in 1946. As the Cold War deepened, the intelligence sharing arrangement was formalised under the ECHELON surveillance system in the 1960s. This system

2100-564: The FVEY information collection mechanisms are the PRISM program and the Upstream collection system. The PRISM program gathers user information from technology firms such as Google , Apple , and Microsoft ; while the Upstream system gathers information directly from civilian communications as they travel through infrastructure like fiber cables . The program was first disclosed to the public in 1972 when

2175-493: The Five Eyes alliance dictate its bilateral relationship with China and that New Zealand was uncomfortable with expanding the remit of the intelligence grouping. In response, the Australian Government expressed concern that Wellington was undermining collective efforts to combat what it regarded as Chinese aggression. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern echoed Mahuta's remarks and claimed that while New Zealand

2250-573: The Five Eyes countries. These employees will be required to report their travel destinations, agendas, and meetings with foreign personnel to Chinese authorities. Other security measures include undergoing "pre-departure spying education", and using different electronic devices while at home and while abroad. In mid-December 2021, the United States Secretary of State ; the Foreign Ministers of Australia , Canada , and New Zealand ; and

2325-471: The Five Eyes despite not being formal members. While the Five Eyes is rooted in a particular agreement with specific operations among the five nations, similar sharing agreements have been set up independently and for specific purposes; for example, according to Edward Snowden, the NSA has a "massive body" called the Foreign Affairs Directorate dedicated to partnering with foreign countries beyond

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2400-472: The Five Eyes. Following the 2023 New Zealand general election , the new New Zealand Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters promised closer cooperation with Five Eyes partners. In late April 2021, the Global Times reported that China's Ministry of State Security will monitor employees of companies and organisations considered to be at risk of foreign infiltration while they travel to

2475-701: The International Spy Network . Two years later, Hager's book was cited by the European Parliament in a report titled "An Appraisal of the Technology of Political Control" (PE 168.184). In March 1999, for the first time in history, the Australian government admitted that news reports about the top secret UKUSA Agreement were true. Martin Brady, the director of Australia's Defence Signals Directorate (DSD, now known as Australian Signals Directorate, or ASD) told

2550-592: The Japanese Purple code. For the rest of the war, key figures like Denniston and code-breaking expert Alan Turing travelled back and forth across the Atlantic. The informal relationship established for wartime signals intelligence developed into a formal, signed agreement at the start of the Cold War . The formal Five Eyes alliance can be traced back to the August 1941 Atlantic Charter , which laid out Allied goals for

2625-472: The NSA and its practices, which notably leaked the existence of the eavesdropping operation Project SHAMROCK . Project SHAMROCK ran from 1945 to 1975, after which it evolved into ECHELON. In 1988, Margaret Newsham, a Lockheed employee under NSA contract, disclosed the ECHELON surveillance system to members of Congress. Newsham told a member of the US Congress that the telephone calls of Strom Thurmond ,

2700-546: The UN delegations of six countries as part of a "dirty tricks" campaign to pressure these six countries to vote in favour of using force against Iraq. SIS and the CIA forged a surveillance partnership with Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi to spy on Libyan dissidents in the West in exchange for permission to use Libya as a base for extraordinary renditions . As of 2010 , Five Eyes-affiliated agencies also have access to SIPRNet ,

2775-469: The US entry into the war. The first record of these meetings is a February 1941 diary entry from Alastair Denniston , head of Bletchley Park, reading "The Ys are coming!" with "Ys" referring to " Yanks ". An entry from 10 February reads "Ys arrive". British and US intelligence shared extremely confidential information, including that the British had broken the German Enigma code and that the US had broken

2850-534: The US government's classified version of the Internet. In 2013, documents leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the existence of numerous surveillance programs jointly operated by the Five Eyes. The following list includes several notable examples reported in the media: In March 2014, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Australia to stop spying on East Timor . This marks

2925-403: The US intelligence agencies. American author James Bamford provides an alternative view, highlighting that legislation prohibits the use of intercepted communications for commercial purposes, although he does not elaborate on how intercepted communications are used as part of an all-source intelligence process. In its report, the committee of the European Parliament stated categorically that

3000-616: The US. They had been meeting privately nearby in Palo Alto . Present were: They made public statements on topics such as the death in Canada of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Chinese state-backed hackers . The Five Eyes alliance is sort of an artifact of the post World War II era where the Anglophone countries are the major powers banded together to sort of co-operate and share the costs of intelligence gathering infrastructure. ... The result of this

3075-541: The United Kingdom not to use Huawei technology in its 5G network . In 2021, the UK Government announced it no longer planned to use Huawei's 5G technology. In November 2020, the Five Eyes alliance criticised China's rules disqualifying elected legislators in Hong Kong. In mid-April 2021, the New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta issued a statement that New Zealand would not let

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3150-583: The aftermath of the Gulf War in 1991, an ASIS technician bugged Kuwaiti government offices for SIS . By the end of the 20th century, the FVEY members had developed the ECHELON surveillance network into a global system capable of collecting massive amounts of private and commercial communications including telephone calls , fax , email , and other data traffic . The network's information comes from intercepted communication bearers such as satellite transmissions and public switched telephone networks . Two of

3225-709: The aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon , Five Eyes members greatly increased their surveillance capabilities as part of the global war on terror . During the run-up to the Iraq War , the communications of UN weapons inspector Hans Blix were monitored by the Five Eyes. Around the same time, British agents bugged the office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan . An NSA memo detailed Five Eyes plans to increase surveillance on

3300-509: The album I See Seaweed by The Drones "9-Eye", a pre-show of the film The Timekeeper "9-Eyes", an exhibition of Google Street View images by Jon Rafman Other uses [ edit ] Mataiva ("Nine Eyes" in Tuamotuan), a coral atoll Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Nine Eyes . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

3375-429: The alliance, though Singapore, Israel, South Korea and Japan are formally non-members. According to French news magazine L'Obs , in 2009, the United States propositioned France to join the treaty and form a subsequent "Six Eyes" alliance. The French President at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy , requested that France have the same status as the other members, including the signing of a "no-spy agreement". This proposal

3450-431: The alliance. Several countries have been prospective members of the Five Eyes including Israel, South Korea and Japan, that have collaborated with FYEY. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked documents from the NSA that showed Singapore, one of the world's biggest digital telecommunications hubs, is a key “third party” working with the “Five Eyes” intelligence partners , and continue to collaborate intensively with

3525-461: The basis of information presented, ECHELON was capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks (which once carried most Internet traffic), and microwave links. Two internal NSA newsletters from January 2011 and July 2012, published as part of Edward Snowden's leaks by

3600-564: The book in a 1998 report titled " An Appraisal of the Technology of Political Control " (PE 168.184). On 16 March 2000, the Parliament called for a resolution on the Five Eyes and its ECHELON surveillance network which would have called for the "complete dismantling of ECHELON". Three months later, the European Parliament established the Temporary Committee on ECHELON to investigate the ECHELON surveillance network. However, according to

3675-400: The collected information with each other. Shami Chakrabarti , director of the advocacy group Liberty , claimed that the FVEY alliance increases the ability of member states to "subcontract their dirty work" to each other. FVEY countries maintain that all intelligence sharing is done legally, according to the domestic law of the respective nations. As a result of Snowden's disclosures,

3750-710: The configuration and installation of software that makes up the ECHELON system while employed at Lockheed Martin , from 1974 to 1984 in Sunnyvale, California , in the United States , and in Menwith Hill , England , in the UK . At that time, according to Newsham, the code name ECHELON was NSA's term for the computer network itself. Lockheed called it P415 . The software programs were called SILKWORTH and SIRE . A satellite named VORTEX intercepted communications. An image available on

3825-601: The establishment of the ECHELON network took off after dozens of countries agreed to establish the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Intelsat), which would own and operate a global constellation of communications satellites . In 1966, the first Intelsat satellite was launched into orbit. From 1970 to 1971, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) of Britain began to operate

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3900-524: The existence of a global network of listening posts and told of his experiences working there. He also revealed the existence of nuclear weapons in Israel in 1972, the widespread involvement of CIA and NSA personnel in drugs and human smuggling, and CIA operatives leading Nationalist Chinese (Taiwan) commandos in burning villages inside PRC borders. In 1982, investigative journalist and author James Bamford wrote The Puzzle Palace , an in-depth history of

3975-435: The first global wide area network (WAN). Soon after Australia, Canada, and New Zealand joined the ECHELON system. The report to the European Parliament of 2001 states: "If UKUSA states operate listening stations in the relevant regions of the earth, in principle they can intercept all telephone, fax, and data traffic transmitted via such satellites." Most reports on ECHELON focus on satellite interception. Testimony before

4050-400: The first such restrictions imposed on a member of the FVEY. On 1 December 2018, Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou , a Huawei executive, at Vancouver International Airport to face charges of fraud and conspiracy in the United States. China responded by arresting two Canadian nationals. According to the South China Morning Post , analysts saw this conflict as the beginning of

4125-521: The former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the ECHELON system's collection of satellite data is also referred to as FORNSAT - an abbreviation for "Foreign Satellite Collection". First revealed by the European Parliament report (p. 54 ff) and confirmed later by the Edward Snowden disclosures the following ground stations presently have, or have had, a role in intercepting transmissions from Satellite and other means of communication: The ability to intercept communications depends on

4200-412: The interests of 'national security,' but were regularly abused for corporate espionage in the service of US business interests. The piece passed largely unnoticed outside of journalism circles. In 1996, New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager provided a detailed description of ECHELON in a book titled Secret Power – New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network . The European Parliament cited

4275-526: The internet of a fragment apparently torn from a job description shows Echelon listed along with several other code names. Britain's The Guardian newspaper summarized the capabilities of the ECHELON system as follows: A global network of electronic spy stations that can eavesdrop on telephones, faxes and computers. It can even track bank accounts. This information is stored in Echelon computers, which can keep millions of records on individuals. Officially, however, Echelon doesn't exist. Documents leaked by

4350-472: The journalists include the gear-less wind turbine technology designed by the German firm Enercon and the speech technology developed by the Belgian firm Lernout & Hauspie . In 2001, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System recommended to the European Parliament that citizens of member states routinely use cryptography in their communications to protect their privacy, because economic espionage with ECHELON has been conducted by

4425-429: The late 1990s, the existence of ECHELON was disclosed to the public, triggering a debate in the European Parliament and, to a lesser extent, the United States Congress and British Parliament . Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden described the Five Eyes as a "supra-national intelligence organisation that does not answer to the known laws of its own countries". 2010s global surveillance disclosures revealed FVEY

4500-408: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nine_Eyes&oldid=1180302055 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Nine Eyes (signals intelligence) The Five Eyes ( FVEY )

4575-467: The majority of communications can no longer be intercepted by earth stations; they can only be collected by tapping cables and intercepting line-of-sight microwave signals, which is possible only to a limited extent. British journalist Duncan Campbell and New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager said in the 1990s that the United States was exploiting ECHELON traffic for industrial espionage , rather than military and diplomatic purposes. Examples alleged by

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4650-439: The medium used, be it radio , satellite , microwave , cellular or fiber-optic . During World War II and through the 1950s, high-frequency ("short-wave") radio was widely used for military and diplomatic communication and could be intercepted at great distances. The rise of geostationary communications satellites in the 1960s presented new possibilities for intercepting international communications. In 1964, plans for

4725-501: The network was to monitor the telemetry from 1970s Soviet weapons , air defence and other radars' capabilities, satellites' ground stations' transmissions and ground-based microwave communications . In 1999, Enercon, a German company and leading manufacturer of wind energy equipment, developed a breakthrough generator for wind turbines. After applying for a US patent, it had learned that Kenetech, an American rival, had submitted an almost identical patent application shortly before. By

4800-423: The right to a defence". Alleged examples of espionage conducted by the members of the " Five Eyes " include: The first United States 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, was an investment of ca. 21.3 million dollars and had around 90 people. Satellite traffic

4875-411: The statement of a former NSA employee, it was later claimed that the NSA had secretly intercepted and monitored Enercon 's data communications and conference calls and passed information regarding the new generator to Kenetech. However, later German media reports contradicted this story, as it was revealed that the American patent in question was actually filed three years before the alleged wiretapping

4950-428: The website The Intercept on 3 August 2015, for the first time confirmed that NSA used the code word ECHELON and provided some details about the scope of the program: ECHELON was part of an umbrella program with the code name FROSTING, which was established by the NSA in 1966 to collect and process data from communications satellites . FROSTING had two sub-programs: The European Parliament 's Temporary Committee on

5025-404: The world's long-distance voice and data traffic was carried over optical-fiber . The proportion of international communications accounted for by satellite links is said to have decreased substantially to an amount between 0.4% and 5% in Central Europe. Even in less-developed parts of the world, communications satellites are used largely for point-to-multipoint applications, such as video. Thus,

5100-403: The year before in 1960. In 1973, the ASIS and the CIA jointly orchestrated the overthrow of Chile's President Salvador Allende . Over a period of at least five years in the 1970s, a senior officer named Ian George Peacock, who was in the counterespionage unit of Australia's ASIO , stole highly classified intelligence documents that had been shared with Australia and sold them to

5175-879: Was approved by the director of the NSA, but rejected by the director of the CIA and by President Barack Obama , resulting in a refusal from France. New York magazine reported in 2013 that Germany was interested in joining the Five Eyes alliance. At the time, several members of the United States Congress, including Tim Ryan and Charles Dent , were pushing for Germany's entry to the Five Eyes alliance. As of 2018 through an initiative sometimes termed "Five Eyes Plus 3", Five Eyes has agreements with France, Germany, and Japan to introduce an information-sharing framework to counter China and Russia. Five Eyes plus France, Japan and South Korea share information about North Korea's military activities, including ballistic missiles, in an arrangement sometimes dubbed "Five Eyes Plus". ECHELON ECHELON (Also known as Echelont) , originally

5250-670: Was developed by the FVEY to monitor the communications of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc ; it is now used to monitor communications worldwide. The FVEY expanded its surveillance capabilities during the course of the " war on terror ", with much emphasis placed on monitoring the Internet . The alliance has grown into a robust global surveillance mechanism, adapting to new domains such as international terrorism , cyberattacks , and contemporary regional conflicts. The alliance's activities, often shrouded in secrecy, have occasionally come under scrutiny for their implications on privacy and civil liberties, sparking debates and legal challenges. In

5325-559: Was intercepted by a 30-meter single-dish antenna. The station became fully operational on 4 October 1974. It was connected with NSA headquarters at Fort Meade by a 75-baud secure Teletype orderwire channel. In 1999 the Australian Senate Joint Standing Committee on Treaties was told by Professor Desmond Ball that the Pine Gap facility was used as a ground station for a satellite-based interception network. The satellites were said to be large radio dishes between 20 and 100 meters in diameter in geostationary orbits . The original purpose of

5400-540: Was over decades and decades some sort of a supra-national intelligence organisation that doesn't answer to the laws of its own countries. — Edward Snowden One of the Five Eyes' core principles is that members do not spy on other governments in the alliance. US Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis C. Blair said in 2013, "We do not spy on each other. We just ask." However, in recent years, FVEY documents have shown that member agencies are intentionally spying on one another's private citizens and sharing

5475-437: Was said to have taken place. As German intelligence services are forbidden from engaging in industrial or economic espionage, German companies have complained that this leaves them defenceless against industrial espionage from the United States or Russia. According to Wolfgang Hoffmann, a former manager at Bayer , German intelligence services know which companies are being targeted by US intelligence agencies, but refuse to inform

5550-498: Was spying on one another's citizens and sharing the collected information with each other, although the FVEY nations maintain this was done legally. Five Eyes is among the most comprehensive espionage alliances. Since processed intelligence is gathered from multiple sources, the information shared is not restricted to signals intelligence (SIGINT) and often involves military intelligence (MILINT), human intelligence (HUMINT), and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). Five Eyes remains

5625-522: Was still committed to the Five Eyes alliance, it would not use the network as its first point of communication for non-security matters. While The Telegraph 's defence editor Con Coughlin and British Conservative Member of Parliament Bob Seely criticised New Zealand for undermining the Five Eyes' efforts to present a united front against Beijing, the Chinese Global Times praised New Zealand for putting its own national interests over

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