5 ms·
> In the mid-1990s, the NSA had found out that somewhere under Copenhagen there was a backbone cable containing phone calls, e-mails and text messages from and
by ToFab123 6y ago
> In the mid-1990s, the NSA had found out that somewhere under Copenhagen there was a backbone cable containing phone calls, e-mails and text messages from and to countries like China and Russia, which was of great interest for the Americans. Tapping that cable, however, was almost impossible without the help of the Danes, so the NSA asked the FE for access to the cable.
This was revealed in details about 20 - 30 years ago in the Danish publication "Månedsbladet Press". I remember they had an insert, looked like a small newspaper, containing all the details about this. I remember this because this was the first time I heard the term "echelon". I my memory serves me correct I think that insert in the magazine was the first story or source of Echelon operating outside of the US so there is some kind of historical significance to this story.
If I recall correctly they did this wiretapping in a underground bunker in the middle of Copenhagen. The bunker had no toilet and they got spotted by the journalists that wonder why more people was coming out of that bunker everyday to go the bathroom than people going in. Something like that.
I don't have the magazine anymore but I know that the main library in Copenhagen has a copy as I checked several years later.
If any historians around here want the backstory behind all this you should contact the library and get a copy of that publication. The publication stopped long ago, but that was the only newspaper-like insert they every had so it should be easy to locate in the archives.
- messo 6y agoThis is really fascinating. I dug around a bit to see if I could find a digital copy of the article you mentioned. The Norwegian National Library have an impressive archive of scanned books and newspapers going back hundreds of years, but apparently no danish newspapers. Instead I found a reference to a book from 1996 by an author from New Zealand which seems to describe the same topic in great detail. This is basically the very early, pre-internett version of what Snowden revealed. The book is made available for free by the author: http://www.nickyhager.info/Secret_Power.pdf http://www.nickyhager.info/Secret_Power.pdf This old website also contains a lot of interesting information on Echelon: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/echelon04.htm https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/echelon04.htm The summary is quite something: «In the greatest surveillance effort ever established, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has created a global spy system, codename ECHELON, which captures and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world.» There was also made a documentary based on the book (?):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-S0JH5YYZw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-S0JH5YYZw
- Lammy 6y agoTIL of the "ANZUS treaty" from the linked book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZUS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZUS Is the name of this thing an amazing runic pun, or am I just hoping it's that clever? "Ansuz is known as Odin's Rune and indicates great power and knowledge to be revealed."