<P>Obviously, that's a pretty handy thing to have. The only problem is that we're not supposed to have it. It's illegal. Even the FBI has to get a warrant to tap a phone in this country. If Echelon exists, then it has no government or public control at all. The U.S. and its allies can snoop on any conversation or exchange of information they want and no one even knows about it, let alone stops it.
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<P>If we just used Echelon for spying on bad guys, then it would be creepy, but not something for us outsiders to worry about. But critics of Echelon say it's not just for James Bond anymore. They claim Echelon has been used to spy on civilian groups like Amnesty International and United Way. France and Germany also claim that Echelon's been used to get dirt on their companies so U.S. corporations like Boeing can get an advantage.
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<P><B>Carnivorous
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<P>Is Echelon real? Well, European nations like France and Germany sure think so. They've launched investigations on how to stop Echelon and punish the governments that use it. A few years ago Australia and Britain admitted that Echelon is real, but say they only use it to track down terrorists and criminals, and never use it to spy on ordinary people. The United States is still insisting that Echelon doesn't exist at all. But they did recently go public about an Echelon-like computer system called Carnivore designed to spy on all the e-mail on the Internet, which is bad enough.
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<P>Whether Echelon is real or not, you have to admit it's pretty freaky stuff, and that Deus Ex did a great job of bringing our worst nightmares of Echelon to life.
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<P><B>Further reading
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<P>There are whole organizations devoted to exposing and shutting down Echelon, and one of the biggest is Echelon Watch, which has a good FAQ on the subject. If you get too paranoid, you can read a more balanced view of the Echelon controversy from a Washington Post article at Policy.Com.