| Fair point. And I do appreciate the additional information and links. From your NY Times article (published May 27, 1999): Until last Sunday, no government or intelligence agency from the member states had openly admitted to the existence of the UKUSA Agreement or Echelon. The mutual surveillance / legal evasion possibility appears to be suspected but not demonstrated. Again as with much else, what Snowden's done is to specifically document such activity. Which is of and by itself a material distinction. European Parliament officials have also expressed concern about the use of Echelon to gather economic intelligence for participating nations. And: While few dispute the necessity of a system like Echelon to apprehend foreign spies, drug traffickers and terrorists, many are concerned that the system COULD be abused to collect economic and political information. (All-caps emphasis added -- minimal HN formatting options have their drawbacks.) So, I'll maintain that the documentation of such abuse is a New Thing. |