Echelon article in Washington Post

[Martin Minow <minow@pobox.com>]

<http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-11/14/019r-111499-idx.html>

The Washington Post, Sunday, Nov. 13, has a fairly long article on
Echelon by James Bamford, author of "The Puzzle Palace" (and who
is writing an updated version of his history of the NSA).

Bamford writes:

"My real concern is that the technologies it [NSA] is developing behind
closed doors, and the methods that have given rise to such fears,
have given the agency the ability to extend its eavesdropping network
almost without limits. And as the NSA speeds ahead in its development
of satellites and computers powerful enough to sift through mountains
of intercepted data, the federal laws (now a quarter-century old)
that regulate the agency are still at the starting gate. The
communications revolution--and all the new electronic devices
susceptible to monitoring--came long after the primary legislation
governing the NSA."

Transcribed by Martin Minow, minow@pobox.com