--- From: Montse Doval Avendaño <mdovalat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: The United States uses the Spanish Rota base to spy on international communications Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 13:03:41 +0100 Organization: BCSC -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Declan, I send you this comment about the book Libertad Vigilada (Watching over freedom) that a Spanish journalist, Nacho García Mostazo, has published this past January. Nacho is correpondent of CNN radio in Spain and editor of Tech news at Libertad Digital. More information can be found at: http://cryptome.org/echelon-es.htm http://adserver.libertaddigital.com/libertadvigilada/english.htm Regards, Montse Doval The United States uses the Rota base to spy on international communications Since 1953, Spain has authorised the USA to use its bases on Spanish territory for espionage purposes. This authorisation has now been extended and furthermore, it has been set down in writing. In return, the United States undertakes to improve the exchange of "military intelligence" and technological cooperation through two secret documents that Parliament has not had access to. Consequently, Spanish citizens can see how their right to the inviolability of communications is eroded as Nacho García Mostazo denounces in his book "Libertad vigilada" (Watching over freedom). This year sees the 50th anniversary of the signing of the first Hispanic-American covenant, that enabled the construction of the bases of the North American army on Spanish soil. These agreements have been negotiated several times in recent times, with the protocols being amended on the basis of the strategic interests of the signatories and, above all, the changes of the world geo-political stage. The United States currently continues controlling two military bases, one in Morón de la Frontera (Seville) and the other in Rota (Cadiz). The latter, located opposite the Strait of Gibraltar, takes up 2,400 hectares and the United States soldiers who are working there call themselves the "Guardians of the Mediterranean". At the start of the 60's, the United States Marine installed a large antenna known in military slang as "the elephants' cage" at the Rota base. It has a circumference of 500 metres, made up of metal wire meshing and bars whose technical name is AN/FLR-13. This antenna is able to capture radio broadcasts that have been made at a distance of over 5,000 kilometres. In the centre of "the elephants' cage" we can find the building number 533 used by the Marines, which houses the Naval Security Group (NAVSECGRU), that has also been stationed in Rota since the 60's. NAVSECGRU is the code-breaking division of the United States Marine, that is to say, it processes codes and passwords in order to guarantee the security of military communications. Although the unit forms part of the Navy, its Commander works at Fort George Meade, a military base located in Maryland, very close to Washington, from where communications espionage operations on a global scale are directed. this is because it is there that the central offices of the National Security Agency (NSA) is located. This is one of the three United States agencies that is dedicated to intelligence. In spite of the secret surrounding the operations of the Rota Security Group, it oddly enough has its own web page on Internet, where it explains its mission consists of "providing safe and fast communications for the defence of the United States and its allies". In other words, its obligation is for the military communications from Rota leave encoded so that, if they are intercepted by another country, they cannot be detected. But any specialist in encoding is also an expert in crypto-analysis, an activity that consists of decoding the codes of other countries. Thus, in the same way as they have the obligation to protect outgoing communications, the members of NAVSECGRU also carry out a crypto-analysis of the incoming signals. In this case these are the civil, diplomatic and military communications interpreted by the "elephants' cage". Curiously, it states on its web page that its mission is also to "analyse electro-magnetic phenomenon" with the AN/FLR-13 antenna, a euphemism that is used to try to cover up their true mission as communication spies. With Spanish authorisation since 1970 The United States and Spain signed a new Covenant in 1970 by which the United States military bases returned to Spanish control, authorising the United States army to use certain facilities in them. In 1982, with Spain having recently joined up to NATO, another Covenant was signed in which the use of the installations was regulated and the authorisations granted by the Spanish government to the United States army to operate under the Spanish flag were detailed one by one. The latest update to the Hispanic-American military agreements took place on April 10, 2002. This document is accompanied by an appendix where the installations that exist on the North American bases were set out. Among others, it admits the existence of a "naval communications station" which, expressed in this way, seems to be wholly undefended. The same happens with the "information installation for maritime monitoring", whose mission is the "matching and distribution of information in support of the United States fleet". However, these are the installations operated by the Naval Security Group, whose mission has already been mentioned. Furthermore, article 47 of the Covenant states that "it shall be possible for the Forces of the United States of America to be able to undertake actions in the field of telecommunications that may be necessary to 1) meet new operational requirements, 2) improve the capability of existing systems and 3) to contribute to the welfare and training of said forces". This means that NAVSECGRU can extend its installations as it wishes, with the single condition that "there should be no interference with the existing systems of the Spanish armed forces", according to the Covenant cited. Authorisation to spy In the new document, Spain also grants "authorisation to the criminal investigation services, that will act in Spain in conjunction with its counterparts in the State Security Forces and Corps". Specifically, the authorisation makes reference to the Naval Criminal Service (NCIS) and the Office of Special Investigations of the Armed Forces (OSI). Nevertheless, the NCIS admits, on its Internet page, that it has been installed in Rota since 1993. It confirms that it has offices and "resident units" there and recognises that it is responsible for carrying out missions in Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Morocco, the Western Sahara, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Angola, Namibia and South Africa". It also mentions the existence of a protocol on "Industrial and Technological Cooperation in the Defence Filed" whose content remains secret and has not even been reported to Parliament. For those who are unaware of the interest of the Spanish government in buying United States interception and crypto-analysis communications technology, this agreement could go unnoticed. But this is not the case for those who fear that such an exchange be used for Spain to improve its current capabilities in technological espionage, with the consequent erosion of the right of inviolability of communications. Nevertheless, it seems that it will not be necessary for Spain to purchase this technology directly from the United States since the new Covenant mentions that "the Spanish authorities shall be entitled to the acquisition of any equipment, material, dis-mountable structure or supply that the United States Forces consider surplus to its inventory and plan to transfer to Spain". In this way, if NAVSECGRU receives new equipment and does not know what to do with the old tools, the Spanish army will have "first refusal" to buy them. In the same respect, if the Naval Security Group orders more material than it really needs, the Protocol authorises it to pass this on to the Spanish forces, because the document makes reference to the "surplus" material, not only second-hand products. The new defensive agreement likewise makes reference to a new chapter about "cooperation in military intelligence", whose results are more than palpable in the fight against the ETA terrorist group. In accordance with this protocol, which is also secret, the United States would seem to have placed its enormous communications espionage networks at the service of the Spanish authorities. Even though the Spanish espionage authorities do not have direct access to the technology that the North Americans use, such as the "Echelon" system, Spanish intelligence forces confirm that the USA has spent over a year providing valuable intelligence reports that have helped to trap ETA, to the point where its terrorists have recently been immobilised, fearful of making a mistake that leads to their capture. Erosion of the right to the inviolability of communications However, this success in the fight against terrorism, which all citizens certainly applaud, also needs to been from another perspective: the massive espionage systems make "sweeps" of the communications, intercepting those relating to criminals, but also those of other citizens who are not. As a spy who was working in the "Echelon" network explained, there are innocent people who fall through the "cracks in the system", with the consequent erosion of the right to inviolability of communications. There are presently no laws that regulate communications espionage beyond the borders of the country that carries out that activity, and with the changes that have taken place in the world following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, it is hard for new legislation to be passed that makes it possible to regulate it. In practice, the idea that "every citizen is innocent until proved otherwise" could now be stated in another way: "every citizen is suspicious until proven otherwise". So, the decisive factor from now on will be who citizens will be more afraid of, the criminals or the government. But while sides are taken, society will remain under the close watch of a group of talented people that not even George Orwell could have imagined in his book "1984". Montse Doval Avendaño mdovalat_private www.labitacora.com www.desdegalicia.com God put me on earth to accomplish many things. Right now I'm so far behind that I may never die. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.8 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> iQA/AwUBPj+eDHT1r8XBZanPEQLJygCeJtVxVni/LuHYZTBEx7MF9gMtuo4AoI3H +TkDjmbv6TbeMFlgMqka3Mjg =TZ7S -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. 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