Editing ECHELON (section)

=== Confirmation of ECHELON (2015) ===
Two internal NSA newsletters from January 2011 and July 2012, published as part of [[Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)|Edward Snowden's leaks]] by the website ''[[The Intercept]]'' on 3 August 2015, for the first time confirmed that NSA used the code word ECHELON and provided some details about the scope of the program: ECHELON was part of an umbrella program with the code name FROSTING, which was established by the NSA in 1966 to collect and process data from [[communications satellites]]. FROSTING had two sub-programs:<ref name="yrs">The Northwest Passage, Yakima Research Station (YRS) newsletter: [http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2189960-nwp-nsa.html Volume 2, Issue 1, January 2011] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922172422/http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2189960-nwp-nsa.html |date=22 September 2015 }} & [http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2189961-nwp2-nsa.html Volume 3, Issue 7, July 2012] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922172422/http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2189961-nwp2-nsa.html |date=22 September 2015 }}.</ref>
* TRANSIENT: for intercepting [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] satellite transmissions
* ECHELON: for intercepting [[Intelsat]] satellite transmissions 
The [[European Parliament]]'s [[Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System]] stated, "It seems likely, in view of the evidence and the consistent pattern of statements from a very wide range of individuals and organisations, including American sources, that its name is in fact '''ECHELON''', although this is a relatively minor detail".<ref name="EP" /> The US intelligence community uses many code names (''see'', for example, [[CIA cryptonym]]).

Former NSA employee [[Margaret Newsham]] said that she worked on the configuration and installation of software that makes up the ECHELON system while employed at [[Lockheed Martin]], from 1974 to 1984 in [[Sunnyvale, California]], in the [[United States]], and in [[Menwith Hill]], [[England]], in the [[UK]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Elkjær |first1=Bo |first2=Kenan |last2=Seeberg |date=17 November 1999 |title=ECHELON Was My Baby |work=Ekstra Bladet |url=http://cryptome.org/echelon-baby.htm |url-status=dead |access-date=17 May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615202141/http://cryptome.org/echelon-baby.htm |archive-date=15 June 2006}} "Unfortunately, I can't tell you all my duties. I am still bound by professional secrecy, and I would hate to go to prison or get involved in any trouble, if you know what I mean. In general, I can tell you that I was responsible for compiling the various systems and programs, configuring the whole thing and making it operational on mainframes"; "[[Margaret Newsham]] worked for the [[NSA]] through her employment at Ford and Lockheed from 1974 to 1984. In 1977 and 1978 Newsham was stationed at the largest listening post in the world at [[Menwith Hill]], [[England]] ... Ekstra Bladet has Margaret Newsham's stationing orders from the US Department of Defense. She possessed the high security classification TOP SECRET CRYPTO."</ref> At that time, according to Newsham, the code name ECHELON was NSA's term for the computer network itself. Lockheed called it ''P415''. The software programs were called ''SILKWORTH'' and ''SIRE''. A [[satellite]] named ''[[Vortex (satellite)|VORTEX]]'' intercepted communications. An image available on the internet of a fragment apparently torn from a job description shows Echelon listed along with several other code names.<ref>{{cite news |last=Goodwins |first=Rupert |date=29 June 2000 |title=Echelon: How it works |work=[[ZDNet]] |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/echelon-how-it-works/ |url-status=live |access-date=28 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202120330/http://www.zdnet.com/echelon-how-it-works-3002079849/ |archive-date=2 February 2014}}</ref><ref name="insideechelon">{{cite web |last=Campbell |first=Duncan |date=25 July 2000 |title=Inside Echelon |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/echelon-how-it-works/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202120330/http://www.zdnet.com/echelon-how-it-works-3002079849/ |archive-date=2 February 2014 |access-date=28 January 2014 |publisher=[[Heise Online]]}}</ref>

Britain's ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper summarized the capabilities of the ECHELON system as follows:

{{Blockquote|A global network of electronic spy stations that can eavesdrop on telephones, faxes and computers. It can even track bank accounts. This information is stored in Echelon computers, which can keep millions of records on individuals.

Officially, however, Echelon doesn't exist.<ref>{{cite web|last=Perrone|first=Jane|title=The Echelon spy network|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/may/29/qanda.janeperrone|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=28 January 2014|date=29 May 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203163847/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/may/29/qanda.janeperrone|archive-date=3 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Documents leaked by the former NSA contractor [[Edward Snowden]] revealed that the ECHELON system's collection of satellite data is also referred to as '''FORNSAT''' - an abbreviation for "Foreign Satellite Collection".<ref>{{cite news |first1=Laura|last1=Poitras|first2=Marcel|last2=Rosenbach|first3=Holger|last3=Stark |date=20 December 2013 |title=Friendly Fire: How GCHQ Monitors Germany, Israel and the EU |work=[[Der Spiegel]] |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/snowden-documents-show-gchq-targeted-european-and-german-politicians-a-940135-2.html |url-status=live |access-date=30 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125102046/http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/snowden-documents-show-gchq-targeted-european-and-german-politicians-a-940135-2.html |archive-date=25 January 2014 |quote=A map from the wealth of classified documents obtained by Snowden on the so-called "Fornsat" activities of the technical intelligence cooperation program -- informally known as the Five Eyes -- shows that the system of global satellite surveillance remained in operation.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Ambinder |first=Marc |date=31 July 2013 |title=What's XKEYSCORE? |url=http://theweek.com/article/index/247684/whats-xkeyscore |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140130064739/http://theweek.com/article/index/247684/whats-xkeyscore |archive-date=30 January 2014 |access-date=30 January 2014 |work=[[The Week]] |quote=FORNSAT simply means "foreign satellite collection," which refers to NSA tapping into satellites that process data used by other countries.}}</ref>