Editing ECHELON (section)

== Workings ==
[[File:Echelon-yakima-diagram.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|System diagram of the ECHELON satellite intercept station of the NSA at the Yakima Research Station (YRS)<ref name="yrs2011">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 }}.</ref><br />
TOPCO = Terminal Operations Control<br />
CCS = Computer Control Subsystem<br />
STEAMS = System Test, Evaluation, Analysis, and Monitoring Subsystem<br />
SPS = Signal Processing Subsystem<br />
TTDM = Teletype Demodulator]]
The first United States [[satellite]] ground station for the ECHELON collection program was built in 1971 at a military firing and training center near [[Yakima, Washington]]. The facility, which was codenamed JACKKNIFE, was an investment of ca. 21.3 million dollars and had around 90 people. [[Satellite]] traffic was intercepted by a 30-meter single-dish antenna. The station became fully operational on 4 October 1974. It was connected with NSA headquarters at Fort Meade by a 75-baud secure Teletype orderwire channel.<ref name=yrs />

In 1999 the [[Australian Senate]] [[Joint Standing Committee on Treaties]] was told by Professor [[Desmond Ball]] that the [[Pine Gap]] facility was used as a ground station for a satellite-based interception network. The satellites were said to be large radio dishes between 20 and 100 meters in diameter in [[geostationary orbit]]s. The original purpose of the network was to monitor the [[telemetry]] from 1970s [[:Category:Cold War weapons of the Soviet Union|Soviet weapons]], air defence and other radars' capabilities, satellites' ground stations' transmissions and ground-based [[Microwave transmission|microwave communications]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/joint/commttee/j2408.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608040058/http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/joint/commttee/j2408.pdf |archive-date=8 June 2011 |title=Pine Gap |url-status=dead |access-date=19 August 2016}}, Official Committee Hansard, Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, 9 August 1999. Commonwealth of Australia.</ref>

=== Examples of industrial espionage ===
In 1999, Enercon, a [[Germany|German]] company and leading manufacturer of wind energy equipment, developed a breakthrough generator for wind turbines. After applying for a US patent, it had learned that Kenetech, an American rival, had submitted an almost identical patent application shortly before. By the statement of a former [[NSA]] employee, it was later claimed that the NSA had secretly intercepted and monitored [[Enercon]]'s data communications and conference calls and passed information regarding the new generator to Kenetech.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fas.org/irp/program/process/rapport_echelon_en.pdf|title=Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system) (2001/2098(INI))|last=Schmid|first=Gerhard|date=2001-07-11|access-date=2018-08-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628043116/https://fas.org/irp/program/process/rapport_echelon_en.pdf|archive-date=28 June 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> However, later German media reports contradicted this story, as it was revealed that the American patent in question was actually filed three years before the alleged wiretapping was said to have taken place.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sattar |first1=Majid |title=NSA-Affäre: Ja, meine Freunde, wir spionieren euch aus! |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/amerika/nsa-affaere-ja-meine-freunde-wir-spionieren-euch-aus-12267465-p2.html |website=FAZ.NET |date=July 2013 |language=de |access-date=21 November 2022 |archive-date=21 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121023532/https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/amerika/nsa-affaere-ja-meine-freunde-wir-spionieren-euch-aus-12267465-p2.html |url-status=live }}</ref> As German intelligence services are forbidden from engaging in industrial or economic espionage, German companies have complained that this leaves them defenceless against industrial espionage from the United States or Russia. According to Wolfgang Hoffmann, a former manager at [[Bayer]], German intelligence services know which companies are being targeted by US intelligence agencies, but refuse to inform the companies involved.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/electronic-spies-torture-german-firms-1.174447|title=Electronic spies torture German firms|last=Staunton|first=Denis|date=1999-04-16|newspaper=The Irish Times|access-date=2018-08-06|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921162157/https://www.irishtimes.com/business/electronic-spies-torture-german-firms-1.174447|archive-date=21 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>