BRITISH SPIES: WE'RE PART OF UKUSA

Bo Elkjaer boo at datashopper.dk
Wed Jun 13 07:10:14 PDT 2001


The british parliament have acknowledged membership of the UKUSA
agreement. It happened in the annual report 1999-2000 from the
Intelligence and Security Comittee.

Link: http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm48/4897/4897.htm

The danish primeminister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen was handed the report in
march, but apparantly decided to try to bury it. 


The following article was printed in Ekstra Bladet today.

Yours
Bo Elkjaer, Denmark


BRITISH SPIES: WE ARE PART OF UKUSA
The British intelligence service has admitted for the first time that they
cooperate with the USA on surveillance through the UKUSA agreement. For
several months now, Denmark's prime minister has had proof that the
surveillance agreement behind Echelon exists.

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has had an official British acknowledgement of the
spy agreement behind Echelon in his possession for several months. The
British confirmation is in writing, and it confirms the fact that the
British and the Americans cooperate closely on intelligence assignments
under the UKUSA agreement. The UKUSA cooperation is accused of standing
behind the Echelon system, and it is the first time that any of the
involved parties officially mention the existence of the controversial
agreement whose precise contents are still classified.
The Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament
mentions the close cooperation in its annual report for 1999-2000. The
report was delivered to Great Britain's prime minister Tony Blair in
August of last year, but Denmark's prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has
known about the report since March of this year at least.
'The quality of the compiled intelligence clearly indicates the value of
this close cooperation under the UKUSA agreement,' says the official
British report, which subsequently, and in great detail, reveals how close
the cooperation between the British and the Americans actually is.
The report mentions as an example that the British took over the
assignments of the USA's National Security Agency (NSA) for three days in
2000, when the NSA's computers broke down. For three days, the British
were capable of servicing their own 'clients', as well as the USA's, by
tapping telefaxes, e-mails and phone conversations.
The British report confirms in writing the very same issues about which
several Danish parties have been trying to get Denmark's prime minister,
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, to ask Great Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair:
whether the US and Great Britain are cooperating on surveillance.
NOT MY TABLE
Through a secretary, prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen refuses to
comment. He refers the matter to the Ministry of Defence. 
Yet in spite of Nyrup's referral, Minister of Defence Jan Trøjborg is also
unwilling to comment on the Echelon case that is putting the government
under increasing pressure.
The chairman of the Socialist Party, Holger K. Nielsen, informs Ekstra
Bladet that he will try to force Poul Nyrup Rasmussen to contact Tony
Blair regarding an Echelon inquiry, possibly by going around the
government to get a majority:
"They might as well do it now. The pressure from the parties will continue
to increase. It's unreasonable that this information should just be
quietly ignored.
Is it acceptable that with the information now in its possession the
government keeps refusing to inform the public, to organise any kind of
investigation or merely to send an inquiry to Great Britain? 
"No, it is not acceptable. In my opinion, they should contact Great
Britain in the form of an inquiry," says Holger K. Nielsen.
"This affair concerns the European countries, and I find it very
unacceptable that Great Britain is hedging its bets here."
"The Echelon Report from the European Parliament particularly emphasises
the industrial conflicts between the USA and Europe. In my opinion, Great
Britain is playing Trojan Horse in this game, which is unacceptable.
Hopefully, the government will realise that they must react." 
Do you think they will?
"They appear quite intractable. But in light of the fact that the European
Parliament places such a high priority on the case, they can't keep
avoiding the issue." 
DEMANDS CLARITY
Prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen learned about the British report,
which confirms the intelligence cooperation, in March in connection with
an official question asked in a session of parliament. The question to the
prime minister was submitted by member of parliament Keld Albrechtsen
after Ekstra Bladet had sent a copy of the annual report of the British
intelligence agency to Mr Albrechtsen for a comment. Instead, Mr
Albrechtsen chose to formulate a question to the prime minister, who
replied one month later, on 26 April 2001.
In his reply, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen merely stated that neither the Danish
Defence Intelligence Service nor the Police Department's intelligence
service are willing to comment on the cooperation agreements of other
countries in the intelligence field. Thus two other highly placed
ministers must know about the global surveillance, i.e. Minister of
Justice Frank Jensen and Minister of Defence Jan Trøjborg.
A few days ago, Helge Adam Møller, MP for the Conservative Party, tried to
get a majority of parliament to force Nyrup Rasmussen to ask Blair about
Echelon. The Liberal Party refused to support the proposal however. 
Ekstra Bladet asked the Liberal Party's spokesman in the area whether it
was acceptable that the government refused to inform the general public
about Echelon or to ask the British about the matter.
"What is seriously unacceptable is that the government has trouble
deciding what to inform the parliament about," says Kristian Jensen. 
"The Radical Liberal Party in the government says that Denmark should do
something about Echelon and the Social Democrats say it doesn't even
exist. It is unacceptable to us that the government can't make up its mind
on the issue. Therefore, our first demand is that the government should
get control over its own legs and agree on what it knows about Echelon and
on what it intends to tell the Danish parliament," says Kristian Jensen.
"So we're looking for some clear answers from the government as to what it
can tell us about Echelon and what the government's position actually is."
After Ekstra Bladet's disclosure, Knud Erik Hansen of the Socialist Party
will now request a meeting with Poul Nyrup Rasmussen on the matter. 


-- 


EOT 






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