This sounds like what Spook Herson admitted in his interview.
See http://jya.com/herson.htm.

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28 February 1997

Thanks to CM.

The Guardian Weekly, Volume 156, Issue 9
Week ending March 2, 1997, Page 4:

UK to join FBI phone taps

Richard Norton-Taylor and Alison Daniels

BRITAIN has secretly agreed with its European Union partners to set up
an international telecommunications tapping system in co-operation
with the FBI, it was revealed on Monday.

The agreement covers telephones and written communications -- telexes,
faxes and e-mail. To make tapping easier, telecommunications companies
will be obliged to give security and intelligence agencies the key to
codes installed in equipment sold to private customers.

Detailed plans are being drawn up by officials in a secret network of
EU committees established under the "third pillar" of the Maastricht
Treaty, covering co-operation on law and order issues.

Civil liberties groups, while agreeing that there was a need for such
an agreement to fight against serious crime, said the plans raised a
number of privacy and data protection issues and must be the subject
of a full public debate.

Britain is an enthusiastic supporter of joint action in this area,
which is conducted on an inter-governmental basis with no role for the
European Commission, the European Parliament or the European Court of
Justice. It is an area where the EU's "democratic deficit" is most
evident.

Key points of the plan are outlined in a memorandum of understanding
signed by EU states in 1995, which is still classified. It reflects
increasing concern among European intelligence agencies that modern
technology will prevent them from tapping private communications.
EU governments agreed to co-operate closely with the FBI in Washington
as they work out detailed plans.

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Thanks to CA.

Date sent:        Thu, 27 Feb 1997 16:44:26 -0500
Subject:          EPIC Alert 4.03
From:             "EPIC-News" <epic-news@epic.org>
To:               EPIC-News@epic.org
Send reply to:    epic-news@epic.org

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   ==============================================================
   Volume 4.03	                              February 27, 1997
   --------------------------------------------------------------

                            Published by the
              Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
                            Washington, D.C.

                          http://www.epic.org/

======================================================================= Table of Contents
======================================================================= 

[1] New Report Details FBI/European Tapping Agreements 
[2] Airline Security Report Released
[3] Briefs Filed in Reno v. ACLU Internet "Indecency" Challenge 
[4] Crypto Legislation Introduced
[5] Clipper Upgrade at DOD/Litigation Update
[6] State Department Reports Widespread Illegal Wiretapping Worldwide
[7] New Medical Privacy Survey [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events

=======================================================================
 [1] New Report Details FBI/European Tapping Agreements
======================================================================= 

A report issued on Feb. 24 by Statewatch, a London-based advocacy
organization, shows that the FBI has been working with its
counterparts in the European Union for five years to create a "global
tapping system." The report reveals the existence of a Memorandum of
Understanding to ensure that surveillance of all existing and new
technologies is compatible and coordinated with the FBI's efforts to
advance its "digital telephony" agenda within the United States.

The FBI's plan is to facilitate wiretapping worldwide by pressuring
countries to harmonize national laws on interception; increase
cooperation of telecommunications providers; ensure equipment has
interception standards incorporated; and create de facto global
standards by persuading as many countries as possible to cooperate and
by providing compatible equipment to non-participating countries.

To achieve these goals, the FBI and its EU counterparts wrote a
resolution adopted by the Council of the European Union on "the lawful
interception of telecommunications." The Council issued the resolution
on Jan 17, 1995 (unpublished until November 1996) and a Memorandum of
Understanding on the requirements that need to be adopted into all
laws. The MOU has been signed by the 15 member countries of the EU,
and the US. There have also been "expressions of support" from
Australia, Canada, and Norway. The FBI and EU have also pushed the
requirements as standards before the international telecommunications
standards bodies such as the ITU and pressured other countries to
adopt them.

The requirements are almost exactly the same as the FBI demands for
digital telephony. They include "real-time access" to the "entire
telecommunication transmitted" sent to a "law enforcement monitoring
facility", access to all associated call data, geographic location
information for mobile phone users, decrypted information for all
operator-provided encryption, and response times "in urgent cases
within hours or minutes."

The report notes that even countries that do not agree will be
affected:

  The strategy appears to be to first get the "Western world" (EU, US
  plus allies) to agree to "norms" and "procedures" and then to sell
  these products to Third World countries -- who even if they do not
  agree to "interception orders" will find their telecommunications
  monitored ... the minute it hits the airwaves.

The digital telephony proposal has received significant criticism in
the United States since its adoption in 1994.  The FBI originally
claimed that law provided a mandate to simultaneously monitor a
significantly higher percentage of phone lines that is current
practice in the US.  That interpretation was withdrawn after public
protect. The FBI then claimed that the law would require the
development of a global locator system based on the nation's telephone
system. That interpretation was also withdrawn after public protect. 
Several members of Congress have said that they will oppose future
funding of the plan.

A copy of the Statewatch report, the Council of Europe Resolution and
more information is available at:

    http://www.privacy.org/pi/activities/tapping/ 

[See the Statewatch report at: http://jya.com/eftap.htm]

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Thanks to D.

February 25, 1997

Report: Europe OKs Wiretap Rules

London (AP) -- Europe has agreed to establish international standards 
with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations to enable authorities to 
tap telephones and messages sent by fax, telex and e-mail, a London 
newspaper reported Tuesday. 

The Guardian newspaper said it obtained a preliminary agreement 
signed by European Union nations in 1995 that calls for 
telecommunications companies to provide security agencies with 
the key to codes installed in equipment sold to customers. 

The newspaper report could not be confirmed independently.[See below]

The aim of the alliance between U.S. and EU agencies was to set a 
common standard for "international interception,'' the newspaper 
reported. 

Full details on the agreement are being drawn up by officials working 
in European Union committees, it said. 

The report said European officials drafted a memorandum of 
understanding after Britain warned that mobile telephone systems 
in the hands of organized criminals posed an international threat. 

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