Dutch snoops are big thinkers

[elektro80]

The Dutch ministry of defence is planning to build a large facility to
intercept civilian and military satellite communications. The Echelon-like
site at Burum, in the north of the Netherlands, will have 15 dishes and
listen to telephone, fax and internet telecommunications. The large
streams of intercepted information will be examined by a new intelligence
service, the National Sigint Organisation (NSO). This organisation will
become the third secret service in the Netherlands next to the already
existing military and the civilian intelligence service.

The Dutch government wants to drastically expand it signals intelligence
capabilities. Until now satellite snooping is done through a two dish
facility at Zoutkamp. The ministry of Defence first tried to expand the
existing location but was blocked in court by people living nearby. The
court ruled that provisions in the municipal land-use plan would conflict
with such a large military installation. The ministry also couldn't
counter safety concerns. The new site at Burum is actually a commercial
satellite ground station operated by Xantic, in which Dutch
telecommunication company KPN has a 65% share.

The Dutch government will buy part of the Xantic site to build the
satellite dishes that the NSO will use to snoop on communication
satellites. Details of the new site have become public after EDRI-member
Bits of Freedom obtained building maps of the site. The building maps show
on which part of the Xantic site the NSO will build its sigint
installation. The maps also mention which satellites the NSO dishes will
intercept: 7 for Intelsat and 8 for Inmarsat. The strange symbiosis
between Xantic and the NSO will result into the Xantic dishes handling
Intelsat and Inmarsat traffic and a few meters away the NSO dishes picking
up that same traffic. In other words Xantic is selling part of its
facility to have its own costumers bugged. Xantic has no legal obligation
to assist in this way.

In the Dutch parliament there has been little discussion about the
expansion of satellite snooping. According to the ministry of defence the
Netherlands need the extra dishes to combat terrorism and support Dutch
troops overseas. But in answers to questions from the parliament's defence
committee the minister of defence also acknowledged that the large
facility will give the Netherlands a very good position to trade
intelligence with allied intelligence services. This argument explains why
the Netherlands are expanding their modest snooping operation into one of
the biggest facilities in Europe.

Dutch intelligence services are allowed by law to intercept any wireless
communication without prior approval of a judge or minister (rules for
non-wireless communication are more strict; tapping a land-line telephone
will require permission from a minister). The intelligence services can
freely search the airwaves for interesting communications. A 'word-list'
to search certain words and names in wireless communication requires the
once-a-year approval of the entire list by the minister of Interior.

The interception of satellite communications was a hot topic in the
European and Dutch parliament in 2001. The European parliament had ordered
an investigation into the existence of the US/Anglo-Saxon Echelon network
in 1997 and 1999 through the so-called STOA reports. In 2001 a temporary
committee of the parliament delivered a report that concluded that Echelon
existed and was targeting private and commercial communications of
European citizens and companies.

The European parliament concluded that such a satellite interception
system would breach EC law if it was used to gather competitive
intelligence, which would be at odds with the concept of a common market
based on free competition. Parliament also concluded that such a system
would only function in accordance with Article 8 of the ECHR if it would
have effective oversight and control from national parliaments. "An
intelligence system which intercepted communications permanently and at
random would be in violation of the principle of proportionality and would
therefore not be compatible with the ECHR." In its recommendations the
report urged governments to stimulate the use of encryption technology in
order to protect citizens and companies against snooping practices.

Bits of Freedom: Dutch National Sigint Organisation building plans
http://www.bof.nl/nso_uk.html

Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private
and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system) (11.07.2001)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/tempcom/echelon/pdf/rapport_echelon_en.pdf

(Contribution by Maurice Wessling, EDRI-member Bits of Freedom)