A report to the European parliament states:

" Within Europe, all email, telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency, transferring all target information from the European mainland ... to [The headquarter of NSA] ... a global surveillance system that stretches around the world to form a targeting system on all of the key Intelsat satellites used to convey most of the world's satellite phone calls, internet, email, faxes and telexes. ...unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the cold war, ECHELON is designed for primarily non-military targets: governments, organisations and businesses in virtually every country... Five nations share the results with the US as the senior partner ... Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are very much acting as subordinate information servicers "

An article in the mailinglist ukcrypto, suggests there is a link between this interception capacity and the pressure for data recovery. That thought is also suggested in a Swedish newspaper; "Storebror vill avlyssna", Dagen Nyheter, 9 Jan 1997 This is also in expressed in a Congressional record, July 15, 1998 Congress needs to act on encryption legislation " Mr. Craig; ... Export restrictions on encryption products assist the Intelligence Community in its signals

intelligence mission. By collecting and analyzing signals intelligence, U.S. intelligence agencies seek to understand the policies, intentions, and plans of foreign state"

The report, dated, 6 January 1998, is titled; "An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control" and has been sent to the European parliament 'Civil Liberties and Interior Committee.' The report was written by Steve Wright, an analyst with the Omega Foundation, a British human rights organization, based in Manchester,

on behalf of a research unit of the European Parliament department for 'Scientific and Technological Option Assessment (STOA). No web page could be found for Omega Foundation.

Country Echelon members official web pages

USA

NSA - National Security Agency

England

GCHQ - Government Communications Head Quarters

Canada

CSE - Communications Security Establishment

Australian

DSD - Defense Signals Directorate

New Zealand 

GCSB - Government Communications Security Bureau 

Historical milestones

Year Alliances and succsessfully placed backdoors. 

1943 BRUSA, BRitain - USA alliance is formed

1947 UKUSA, United Kingdom - USA alliance is formed

1957 Crypto AG, backdoor in chipher equipment

1988 The first time Echelon is mentioned in printing.

1996 Lotus Notes, backdoor in software for international users.

1998 European parliment receives report on Echelon

After 1998 Data Recovery, backdoor in all US-exported software