- The Swiss army and intelligence service
are currently setting up a new system designed to intercept data being
sent to and from foreign communications satellites in orbit over Europe.
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- Parabolic mirrors installed in several
locations throughout Switzerland will systematically intercept phone calls,
faxes and emails from individuals, companies, governments and foreign militaries.
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- The intercepted data will be forwarded
to a military mainframe computer near Switzerland's capital Bern. There,
the communi- cations will be scanned to search for certain "hit words",
which, according to insider sources, include "rocket", "holocaust"...
and "Regli", which is the name of the Swiss intelligence service's
head.
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- Results will be shared among political
and military leaders, and "other parties".
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- According to sources, one of these "other
parties" is the Swiss police, which will have open access to the intercepted
inform- ation without having to obtain court orders etc. Interestingly,
this would be - at least at this stage - against Swiss law.
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- According to a German intelligence expert,
as soon as the systems are in place, Switzerland is going to join ECHELON,
an inter- national spy project initiated by the USA (see http://515.offshoreprofit.nu/bbalert).
Possible cooperation would include information and hit word sharing.
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- The Swiss intelligence service categorically
denied these claims of planned international cooperation, but was not available
for further comments. Taking into consideration that Switzerland is readily
cooperating with other countries (especially the US) when it comes to banking
and other issues, it would be a sur- prise if they wouldn't participate
in this international sur- veillance system. Time will tell...
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