Ask the proverbial “man in the street” how the billions of dollars in foreign aid spent by US taxpayers is spent, and the typical response would probably be that the bulk of it is spent on humanitarian relief. For instance, the government makes certain that US aid in natural disasters such as the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in southeast Asia is well publicized.
Less well known, however, is the massive role the US government has in contributing to the growth of what I call the “global surveillance infrastructure.” Case in point: a US$3 million conversations and tap into e-mail, but the new $3 million “Communications Intercept System” being installed by Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency.
When complete, the system will permit cell-phone users to be monitored as they travel and also allow authorities to identify callers by voice. And, while Mexico’s contract to install the wiretapping system is with Verint Systems, Inc. of New York, the purchase was bought and paid for by the U.S. State Department.
But what good is a brand new wiretapping system if you can’t use it without obtaining approval from a judge? Apparently, not much good at all, which perhaps is the reason that at the same time, Mexican President Felipe Calderon is pushing to amend the Mexican Constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge's approval.
This is hardly the first time something like this has happened. Indeed, for nearly 15 years, the FBI and other US agencies have secretly provided funding for a consortium of national law enforcement and intelligence agencies called the International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar (ILETS). Since 1993, ILETS seminars have brought together police from 20 countries to formulate a legal agenda for global surveillance.
The ILETS requirements for the national surveillance wiretapping systems stipulate that law enforcement agencies have access not only to the content of telephone communications, but also conference calling or call transfer data, all numbers called, all calls received, plus the capability to locate cell phone subscribers in real time. Additionally, neither the interception target nor any other unauthorized person must be aware of the surveillance.
It would appear that the Mexican wiretapping system is designed to fulfill the ILETs requirements. The result is that country-by-country, the United States is secretly funding initiatives designed to eliminate communications privacy and undermine the rule of law.
Given this degree of coordinated surveillance, thoughtfully funded with US taxpayer dollars, how can you protect telephone privacy? The single best suggestion is to purchase pre-paid cellular phone service. The per-minute cost is significantly higher than if you have a service contract, but you can obtain your cell phone and purchase pre-paid calling cards for it without a credit check and without showing proof of identify. You can buy prepaid cell phones almost anywhere in the United States through services such Virgin.
You can learn more about protecting about phone privacy here.
Copyright © 2007 by Mark Nestmann
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