Fwd: FC: EU eavesdropping on Iridium satellite phone system

any reactions? some of my newspaper colleagues are thinking of writing
about this...


>Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 14:12:45 -0800 (PST)
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
>Subject: FC: EU eavesdropping on Iridium satellite phone system
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>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 22:08:00 +0100
>From: Erich Moechel <erich-moechel@quintessenz.at>
>To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>, declan@well.com
>Subject: EU eavesdropping on Iridium System
>
>
>It is really a ghastly paper, we obtained. It is the first ever "Enfopol" 
>paper that leaked out from United European Police Working Group. 
>Not even the EU's STOA-commission that brought Echelon in2 EU-
>Parliament this spring was given the predecessor 2 "Enfopol 98"
>cu
>me 
>
>The European Surveillance Union
>
>Erich Moechel 20.11.98 
>
>Europol Seeks a Broad Structure for Tapping Mobile 
>Communications 
>
>Austrian officials' appetite for coldly broadening their authority to 
>monitor private citizens is in no way a unique case in Europe. 
>
>As a Europol internal document obtained by Telepolis shows, 
>massive attempts on the part of European police forces are 
>underway to acquire the ability to eavesdrop on the Iridium system, 
>currently in a sensitive stage of expansion. 
>
>The document entitled "Enfopol 98" from the group "Police 
>Cooperation" dated September 3, 1998, deals with the "observation 
>of telecommunications" and primarily addresses the so-called 
>satellite-supported personal communication systems (S-PCS), but 
>also the Internet. On the recommendation of the European Union, a 
>list of points desired by the European police was drawn up as a 
>"Draft for a Recommended Resolution" in order to simplify the 
>passage of the resolution. The terrestrial gateway stations are to 
>provide comprehensive access via Iridium and other Mobile Satellite 
>Services (MSS) since they are "collective and simple locations for 
>monitoring solutions." 
>
>http://www.telepolis.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/1667/1.html
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Hugh Daniel and various other people have commented (or ranted :-)
about the difference in wiretap capabilities between satellite systems
that do space-to-space relay connections for user-to-user calls and
systems that always include a ground segment even if it's not needed,
and which move traffic mostly on the ground instead of in space.

The primary reasons for doing this have been to reduce interference
by government PTTs or other monopoly telecom providers who get
a cut of the financial action this way, but it also makes the
system accessible to every wiretap-happy police force whose
territory the terrestrial segment passed through,
and the US government has probably been one of many players
trying to maximize government access.


At 10:21 PM 11/27/98 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>any reactions? some of my newspaper colleagues are thinking of writing
>about this...
>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
....
>>As a Europol internal document obtained by Telepolis shows, 
>>massive attempts on the part of European police forces are 
>>underway to acquire the ability to eavesdrop on the Iridium system, 
>>currently in a sensitive stage of expansion. 
....
>>http://www.telepolis.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/1667/1.html

				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639