Canadian CSE wiretaps used against US citizens in court

[John Gilmore]

[CSE = Canada's NSA.  Supposedly "legal" under Patriot Act?   --gnu]

http://cryptome.org/

Canadians Listen in on NSA's Behalf

A high-level U.S. intelligence source has revealed exclusively to
Intelligence Online that some of the communications surveillance
evidence used by the U.S. government to try two Lebanese-born
U.S. citizens of running a cigarette smuggling ring and sending cash
to Hezbollah was collected by Canada's Communications Security
Establishment (CSE), the Canadian counter-part of the National
Security Agency and a long-standing partner of Echelon.  The Canadian
intercept data supplemented FBI wiretap evidence that a federal judge
in Charlotte, North Carolina allowed to be entered into evidence in
the trial of the two Shi'ite brothers, Mohammed and Chawi Hammoud.  On
June 21, the Hammoud brothers were convicted on a wide range of
charges, with Mohammed specifically being found guilty of aiding a
terrorist group.  In the past, NSA has denied that it uses its Echelon
partners to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens.  In the instance, however,
judge Graham Mullen allowed Canadian intercept information to be
used. The case illustrated changes in electronic surveillance policy
that were enacted by Congress following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Still, charges that Echelon partners help one another out in covert
operations aren't entirely new.  In the 1980's, Britain's GCHQ was
accused of asking its partners abroad to listen in on journalists who
were investigating the business affairs of prime minister Margaret
Thatcher's son, Mark.

Excerpted from Intelligence Online newsletter, No 434, 25 July - 28
August 2002, www.intelligenceonline.com.

Cryptome offers the USA v. Mohammed Hammoud, et al case docket (no
filings are available online):

http://cryptome.org/usa-v-mh-dkt.htm 

--g71Fwvl02253.1028217537/mx1.redhat.com--


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