Protesters Give Cyber-Spies an E-Earful

Defying an ultra-secret spy network believed to be scanning overseas e-mails for subversive messages, Internet protesters tried to overwhelm U.S. government eavesdroppers by flooding the system with fabricated messages about terrorist plots and bombs.

But even supporters of Thursday’s electronic civil disobedience campaign acknowledged that the effort likely caused “a lot of laughter,” not consternation, at America’s supersecret National Security Agency.

Organizers urged Internet users on dozens of Web sites and in discussion groups to send millions of e-mails with subversive-sounding language. “Give the [NSA] their keywords!” one person wrote.

The intent was clear: Flood the powerful NSA computers with enough suspicious traffic to crash them and disrupt the mysterious high-tech listening system, code-named Echelon.

A 1997 report commissioned by the European Parliament described “routine and indiscriminate” monitoring of faxes, e-mails and telephone messages in Europe by the global spy network, which it said was coordinated by the NSA with the help of other nations’ security organizations. Another study for the European Union this year brought out new details.

Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) has said he supports congressional hearings to determine the scope of the spy network’s capabilities and to prevent abuses. The network is said to include a listening station in Sugar Grove, W. Va., about 250 miles from Washington.

The NSA is prohibited from spying within the United States. But it’s unclear how those prohibitions are respected with e-mail, which can travel outside U.S. borders on a zigzag path across the Internet even when sent by one American to another.

The agency declined to comment Thursday on its network or the potential impact of the day’s e-mail campaign.

“The agency doesn’t discuss alleged intelligence operations,” NSA spokeswoman Judith Emmel said. “It doesn’t confirm or deny any Echelon-type technology.”

But even supporters of the jamming campaign were pessimistic that their efforts would have much impact. They suggested the spy network was smart enough to ignore e-mails typically sent with lists of random words, especially since many of the messages were in plain English and not in foreign languages or code.

“I think it will cause a lot of laughter up at NSA, to tell the truth,” said Wayne Madsen of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, who tracks news about Echelon. “If they seriously think they’re going to bring the computers at the NSA to a grinding halt, they’re going to be seriously disappointed.”

“It will not, in fact, have any effect on their operations,” agreed Duncan Campbell of Edinburgh, Scotland, who wrote the most recent report about Echelon for the EU. “They’re used to electronic warfare and screening out noise put up by enemies. This is noise from dissenting citizens.”

Supporters said even if their e-mail campaign didn’t cause the NSA’s computers to crash, it was important in raising awareness of the spy network’s rumored abilities.

On the Internet, where conspiracy theorists flourish, it was impossible to know for sure precisely who thought up “Jam Echelon Day,” as it was called in one message from an Australia-based Web site. It was also impossible to count how many e-mails protesters might actually have sent, much less determine their effectiveness.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know,” said Simon Davies, who heads London-based Privacy International, a human rights organization. “I would guess maybe it will be 10 years before we understand the ramifications of any civil disobedience campaign.”