SECOND PART READER PROJECT GUIDELINES

Which have been the most important

real espionage organizations around 

the world?

ECHELON

ECHELON is considered one of the biggest espionage networks to intercept electronic communications history through (signals intelligence, SIGINT) directed by The United States, The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This organization can capture radio and satellite communications, telephone calls, faxes and emails to almost everyone, so this espionage organization intercepts more than three billion communications everyday.

This organization was created to manage the military communications of the Soviet Union, as well as to control clues about terrorist, drug plans, political and diplomatic intelligence and economic espionage of any nation. The system is under the administration of the NSA (National Security Agency). This organization has only 100,000 employees in Maryland (EE.UU), (other sources speak of 380,000 employees worldwide), so It is probably the greatest espionage organization in the world. The information is sent from Menwith Hill (UK) by satellite to Ford Meade in Maryland (EE.UU).

This organization has a popular culture like Echelon Conspiracy, inspired by the surveillance system ECHELON, is a 2009 action thriller film directed by Greg Marcks, also the video game series Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell also draws inspiration from this. The series features the protagonist, Sam Fisher, a trained operative belonging to a fictional branch of the National Security Agency called Third Echelon, and the famous film called The Bourne Ultimatum makes several references to ECHELON. A CIA listening station in London is alerted when ECHELON detects the keyword "Blackbriar" in a cell phone conversation between a journalist and his editor.

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