The question to me of course is, if they had all of this surveillance in place even before 9/11, how can they pretend that they were blindsided?
"The ECHELON program was created in the late 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War, and was formally established in 1971.[5][6]
By the end of the 20th century, the system referred to as "ECHELON" had allegedly evolved beyond its military and diplomatic origins, to also become "…a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications."
https://fas.org/irp/program/process/echelon.htm
"The ECHELON program was created in the late 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War, and was formally established in 1971.[5][6]
By the end of the 20th century, the system referred to as "ECHELON" had allegedly evolved beyond its military and diplomatic origins, to also become "…a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications."
https://fas.org/irp/program/process/echelon.htm
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