Perry Fellwock

Perry Fellwock (born 1947) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst and whistleblower who revealed the existence of the NSA and its worldwide covert surveillance network in an interview, using the pseudonym Winslow Peck, with Ramparts in 1971.[1] At the time that Fellwock blew the whistle on ECHELON, the NSA was a nearly unknown organization and among the most secretive of the US intelligence agencies. Fellwock revealed that it had a significantly larger budget than the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[2] Fellwock was motivated by Daniel Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers. Today, Fellwock has been acknowledged as the first NSA whistleblower.[3]

Perry Douglas Fellwock
Born	1947 (age 75–76)
Other names	Winslow Peck
Occupation(s)	SIGINT analyst; IT security consultant; antiques dealer
Employer(s)	USAF, NSA, self
Organization	Committee for Action/Research on the Intelligence Community (CARIC)
Known for	Whistleblowing revealing existence of and mass eavesdropping of NSA
Notable work	CounterSpy

National Security Agency surveillance
Map of global NSA data collection as of 2007, with countries subject to the most data collection shown in red
Programs Pre-1978 ECHELON MINARET SHAMROCK PROMIS Since 1978 Upstream collection BLARNEY FAIRVIEW Main Core ThinThread Genoa Since 1990 RAMPART-A Since 1998 Tailored Access Operations Since 2001 OAKSTAR STORMBREW Trailblazer Turbulence Genoa II Total Information Awareness President's Surveillance Program Terrorist Surveillance Program Since 2007 PRISM Dropmire Stateroom Bullrun MYSTIC Databases, tools etc. PINWALE MARINA Main Core MAINWAY TRAFFICTHIEF DISHFIRE XKeyscore ICREACH BOUNDLESSINFORMANT GCHQ collaboration MUSCULAR Tempora
Legislation Safe Streets Act Privacy Act of 1974 FISA ECPA Patriot Act Homeland Security Act Protect America Act of 2007 FISA Amendments Act of 2008
Institutions FISC Senate Intelligence Committee National Security Council
Lawsuits ACLU v. NSA Hepting v. AT&T Jewel v. NSA Clapper v. Amnesty Klayman v. Obama ACLU v. Clapper Wikimedia v. NSA US v. Moalin
Whistleblowers William Binney Thomas Drake Mark Klein Thomas Tamm Russ Tice
Publication 2005 warrantless surveillance scandal Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)
Related Cablegate Surveillance of reporters Mail tracking UN diplomatic spying Insider Threat Program Mass surveillance in the United States Mass surveillance in the United Kingdom
Concepts SIGINT Metadata
Collaboration United States CSS CYBERCOM DOJ FBI CIA DHS IAO Five Eyes CSEC GCHQ ASD GCSB Other DGSE BND

ECHELON is the name popularly given to the signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states (so called "Five Eyes" FVEY) to the UKUSA Security Agreement. According to information in a European Parliament document "On the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system)", ECHELON was ostensibly created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War in the early 1960s.[4]

Because of the Fellwock revelations, the U.S. Senate United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities ("Church Committee" as it was chaired by Frank Church) introduced successful legislation in 1973 to stop the NSA from spying on American citizens.

Speaking about ECHELON, Frank Church said:

"...[T]hat capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such [is] the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology ... I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."[5]

The Church Committee hearings and other congressional hearings into abuses by the Nixon Administration by a committee chaired by Sam Ervin helped lead to the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA") Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 95–511, 92 Stat. 1783, 50 U.S.C. ch. 36 in 1978. FISA prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" (which may include American citizens and permanent residents suspected of espionage or terrorism) in 1978. After the September 11 attacks, the law was amended, enabling President George W. Bush to expand the warrantless surveillance of American citizens.