UKUSA
The somewhat obvious acronym accorded the March 1946 secret agreement between the UK and USA concerning Communications intelligence sharing and under which the global Echelon system was built. Both the agreement itself and the Echelon system continue in operation (July 2010) with the technical capabilities of Echelon undoubtedly vastly greater than envisaged for it at the outset. The UKUSA agreement has probably undergone it's own evolution too. However, as is confirmed by persistent ministerial references to it in the matter of allegations of UK collusion in torture and the withholding of US intelligence documents from the courts, the agreement is not only still operational but highly valued by the UK - crocodile tears and backside-covering bullshit notwithstanding.
A series of documents relating to the setting up of the agreement and the first few years of its operation were declassified in June 2010 and are available on the UK National Archives web site [1]
See Also
- GCHQ
- Echelon
- File:Hw-80-2.pdf - Draft of the UKUSA agreement dated 1 November 1945
