French Prosecutor Begins Probe of United States’ ‘Echelon’ Spy System

PARIS —  A French state prosecutor has launched a preliminary judicial investigation into the workings of the United States’ “Echelon” spy system of satellites and listening posts, the prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.

Echelon, set up during the Cold War, can intercept millions of telephone, fax and e-mail messages, and Washington has been accused of using it for economic espionage against its allies, a charge it denies.

The investigation, which could spark a diplomatic quarrel with the U.S., will not necessarily lead to legal action, a spokesman for prosecutor Jean-Pierre Dintilhac said.

Coincidentally, the European Parliament is due to decide today in Strasbourg, France, whether to set up a commission to investigate whether Echelon infringes the rights of European citizens and industries.

Dintilhac’s office began the preliminary investigation in response to a letter from a French center-right member of the European Parliament, Thierry Jean-Pierre, who alleged Echelon was potentially prejudicial to French nationals and to France’s economic interests.

Dintilhac has ordered the state counterintelligence agency, DST, to find out whether, under French law, Echelon’s activities could be “harmful to the vital interests of the nation.”

Confirmation would lead to legal proceedings, although it is difficult to see how a U.S. government agency could be sued in a French court.

A report submitted to the European Parliament in October by a British researcher said Echelon’s eavesdropping activities had resulted in several major contracts going to U.S. rather than European firms.

In particular, it cited a 1994 attempt by the French-led European consortium Airbus to break the U.S. hold on airline sales to Saudi Arabia.

In 1995, France expelled five U.S. diplomats and officials, one of them the alleged Paris station chief of the CIA, in connection with that case.