The UKUSA agreement. In 1948 the former WW II intelligence alliance of USA, UK, Canada, Australia an New Zealand was formalised into the UKUSA Signals and Intelligence agreement.

Originially, ECHELON's primary purpose was to keep an eye/ear on the USSR. The new official purpose of UKUSA is fighting terrorism and crimes, although in reality its main focus lies in political and economic espionage.

Echelon Organization. ECHELON is coordinated by the US National Security Agency (NSA), with participation of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the US Air Force (USAF), the Naval Security Group (NSG), the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Australia's Defense Signals Directorate (DSD), Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). The US Intelligence Budget for one year is approximately 28 billion Dollars. Most of it is said to be used for Signals Intelligence. At the NSA Headquarters in Fort Meade, 40.000 people are constantly working in the context of Signals Intelligence.