Fellwock Perry

American 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. 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). Fellwock was motivated by Daniel Ellsbergs release of the Pentagon Papers. Today, Fellwock has been acknowledged as the first NSA whistleblower. 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. 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. 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. 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. Fellwock joined the United States Air Force in 1966. After his initial training, he was posted as an analyst to Karamürsel, near Istanbul. From 1968 to 1969, he spent 13 months in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and was stationed at Pleiku Air Base. Upon his return from Vietnam, he transferred to the Air Force Reserves. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less