Michael Savage caller: Americans spied on for decades

'They're listening to everything. They know what everybody does'

Many Americans have been astonished in the past week to learn of the government's extraordinary ability to invade their privacy, but a caller told "The Savage Nation" radio show of his contract work for a global National Security Agency system during the administration of President George H.W. Bush more than 20 years ago that spied on citizens.

"John" in San Francisco told host Michael Savage he worked for one of the largest intelligence contractors in the world on a massive program known as Echelon that intercepted private and commercial communications.

To "get around the Constitution and laws," he said, "they based the program out of another country, England."

"They routed it back to the NSA building, which was 14 stories below the ground," said John.

In his conversation with Savage, John didn't name the contractor but revealed the company was based in Sunnyvale, Calif., which is the headquarters of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.

He said Echelon analysts used a computer program that scanned the communications for key words.

"They're listening to everything," he said. " … They know what everybody does."

READ WHOLE STORY AND INTERVIEW HERE: VIDEO: http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/echelon-contractor-feds-spying-on-citizens-for-decades/

John said his company "built satellites over there that can read the data on a dime."

Savage noted that many people are saying, "If you've got nothing to hide, why should you be afraid of this?"

"But as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian author, wrote," Savage said, "Everyone is guilty of something or has something to conceal. All one has to do is look hard enough to find what it is."

The European Parliament published a report of its investigation of Echelon in 2001, describing it as "a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications."