Blog #9 EOTO 2

 Going into this assignment I had no idea what Five Eyes was. I think that was their whole mission; to keep their alliance a secret.  The group wasn't officially made public until 2010 so they were able to stay under the radar for 64 years. Five eyes consists of five countries who have all agreed to share data and intelligence to keep these countries safe. Five eyes consists of The United States, The UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Up until now there hasn't been much knowledge about what the alliance actually does. It was said that the group exists to pool together resources and share intelligence to enhance the security of its member countries.

It does this through sharing signal intelligence. It used to be through radio signals but since technology has advanced information can be shared through digital tracking.

It all starts back in 1946. The US and UK signed a secret agreement to to share intelligence between the 2 countries in order to combat the Soviet threat.

In 1950 Five Eyes was responsible for the defection of Russian Spy Vladimir Petrov. This event is what caused Australia to join the alliance group. New Zealand would join shortly after that.

In the 1970's Five Eyes hit a low point in time trying to get information about Russia because of all the controversy with political figures.

Richard Nixon was the main cause for the hard time Five Eyes was having. With all the scandal revolving around Watergate Five Eyes didn't want to risk getting outed so they held back with trying to spy on the Russians.

There was also a huge negative reaction towards the Cold War and the US entering into it with Russia. This was another reason why Five Eyes thought it would be a good idea to step back and hold off.

 After the cold war ended, the only thing they said about what the group did was to just keep people safe. They claimed to only prevent attacks, not carry any out themselves. At this time the alliance was still a secret so not much was said about the actual acts of the group.

The current role of the Five Eyes has many aspects. They look over the ‘maritime domain’ which is where the group watches shipping traffic pass through strategic maritime areas. They also watch over the ‘aerospace domain’ which covers missile tests, foreign satellite deployments and the military activities of relevant air forces. 

The group most recently has been watching out for terrorist organizations and weapon business deals. Five Eyes was very involved

 In 2013, with the massive leak of NSA documents by Edward Snowden revealed the five nations were not only spying on foreign countries and on each other but also collecting and keeping data on their own citizens. 

The Canadian government through the data and tracking of five eyes has publicly said they see the intelligence allegedly linking the Indian government to the killing of father, Hardeep Singh Nijjar and to find out if it was a targeted killing. 

Five eyes was able to help this family move closer to a reason why their father was killed.

This shows us through this case that Five eyes can also be used for good reasons and that they really do want to protect the people.