What is the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence alliance?

• Recently, tussle between India and Canada over the killing of a Khalistani leader has put the spotlight on the intelligence-sharing alliance ‘Five Eyes’ (or FVEY), which is believed to have provided the information that “helped” Canada.

Who are the ‘Five Eyes’?

• The ‘Five Eyes’ is a multilateral intelligence-sharing network shared by over 20 different agencies of five English-speaking countries
  • Australia,
  • Canada
  • New Zealand
  • The United Kingdom
  • The United States.
• It is both surveillance-based and signals intelligence (SIGINT).
• Intelligence documents shared between the member countries are classified ‘Secret—AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US Eyes Only,’ which gave the group its title ‘Five Eyes.’

How did the alliance come into being?

• The alliance between the U.S. and the U.K. evolved around the Second World War to counter the Cold War Soviet threat.
• The two countries, which had successfully deciphered German and Japanese codes during the World War, forged a collaboration to share intelligence related to signals such as radio, satellite and internet communications.
• In the aftermath of the war in 1946, the alliance was formalised through an agreement for cooperation in signals intelligence.
• Its scope was limited to “communication intelligence matters only” related to “unrestricted” exchange of intelligence products in six areas
• The arrangement was later extended to ‘second party’ countries —Canada joined in 1948, while Australia and New Zealand became part of the alliance in 1956.
• In fact, no government officially acknowledged the arrangement by name until 1999 and the text of the agreement was first officially released in public after over 60 years in 2010.
• The goalpost of the Five Eyes, however, has shifted following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of new global challenges like terrorism and the growing influence of China.
• he Five Eyes have become involved in ocean and maritime surveillance, scientific and defence intelligence analysis, medical intelligence, geospatial intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and the continuous sharing of intelligence products via a secret collective database known as ‘Stone Ghost’,
• To increase cooperation and maintain closeness, the Five Eyes Intelligence Oversight and Review Council (FIORC) was created in September 2016

What are the concerns?

• There have been several concerns regarding the privacy, security and methods of working of the intelligence alliance, which remained shrouded in mystery for long.
• The alliance was embroiled in a major controversy in 2013 following the disclosure of classified documents by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor.
• The papers documented the mass surveillance programme jointly operated by the Five Eyes to monitor the citizens of member countries.
• In 2013, a Canda court rebuked the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for using the alliance to monitor the electronic communications of Canadian terror suspects overseas.

Prelims Takeaway

• ‘Five Eyes