Sam Fisher

Sam Fisher is/was a field operative of the "Splinter Cell" program for Third Echelon, an ultra top-secret sub-agency of the National Security Agency (NSA) that anticipates and responds to crises of information warfare ("a war that is hidden from the media and the ordinary man on the street"). His job usually involved him dismantling and sabotaging terrorist organizations who have plans for global terror. He is highly trained in Krav Maga and can speak a startling number of foreign languages including Russian, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, Persian, and Spanish.

Throughout his career, Fisher has been sent on numerous missions of uncovering and preventing mass murder, genocide, warfare, and world conflicts. From his mission of preventing a digitial crisis, to his mission of stopping terrorists unleashing a chemical weapon, and his objective of preventing World War III, his life as a dangerous double agent, to his latest life as a wanted man on the run from Third Echelon.

Biographical Information
Samuel "Sam" Fisher was presumably born and raised in the state of Maryland. His father, who posed as a career diplomat stationed in Moscow during the Cold War, was actually a 25-year veteran case officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Sam lost his parents when he was only a child. At age 17, he graduated military boarding school and went on to attend the United States Naval Academy, where he became an expert member of the intramural karate team. He graduated from the Naval Academy with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

While at the Academy, Fisher decided that he wanted to be a Navy SEAL. Soon after his commission as an Ensign, he began Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Training, which was followed by basic parachute training at the U.S. Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Fisher then moved on to SEAL Qualification Training (SQT), where he acquired several skills including long range special reconnaissance, direct action, combat diving, demolition, and a variety of air operations including parachuting, fast roping, and rappelling. Following his completion of SQT, he was placed on board SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One (SDVT-1) where he earned his Special Warfare Badge (SEAL Trident) and served as an assistant platoon commander. For his performance with SDVT-1, Fisher earned the Navy Commendation Medal. Eventually, he was assigned to SEAL Team Three (ST-3) as a platoon commander. While with that SEAL Team, he participated in a variety of special assignments, many of them overseas.

In the early 1980s, Fisher was hired by the CIA and was given official cover status (which means he became an operations officer posing as an innocuous U.S. government employee under a diplomatic post and therefore with diplomatic immunity if ever caught in an act of espionage) due to his exemplary skills with Intel and his knowledge of politics. His cover was that of a Defense Department attaché. He would actively serve in Afghanistan, where he had an experience in which he was forced to hide under dead bodies in order to avoid being killed, and covertly serve in East Germany and in "other Soviet satellite countries leading up to the collapse of the USSR. While Fisher was working on an U.S. military base in Germany during the 1980s, he met and later married Regan Burns, who gave birth to their only daughter, Sarah (born 31 May, 1985). Fisher and Regan later divorced and in 1989, she died from ovarian cancer only a few years after they married (1984).

In December of 1989, Fisher was deployed to Panama, where he operated with a CIA raiding team that went into a bank during Operation Just Cause looking for some of Noriega's drug money. He spent most of that year "sleeping in a ditch on the road between Baghdad and Kuwait". At some point during the early 1990s, Fisher resigned from the CIA and rejoined the Navy in which he was reassigned to ST-3. In 1991 he served aboard the USS Nimitz during the first Gulf War where his SEAL team were stationed to conduct special combat missions in then-occupied Kuwait, one of which earned him the Silver Star for his actions during combat. Fisher was later given a staff assignment at Special Operations Central Command (SOCCENT) in Tampa, Florida, where he spent a year of shore duty assisting in the operational planning of SDV missions.

During his tenure with ST-3, Fisher attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was indoctrinated into the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), where he participated in several counter-terrorist operations. While with DEVGRU, he would operate in Colombia. In Colombia, during the summer of 1992, Fisher undertook an extremely dangerous mission into Norte de Santander when he went on his own (against direct orders) into a FARC stronghold to rescue a SEAL liasion who had been captured by the guerillas. His actions during that mission earned him the Navy Cross. Fisher was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal for his excellent service during his time in the Navy SEALs.

With numerous commendations, Fisher left the Navy in 1996 after eight or more years of service and immediately sought employment with the CIA. Before Fisher could rejoin the Agency, he had to go through background checks, take the entrance exam, and go through a series of interviews and psychometric, numerical reasoning, psychological, psychoanalytical, aptitude, and polygraph tests. Upon passing the entrance and psychological examinations, Fisher was accepted as a "Career Trainee". After an orientation period, he was sent to "The Farm", the CIA’s secret training facility in Camp Peary, Virginia, for intensive operational training. There, he went through the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) program, which trained him in so-called "operational intelligence" or "tradecraft" skills. This means Fisher was taught to become a master in the finer points of espionage - everything from recruiting foreign assets to detecting surveillance to clandestine communications methods as well as infiltration and exfiltration techniques. While at The Farm, Fisher received exceptionally high marks for physical endurance, logic, and psychological ops exercises.

After training, Fisher was assigned into the Special Operations Group of the Special Activities Division. As a paramilitary operations officer, Fisher’s clandestine and covert duties took him around the world. During the NATO bombing campaign in 1999, he performed operations in ex-Yugoslavia where he was tasked with destroying SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile) sites, which saved some UN planes from being shot down, and rescuing a hostage (both resulting in a letter of recommendation from his superior). He was eventually assigned for a few weeks as a senior member of a security detail to a provisional joint CIA-NSA task force investigating cyberterrorism against American interest in Europe. During the task force assignment, Fisher’s exemplary work and his career profile caught the attention of a few high level officials at the NSA.

After a few years in the CIA, Fisher was recruited (in 2004) into a newly-established top-secret initiative that protects critical U.S. information systems. Dubbed "Third Echelon", this sub-agency within the NSA was formed in response to the growing use of sophisticated digital encryption to conceal potential threats to the national security of the United States. For decades the NSA has engaged in the passive collection of moving data by intercepting communications en route. But as communications become more digital and sophisticated encryption more expansive, passive collection is simply no longer sufficient. So hoping to bridge the chasm between simply gathering actionable intelligence and acting on that intelligence, the NSA formed Third Echelon (in 2003) as its own in-house covert operations unit.

Third Echelon marks a return to "classical" methods of espionage, enhanced with leading-edge surveillance and combat technology for the aggressive collection of stored data in hostile territories. Instead of filtering the world through satellites and antennas, Third Echelon field operatives, codenamed "Splinter Cells", physically infiltrate dangerous and sensitive enemy locations to gather the required intelligence by whatever means necessary. Their prime directive, in a nutshell, is to do their jobs while remaining invisible to the public eye. In other words, they go back to the nitty-gritty world of human spies out there in the field, risking their lives for the sake of taking a photograph or recording a conversation or copying a computer hard drive. They’re authorized to work outside the boundaries of international treaties, but the U.S. government will neither acknowledge nor support their operations.

Although he was initially only told that he would be tasked with handling covert missions either too sensitive or too risky for traditional entities such as the CIA or standard special forces, Fisher exuberantly accepted the position. Before he was initiated into the "Splinter Cell" program, he was sent to Third Echelon's Special Training Center in Maryland for rigorous and very extensive training. There, he went through the Covert Operations Course, which trained him in so-called "stealth" skills. This means Fisher was taught how to move through areas completely undetected, both by enemy ears and eyes. He received training in hand to hand combat, computer hacking (cryptography), intelligence gathering (special recon), stealth techinques (infiltration, exfiltration, silent movement, and silent combat on a solo operating scale), torture resistance, and escaping deadly situations. Not to mention highly advanced all-around combat training. Fisher excelled in his training, receiving excellent high marks for physical stamina, marksmanship and precision during exercises. Afterwards he was accepted into the program and informed of Third Echelon’s mandate.

As a Splinter Cell, Fisher was told that he would be supported by a remote team. He would be used in situations where more than one operative - even though highly secret - would arouse too much attention. His job would be to infiltrate secure installations, seize critical intelligence, destroy dangerous data or equipment, and neutralize the enemy as needed, without leaving a trace. The doctrine of Third Echelon is that although killing may compromise secrecy, the choice between leaving either a witness or a corpse is no choice at all. This unconventional status would allow him to disregard any law, agreement, or framework of ethical behavior in order to accomplish a mission. As Third Echelon’s Operations Coordinator, Colonel Irving Lambert, told Fisher, "all means are acceptable." For example, he may kill in combat or by assassination, may torture or kidnap people, may deploy on U.S. soil, and may even spy on other U.S. government agencies (i.e. "Fifth Freedom"). However, if he were to ever be captured or killed, the U.S. government would disavow him, either by claiming that he has gone rogue or by denying that he was affiliated with U.S. intelligence at all.

Georgian Information Crisis (2004)
For his first official assignment as a Splinter Cell, Fisher was dispatched to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. On October 7th, the CIA had lost contact with Alison Madison, a CIA operations officer who was monitoring widespread communication shortages plaguing Georgia. A second officer, William Robert Blaustein, was inserted into the Georgian capital T’bilisi to locate Madison, only to drop from contact four days later.

Fearing for the lives of American agents compromised at the hands of a suspected terrorist effort, Third Echelon activated Fisher to locate the two missing agents and evaluate the situation. He was inserted into the city of T'bilisi on October 16th 2004. During his investigation, Fisher discovered that Blaustein and Madison were killed for getting too close to information Georgian president Kombayn Nikoladze needed to protect. Nikoladze had been waging a campaign of systematic ethnic cleansing and mass murder against the neighboring Muslim population of Azerbaijan in an attempt to seize that country’s vast oil resources.

NATO intervened in the situation and pushed most of the Georgian commandos from Azerbaijan, with only a few well-hidden cells remaining. One of those cells, entrenched in an oil rig on the Caspian Sea, was exchanging data with the presidential palace in Georgia via a secure network. Hours after a successful U.S. attack on the oil rig, Nikoladze went underground and retaliated by initiating an information crisis in the U.S., using advanced computer algorithms developed by Canadian computer hacker Phillip Masse to wreak havoc upon America’s electronic infrastructure. Fisher was dispatched to hunt down Nikoladze and stop the crisis.

After a couple missions of infiltrating the CIA headquarters and the Nadezhda Nuclear Power Plant in northern Russia, Third Echelon Technical Director Anna Grimsdóttír and a team of analysts were eventually able to trace communications (via a microwave relay) between Nikoladze and the Chinese Embassy in Yangon, the captiol of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Fisher discovered that Nikoladze was working with rogue Chinese general Kong Feirong to develop nuclear weapons.

In a desperate act of defiance against the U.S., Nikoladze arranged the immediate, live webcast executions of the captured U.S. soldiers. Fisher, however, was able to rescue the captives in time. Following the rescue, Nikoladze returned to the Georgian Presidential Palace in order to retrieve a nuclear suitcase bomb codenamed the "ARK", which was later placed on American soil. Infiltrating the Georgian Presidential Palace, Fisher assassinated Nikoladze, ending the information crisis and stopping Georgia from detonating the ARK.

As Nikoladze had been neutrialized, Phillip Masse was still on the loose. Seeing as how he could still be a threat to the free world through digital means, Fisher was sent to the Kola Peninsula, Russia, to eliminate him. After killing Masse outside a factory outside Severmorsk, Fisher was ordered to go to a nearby submarine port somewhere on the coasts of the Kola Peninsula to prevent a threat of a loose nuclear weapon from being retrieved from a Typhoon-Class nuclear submarine. His mission was to stop Colonel Alekseevich's remaining troops from taking control of Vselka, a Typhoon-Class nuclear submarine. In his efforts, Fisher was able to raise the sub to the surface in order to board the vessel and disable Alekseevich's soldiers from using it. To prevent a threat from loosing a nuclear weapon, Fisher discovered that they were unable to retrieve the nuclear weapon and were spared by him. Fisher then escapes the submarine via a torpedo launch tube.

Indonesian Crisis, Biological Warfare (2006)
In 2006, shortly after the crisis, the U.S. established a military presence in the nation of East Timor to train that country’s military forces in their fight against anti-separatist Indonesian guerrilla militias. Foremost among those Indonesian militias was the Darah Dan Doa (Blood and Prayer), led by Suhadi Sadono.

Charismatic militia leader Sadono, once trained by the CIA to help fight Communist influences in the region, had grown resentful of the U.S. support of East Timor. Sadono initiated a suicide bombing and follow up attack on the U.S. Embassy to Dili, capturing a number of U.S. military and diplomatic personnel including Douglas Shetland, CEO of the private military company Displace International. Shetland had served as Fisher’s commanding officer in ST-3 and was the very same person Fisher had rescued during his time in Colombia in 1992.

On March 26th, Fisher was sent to infiltrate the embassy and gather intelligence on the Darah Dan Doa. He succeeded in his mission, and the U.S. Embassy was retaken by Delta Force. However, Sadono escaped and the U.S. launched a military campaign on Indonesian soil in an attempt to hunt him down, much to the protests of the Indonesian government.

Fisher ultimately learned that Sadono had masterminded a scheme known as "Pandora Tomorrow", by placing a series of biological bombs (ND133s) equipped with weaponized hantavirus on American soil. Every 24 hours, Sadono made encrypted phone calls to each of the bomb carriers to delay the release of the virus. If he was killed or detained, the virus would be released and millions of Americans would die. Because Sadono was fighting on the front lines in the conflict, the U.S. couldn’t risk killing him, and was forced to withdraw its forces.

Fisher was sent to infiltrate Darah Dan Doa strongholds in order to learn the location of the hantavirus bombs. He was assisted in this endeavor by Shetland and Displace International. Fisher ultimately learned the location of the bombs, and other Third Echelon field operatives (then SHADOWNET operatives) were sent in to neutralize them, bringing an end to Sadono’s threat against the United States.

Third Echelon decided to capture Sadono alive instead of merely assassinating him, due to the problems created when Fisher assassinated President Nikoladze during the Georgian Information Crisis.

Although Fisher managed to capture Sadono, Third Echelon learned that a rogue CIA officer, Norman Soth had acquired the last hantavirus-armed ND133, and intended to detonate it at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Soth had participated in Operation Redbeard, establishing U.S.-friendly guerrilla cells in Indonesia to fight Communism. One of these cells was Sadono's group, the Darah Dan Doa. However, the U.S. government pulled support of Operation Redbeard and ended up supporting the Timorese, leaving Soth on his own. Soth eventually went underground and aligned himself with Sadono and the DDD, becoming Sadono’s chief bodyguard. However, Soth had no interest in Sadono’s cause, and merely wanted to strike back at the U.S. federal government for betraying him years earlier.

Sam infiltrated LAX, killed Soth and his group of terrorists (disguised as airport workers and security guards), and prevented the detonation of the last hantavirus-armed ND133.

Information Warfare "Chaos Theory" (2007)
In 2007, almost a year after that incident, Fisher was dispatched to a lighthouse outside Talara, Peru, on June 24th, to locate Bruce Morgenholt, a missing computer programmer who worked on deciphering Phillip Masse’s algorithms, which were designed for information warfare attacks. Morgenholt had been captured by a Peruvian separatist group called "The People’s Voice", led by Hugo Lacerda. Masse, whom Fisher assassinated in the winter of 2004, was a genius far ahead of his time, and the algorithms he used to launch his attacks on the United States had been extensively studied by the United Nations. The resulting "Masse Kernels" were being touted as the superweapon of the 21st century. Fisher was tasked with making sure they did not fall into the wrong hands.

During this time, tensions were running high between China, North Korea, and Japan, following Japan’s formation of an Information Self Defense Force (I-SDF). Considering this to be a violation of the Post-World War II Constitution, Chinese and North Korean forces established a blockade in the Yellow Sea against Japanese shipping. Because Japan and the I-SDF are allies of the United States, the U.S. dispatched its Navy cruiser, the USS Clarence E. Walsh, to the Sea of Japan. The U.S. hoped this show of strength would get China and North Korea to back down.

Meanwhile, Fisher arrived too late to prevent Morgenholt’s death. He was also unsuccessful in stopping the release of the Masse Kernels. Fisher was told to go on board the Maria Narcissa, a cargo ship 90km north off the Pacific Ocean, to kill Hugo Lacerda and track the weapon deliveries so Third Echelon could find out who they were dealing with. After completing the mission, unknown parties used the algorithms to black out Japan and the Eastern Seaboard, including New York City. Japan had previously suffered similar attacks that crashed its economy, and Admiral Otomo of the I-SDF contacted the U.S. government and warned them that North Korea and China were probably responsible. Meanwhile, following a lead discovered in the MCAS bank in Panama, Fisher traveled to New York to investigate Abrahim Zherkezi, a man who worked with Morgenholt. He found out that Displace International was protecting him. He broke into the Displace International offices and learned of one Milan Nedich, later identified as "Milos Nowak", a Bosnian war criminal. Fisher found that Nowak secretly relocated Zherkezi to Hokkaido.

Fisher traveled to Hokkaido and met with Shetland, who claimed that Nedich was clean. Regardless, Fisher infiltrated the hideout that Zherkezi was being held in. There, Fisher killed Nedich, and witnessed Shetland murdering Zherkezi. Shetland escaped and went underground.

Meanwhile, the U.S. show of force backfired when the Clarence E. Walsh was sunk by a North Korean "Super Silkworm" anti-ship missile, initiating a war between North Korea and South Korea/United States. Since North Korea claimed the missile was launched unintentionally, Fisher was sent to the Korean peninsula (including the South Korean capital city of Seoul), to determine if North Korea was truly responsible for sinking the Clarence E. Walsh, or if the Masse Kernels were involved.

Fisher eventually learned that the entire war had been orchestrated by Displace International. They used the Masse Kernels gained from Zherkezi to hijack North Korea’s missile systems, and sink the Clarence E. Walsh, in order to draw the U.S. into a war from which the company could profit through its status as a leading American defense contractor. Fisher also realized the mastermind behind the entire plot was none other than Douglas Shetland. Ultimately, Third Echelon sent him to Tokyo, Japan, to spy on a meeting between Shetland and Shetland’s unknown accomplices, who shockingly turn out to be Admiral Otomo of the I-SDF. At the meeting, Shetland betrayed the I-SDF, and a firefight subsequently broke out between Shetland’s soldiers and I-SDF assault troops. Amidst the chaos, Fisher pursued Shetland to the roof, where, after a tense standoff, Fisher killed Shetland.

Even after Shetland’s death, one loose end remained. Admiral Otomo had acquired a copy of the Masse Kernels from Shetland, and attempted to return Japan to Imperial rule by blackmailing the Japanese government officials and senior JSDF officers. He threatened to use the algorithms to launch a North Korean missile against a Japanese city. Because North Korea would be supported by China, and Japan would be backed by the U.S., the incident would spark World War III. Although Otomo’s I-SDF black-ops forces managed to fight off G-SDF commandos sent to stop him, Fisher infiltrated the I-SDF’s secret underwater base in Tokyo Bay and managed to put an end to Otomo’s plans. Otomo attempted to commit seppuku (suicide), but Fisher saved his life and captured him. Otomo stood trial at the U.N. and took full responsibility for the entire Korean crisis, returning stability to the Far East.

After his actions in ending that crisis, Fisher was promoted to the position of a “senior field operations agent”. His exemplary work has made him Third Echelon’s premier operative.

JBA Crisis in New York (2008)
In September 2007, shorty after those events, Third Echelon sends Fisher and John Hodge, a "Splinter Cell-in-training", to Iceland to investigate suspicious activities at a geothermal plant 20km from Akureyri. There they discover Islamic terroists prepping a nuclear missile for launch. Fisher was able to stop the launching of the missile, but unfortunately Agent Hodge was killed after he disobeyed an order to stay hidden. During the mission, Sam learned that his daughter, Sarah, had been killed by a drunk driver. Overcome with grief, he was unable to concentrate on the operation and was pulled out by Colonel Lambert.

After many months, Fisher, devastated and depressed, begs for another mission to distract himself from his grief. Lambert reluctantly agrees and offers him a mission as an NOC (Non-Official Cover) agent. These agents comprise of CIA and NSA agents who infiltrate criminal organizations, and are used for HUMINT (HUMan INTelligence) purposes. As with similar organizations, the U.S. Government denies any involvement in their activities. Sam became a notorious criminal by staging many bank robberies and a mock killing sprees - a scheme set by the NSA to explore the motivations of a domestic terrorist group known as John Brown's Army (JBA). He finally surrendered after a three day hostage crisis and was sent to Ellsworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas where he was placed into the same cell as JBA member Jamie Washington, and with his cooperation, they break out of prison. Once the two escaped, Jamie offered Sam an invitation into the JBA.

At their compound in New York, Emile Dufraisne, the leader of the JBA, gave Sam the order to shoot Cole Yeagher, the pilot of the helicopter they used to escape the prison. Fisher reluctantly complied and killed him, thus proving his loyalty to the JBA. He was then sent on a mission to take over a Russian oil tanker in the Sea of Okhotsk 200 km off the Siberian Coast so that JBA ally Massoud Ibn-Yussif can use it to deliver one of the bombs. There Sam murdered the entire crew of the tanker and took it over.

After that Fisher was sent with Dufraisne and Carson Moss, Dufraisne's head of security, to the Jin Mao Hotel in Shanghai, China, were he was meeting with a Pakistani nuclear scientist, Dr. Abdul-Ahmad Aswat. CIA agent Hisham Hamza ordered him to record a meeting between Emile and Dr. Aswat. During the meeting, Aswat sells Emile several kilograms of Red Mercury, an explosive material. With Third Echelon on high alert, Fisher was told to collect a sample from the safe in the meeting room. While he’s does so, Moss radioed in and ordered him to steal notes from Aswat’s hotel room. Fisher was then ordered to assassinate Dr. Aswat (because he was a "liability") in which he complied to keep his cover.

With both the Red Mercury and Dr. Aswat’s notes, the JBA constructed a bomb which they wish to test. Fisher was given the task to plant the bomb and arm it on a cruise ship off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico. He informed Lambert about the bomb and he allowed Fisher to remotely disarm the bomb. But he let the bomb go off to further his cover with the JBA. He did that to ensure that a terrorist and his partner in the JBA, Enrica Villablanca’s life was spared. Had the bomb not gone off, either Enrica or himself would have been at the mercy of Emile and his mercy isn’t much. The cruise ship exploded, killing approximately ~2,156 passangers and crewmen onboard.

Fisher's trust was almost at its highest when Emile took him to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo where would meet with Alejandro Takfir and Massoud Ibn-Yussif, allies of the JBA. Fisher was able to bug the meeting and found out that all three terrorists each had Red Mercury bombs like the one he planted on the cruise ship. They planned to destroy Mexico City, Los Angeles and New York City. During that meeting something happened and Agent Hamza’s cover was blown.

Fisher was given the order to assassinate Hamza, who had fled to the Congolese presidential palace in Kinshasa. He made his way through the streets, which was an all-out war zone between the rebels and government forces. He took up a position with a sniper rifle from the top of a radio tower. There he decided against killing Agent Hamza and killed the Congolese rebels that had him hostage. Fisher safely extracted Hamza from the palace and covered his tracks by making it seem like Hamza was killed in the explosion of the palace.

When Fisher returned to New York it was showtime for Emile and his detonation of the Red Mercury bomb he had. Fisher knew he couldn’t let this bomb go off and that would mean he would lose my cover that night. But he wanted to keep it for as long as he could but that was challenged when Lambert was captured by the JBA for sneaking around the complex and Emile gave him the order of killing him. Fisher reluctantly complied and shot Lambert, who later survived.

But Fisher's cover was blown. All the members of the JBA were after him and he had to defuse the bomb. With the help of Enrica Villablanca, who discovered his NOC status and gave him his equipment, he entered the labs below the headquarters, found the bomb and defused it. He also killed Dufraisne after a brutal fight when he resisted surrender. But before he died he told Fisher about one more Red Mercury bomb Moss had. When SWAT came in he resisted arrest, incapacitated a SWAT officer, donned his stolen suit, and escaped to go and find Moss. The NYPD pursued Fisher through New York, but he boarded a stolen Coast Guard boat that Moss was using to deliver the last bomb. After a brutal fight, Fisher killed Moss, disarmed the bomb, and escaped the boat seconds before it was destroyed.

Conviction (2009-present)
Two years after going undercover, Fisher resigned from Third Echelon, despite threats from his superiors. He is now investigating the death of his daughter, who was killed in a drunk driving accident during the JBA crisis in 2008. Sam soon discovered that his daughter's death was no accident, and must now uncover why his daughter was murdered and what connections it has to Third Echelon, which has become bogged down with red tape to the point of ineffectiveness and corruption.