NSA Target: Ordinary People Outnumber Foreigners
By Countercurrents
07 July, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Ordinary Internet users including Americans far outnumbered legally targeted foreigners caught in the US National Security Agency surveillance.
Nine out of 10 people identified in a large cache of online conversations intercepted by the US surveillance agency were ordinary Internet users and not foreign surveillance targets.
A Washington, July 6, 2014 datelined Reuters report said:
“The Washington Post said on Saturday a study of a large collection of communications intercepted by the US National Security Agency showed that ordinary Internet users, including Americans, far outnumbered legally targeted foreigners caught in the surveillance.”
The “Ordinary people outnumber targeted foreigners in NSA data: Washington Post” headlined report said:
“‘Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else,’ the Post said.
“Nearly half of the files ‘contained names, email addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to US citizens or residents,’ it said.
“The paper said the files also contained discoveries of considerable intelligence value, including ‘fresh revelations about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into US computer networks.’
“Tracking the communications led to the capture of some terrorism suspects, including Umar Patek, a suspect in a 2002 bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali, it said.”
However, the report added:
“Many other files were retained although, described as useless by analysts, they were about intimate issues such as love, illicit sexual relations, political and religious conversions and financial anxieties, the Post said.
“The paper said it reviewed about 160,000 emails and instant-message conversations and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts, collected between 2009 and 2012.
“US intelligence officials declined to confirm or deny in general terms the authenticity of the intercepted content provided by Snowden to the Post.”
A “Most NSA data from regular Internet users: report” headlined AFP report added:
“Nearly half of the surveillance files were of United States citizens or residents, The Washington Post said of its four-month investigation of the trove of NSA-intercepted electronic data provided by fugitive NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
“The revelations are likely to rekindle criticism in the US and abroad of US surveillance techniques and especially the NSA's vast data sweeps, and came after German authorities said they had arrested a suspected double-agent accused of spying for the United States.
“‘Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from US digital networks,’ the Post said.”
The report said:
“The Post found that the NSA held on to material that analysts described as ‘useless.’”
The report added:
“The Post said: ‘The surveillance files highlight a policy dilemma that has been aired only abstractly in public.
“‘There are discoveries of considerable intelligence value in the intercepted messages -- and collateral harm to privacy on a scale that the Obama administration has not been willing to address.’”
The Post reported last week that all but four countries – Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – were seen as valid spy targets for the NSA.
An AP report said:
A five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has issued two reports on NSA surveillance, one in January, and one on July 1.
The report said:
“The first report described as illegal NSA's collection of domestic phone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The second largely endorsed a far more intrusive collection program by the NSA that collects emails, video, chats, texts and other communications of foreigners as they traverse US networks.”
The July 2, 2014 report headlined “Comparison of privacy reports on NSA surveillance” said:
“A look at what the board said about the two programs.
“SECTION 215 (NSA's collection of US ‘to and from’ calling records, which were searched for links to foreign terrorists):
“Not effective. ‘We have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation.’
“Unconstitutional: ‘Section 215 does not provide an adequate legal basis to support the program.’
“Not what Congress envisioned: ‘Congressional debates about the terms on which Section 215 should be renewed included no public discussion of the fact that the executive branch was planning to place the NSA's bulk calling records program under the auspices of the reauthorized statute.’
“SECTION 702 (Internet surveillance under the PRISM program, targeting the communications of foreigners but sometimes sweeping in American data):
“Effective: ‘The information the program collects has been valuable and effective in protecting the nation's security and producing useful foreign intelligence.’
“Legal: ‘The board concludes that PRISM collection is clearly authorized by the statute’ and the interception of Internet data at switching points is also permissible.
“Understood by Congress: ‘This program is the program that was debated by Congress and written into the statute,’ board member James Dempsey said.”
Arrests in Germany
Citing two German lawmakers a Berlin, July 4, 2014 datelined Reuters report said:
An employee of Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the US.
The “Germany arrests suspected double agent spying for US: lawmakers” headlined report said:
The German Federal Prosecutor's office said in a statement that a 31-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of being a foreign spy, but it gave no further details. Investigations were continuing, it said.
“The case risks further straining ties with Washington, which were damaged by revelations last year of mass surveillance of German citizens by the US National Security Agency including the monitoring of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.
“The man, who is German, has admitted passing to an American contact details about a special German parliamentary committee set up to investigate the spying revelations made by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the politicians said.
“Both lawmakers are members of the nine-person parliamentary control committee, whose meetings are confidential, and which is in charge of monitoring the work of German intelligence agencies.”
The report added:
“The parliamentary committee investigating the NSA affair also holds some confidential meetings.
“The German Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had invited the US ambassador to come for talks regarding the matter, and asked him to help deliver a swift explanation.
“‘This was a man who had no direct contact with the investigative committee ... He was not a top agent,’ said one of the members of parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The suspect had offered his services to the United States voluntarily, the source said.
“Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said: ‘We don't take the matter of spying for foreign intelligence agencies lightly.’
“When asked whether Merkel had discussed the issue with President Barack Obama during a phone conversation on Thursday night, he merely said they had talked about foreign affairs.
“The U.S. embassy in Berlin, the State Department in Washington and the White House all declined to comment.”
The report said:
“After the Snowden revelations, Berlin demanded that Washington agree to a ‘no-spy agreement’ with its close ally, but the United States has been unwilling.
“Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and the broadcasters WDR and NDR reported that the alleged spy was first detained on suspicion of contacting Russian intelligence agents. He then admitted he had worked with Americans.
“Bild newspaper said in an advance copy of an article to be published on Saturday that the man had worked for two years as a double agent and had stolen 218 confidential documents.
“He sold the documents, three of which related to the work of the committee in the Bundestag, for 25,000 euros ($34,100), Bild said, citing security sources.
“Opposition lawmakers called for diplomatic consequences if the allegations should prove true.
“The head of parliament's committee investigating the NSA affair, Patrick Sensburg, said its members had long feared they might be targeted by foreign intelligence agents and had taken special measures.”
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