Washington Post: In NSA-Intercepted Data, Those Not Targeted Far Outnumber the Foreigners Who Are

The latest shocking media report based on NSA whistleblower and GAP client Edward Snowden’s disclosures details how approximately 90% of individuals whose conversations were “intercepted” are actually “not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else.” Further, Americans comprise one-half of this group, and the files contain “names, e-mail addresses or other details.”

Many of the retained files are also “useless” according to NSA analysts, and contain information related to personal matters, including “love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes.” The article features remarks by Snowden, and showcases how NSA officials have misled the public about the content of Snowden’s documents.

Key Quote: In order to allow time for analysis and outside reporting, neither Snowden nor The Post has disclosed until now that he obtained and shared the content of intercepted communications. The cache Snowden provided came from domestic NSA operations under the broad authority granted by Congress in 2008 with amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA content is generally stored in closely controlled data repositories, and for more than a year, senior government officials have depicted it as beyond Snowden’s reach. 

If Snowden’s sample is representative, the population under scrutiny in the PRISM and Upstream programs is far larger than the government has suggested. In a June 26 “transparency report,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence disclosed that 89,138 people were targets of last year’s collection under FISA Section 702. At the 9-to-1 ratio of incidental collection in Snowden’s sample, the office’s figure would correspond to nearly 900,000 accounts, targeted or not, under surveillance.   


Irish Times: NSA Whistleblowers’ Testimony Electrifies Bundestag Committee

NSA whistleblowers and GAP clients Thomas Drake and Bill Binney, and GAP National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack, testified in front of a German Bundestag inquiry committee last week about the NSA’a mass data collection. Drake told the committee that the agency’s spying was the “ultimate form of control” that was “strangling the world.”

In related news, the German government wants a quick and clear explanation from Washington for the U.S.’s involvement with a 31-year-old German man arrested last week on suspicion of being a double-agent. The individual is an employee of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency.

Related Articles: ReutersRT


Des Moines Register: Whistleblower Wants Verdict Reinstated

A former Iowa maintenance worker who reported problems and malfeasance in the construction of a county jail, and later sued under a whistleblower law, is asking the Iowa Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s ruling that set aside a previous $186,000 award.

 

Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.