Difference between revisions of "National Security Agency"

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|historycommons=http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=national_security_agency
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|description="No Such Agency". Spook agency working closely with Silicon Valley
 
|webpage=http://www.nsa.gov
 
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The '''National Security Agency''' is a notoriously secretive US [[intelligence agency]], nominally responsible for signals intelligence and information assurance. It became infamous in 2013 after the {{ccm}} gave prominence to [[Edward Snowden]]'s revelations about its [[mass data collection]] programs.<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/about/faqs/about_nsa.shtml About NSA], Frequently Asked Questions, National Security Agency, accessed 1 September 2009.</ref> The ''[[Washington Post]]'' reported in 2018 that is has suffered from poor morale and lost many of its most capable employees since 2015.<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-nsas-top-talent-is-leaving-because-of-low-pay-and-battered-morale/2018/01/02/ff19f0c6-ec04-11e7-9f92-10a2203f6c8d_story.html</ref>
+
The '''National Security Agency''' is a notoriously secretive US [[intelligence agency]], nominally responsible for signals intelligence and information assurance. It became infamous in 2013 after the {{ccm}} gave prominence to [[Edward Snowden]]'s revelations about its [[mass data collection]] programs.<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/about/faqs/about_nsa.shtml About NSA], Frequently Asked Questions, National Security Agency, accessed 1 September 2009.</ref> The ''[[Washington Post]]'' reported in 2018 that it has suffered from poor morale and lost many of its most capable employees since 2015.<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-nsas-top-talent-is-leaving-because-of-low-pay-and-battered-morale/2018/01/02/ff19f0c6-ec04-11e7-9f92-10a2203f6c8d_story.html</ref>
 +
 
 
==Official Narrative==
 
==Official Narrative==
 
The NSA promises on its website to "protect [[national security]] interests by adhering to the highest standards of behavior".<ref>http://www.nsa.gov/about/values/index.shtml</ref>
 
The NSA promises on its website to "protect [[national security]] interests by adhering to the highest standards of behavior".<ref>http://www.nsa.gov/about/values/index.shtml</ref>
 +
{{SMWQ
 +
|text=Your Data: If You Have Nothing to Hide, You Have Nothing to Fear
 +
|subjects=Mass surveillance, Internet/Surveillance
 +
|authors=NSA
 +
|date=
 +
|source_URL=http://archive.today/2013.08.31-092612/http://nsa.gov1.info/data/index.html
 +
}}
 +
==Problems==
 +
The NSA is so shrouded in secrecy that there is no way to know what it is doing, never mind to check its claim to "adhere to the highest standards of behavior". For example, in 1964 the [[US Congress]] passed by a great majority a bill giving the [[Director of the NSA]] the power to fire at will any employee without due cause - leading the ''[[Washington Post]]'' to write: "This is the very definition of arbitrariness. It means that an employee could be discharged and disgraced on the basis of anonymous allegations without the slightest opportunity to defend himself."<ref>David Kahn, The Codebreakers, Scribner Press, 1967, chapter 19, pp. 672–733.</ref>
  
−
===Problems===
+
The NSA appears to be completely controlled by he [[US deep state]]. Rather than defending US citizens' data by publicising flaws found in computer code, for example, it has long been using [[zero day]] exploits for its own purposes and in 2014 was specifically authorised to do to by [[Barack Obama]].<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/14/obama_allows_nsa_to_exploit_0days_report/</ref> The NSA has denied that it was aware of the [[Heartbleed]] bug, but other sources report that the agency used it regularly for years, and decided not to warn anyone else that their data was at risk.<ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-11/nsa-said-to-have-used-heartbleed-bug-exposing-consumers.html</ref>
−
The NSA is so shrouded in secrecy that there is no way to know what it is doing, never mind to check its claim to "adhere to the highest standards of behavior". For example, in 1964 the [[US Congress]] passed by a great majority a bill giving the [[Director of the NSA]] the power to fire at will any employee without due cause - leading the ''[[Washington Post]]'' to write: "This is the very definition of arbitrariness. It means that an employee could be discharged and disgraced on the basis of anonymous allegations without the slightest opportunity to defend himself."<ref>David Kahn, The Codebreakers, Scribner Press, 1967, chapter 19, pp. 672–733.</ref>
 
  
−
The NSA appears to be completely controlled by [[deep state]] interests. Rather than defending US citizens' data by publicising flaws found in computer code, for example, it has long been using [[zero day]] exploits for its own purposes and in 2014 was specifically authorised to do to by [[Barack Obama]].<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/14/obama_allows_nsa_to_exploit_0days_report/</ref> The NSA has denied that it was aware of the [[Heartbleed]] bug, but other sources report that the agency used it regularly for years, and decided not to warn anyone else that their data was at risk.<ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-11/nsa-said-to-have-used-heartbleed-bug-exposing-consumers.html</ref>
+
===Whistleblowers===
 +
The agency had several [[whistleblowers]] throughout the years, most where harassed for dissent or going public:
 +
*[[Kirk Wiebe]]
 +
*[[William Binney]]
 +
*[[Mark Klein]] (working for [[AT&T]])
 +
*[[Thomas Drake]]
 +
*[[Russ Tice]]
 +
*[[Edward Snowden]]
  
 
==Activities==
 
==Activities==
−
[[John Perkins]] wrote in ''[[Confessions Of An Economic Hitman]]'' that he was recruited by [[Einar Greve]], NSA liaison. His book was so popular that in 2006 it prompted an official denial by the [[US State Department]], which claimed that Perkins' claim was not credible because "the National Security Agency is a cryptological (codemaking and codebreaking) organization, not an economic organization." Little was known publicly about the NSA's activities at the time of this counterclaim, but subsequently, leaks and [[whistleblowers]] have shed more light on them.<ref>http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/Category:NSA</ref>
+
[[John Perkins]] wrote in ''[[Confessions Of An Economic Hitman]]'' that he was recruited by [[Einar Greve]], NSA liaison. His book was so popular that in [[2006]] it prompted an official denial by the [[US State Department]], which claimed that Perkins' claim was not credible because "the National Security Agency is a cryptological (codemaking and codebreaking) organization, not an economic organization." Little was known publicly about the NSA's activities at the time of this counterclaim, but subsequently, leaks and [[whistleblowers]] have shed more light on them.<ref>http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/Category:NSA</ref>
  
 
==="Cyberterrorism"===
 
==="Cyberterrorism"===
Line 42: Line 59:
 
====Stuxnet====
 
====Stuxnet====
 
{{FA|Stuxnet}}
 
{{FA|Stuxnet}}
−
[[Stuxnet]] was the first piece of malware proven to be an NSA production. The 2016 film ''[[Zero Days]]'' quotes an anonymous source that this was developed in concert with [[Unit 8200]] and that if it had not been modified by Unit 8200 and released into Iran in this form, it might have never been detected.<ref name=zd>''[[Zero Days]]''</ref>
+
[[Stuxnet]] was the first piece of [[malware]] proven to be an NSA production. The 2016 film ''[[Zero Days]]'' quotes an anonymous source that this was developed in concert with [[Unit 8200]] and that if it had not been modified by Unit 8200 and released into [[Iran]] in this form, it might have never been detected.<ref name=zd>''[[Zero Days]]''</ref>
  
 
====Other malware====
 
====Other malware====
Line 52: Line 69:
 
The NSA (or perhaps [[Unit 8200]])<ref>http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2016/05/11/inside-israels-secret-startup-machine/#4b851243157d</ref> is reckoned to be the world's leading developer of cyberespionage tools, a realisation which has gained traction particularly since the [[Edward Snowden Affair]]. Documents released by Snowden have pointed the NSA's close collaboration with [[GCHQ]].
 
The NSA (or perhaps [[Unit 8200]])<ref>http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2016/05/11/inside-israels-secret-startup-machine/#4b851243157d</ref> is reckoned to be the world's leading developer of cyberespionage tools, a realisation which has gained traction particularly since the [[Edward Snowden Affair]]. Documents released by Snowden have pointed the NSA's close collaboration with [[GCHQ]].
  
−
In [[2015]] multiple revelations gaveinsight on the [[NSA]]'s cyberterrorism capabilities. In March [[2015]], Kaspersky Lab revealed details of the [[EquationDrug]] cyberespionage platform, which resembles a "mini operating system" due to the use of kernel-mode and user-mode components which interact with each other via a custom message-passing interface. Over 100 plugins are suspected and the existence of Windows 9X modules suggests that it may well date back to the 1990s. Its connection to the NSA is currently somewhat tenuous - resting on text strings, timezone and filestamp data, though considering the platform's sophistication, no alternative teams of developers have been suggested.
+
In [[2015]] multiple revelations gave insight on the [[NSA]]'s cyberterrorism capabilities. In March [[2015]], Kaspersky Lab revealed details of the [[EquationDrug]] cyberespionage platform, which resembles a "mini operating system" due to the use of kernel-mode and user-mode components which interact with each other via a custom message-passing interface. Over 100 plugins are suspected and the existence of [[Windows]] 9X modules suggests that it may well date back to the 1990s. Its connection to the NSA is currently somewhat tenuous - resting on text strings, timezone and filestamp data, though considering the platform's sophistication, no alternative teams of developers have been suggested.
  
−
===Surveillance===
+
===Mass Surveillance===
−
{{FA|Mass Surveillance}}
+
{{FA|Universal Surveillance}}
 
[[image:33_thomas_street.jpg|left|330px|thumbnail|33 Thomas St. in [[New York]], a windowless skyscraper used to carry out [[mass surveillance]].]]
 
[[image:33_thomas_street.jpg|left|330px|thumbnail|33 Thomas St. in [[New York]], a windowless skyscraper used to carry out [[mass surveillance]].]]
 
During the cold war, the NSA watch list included anti-war activists and civil rights leaders such as [[Martin Luther King]] and [[Whitney Young]], as well as Senator [[Frank Church]].<ref>http://leaksource.info/2013/09/28/declassified-documents-reveal-nsa-spied-on-vietnam-war-critics-including-mlk-muhammad-ali-and-senator-frank-church/</ref>
 
During the cold war, the NSA watch list included anti-war activists and civil rights leaders such as [[Martin Luther King]] and [[Whitney Young]], as well as Senator [[Frank Church]].<ref>http://leaksource.info/2013/09/28/declassified-documents-reveal-nsa-spied-on-vietnam-war-critics-including-mlk-muhammad-ali-and-senator-frank-church/</ref>
 +
{{SMWQ
 +
|format=inline
 +
|text=The National Security Agency has for years controversially collected the call records of Americans from cell providers like [[AT&T]] and [[Verizon]] (which owns [[TechCrunch]]), despite the questionable legality.
 +
|source_URL=https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/24/hackers-cell-networks-call-records-theft/
 +
|date=24 June 2019
 +
|source_name=TechCrunch
 +
|subjects=AT&T, Verizon, NSA/Universal Surveillance
 +
|authors=Zack Whittaker
 +
}}
  
 
====Technological====
 
====Technological====
−
The NSA's [[mass surveillance]] is facilitated by decades of work for using a variety of techniques to insert backdoors and other weaknesses into security products and protocols.
+
The NSA's [[mass surveillance]] is facilitated by decades of work for using a variety of techniques to insert [[backdoor]]s and other weaknesses into security products and protocols.
−
{{QB|I worked with the National Security Agency on the design of a secured version of the internet but we used classified security technology at the time and I couldn't share that with my colleagues. If I could start over again I would have introduced a lot more strong authentication and cryptography into the system.<br/>[[Vint Cerf]], internet engineer<ref>[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/07/internet_inception_security_vint_cerf_google_hangout/  Vint Cerf wanted to make internet secure from the start, but secrecy prevented it], The Register, 7 Apr 2014</ref>}}
+
{{SMWQ
 +
|text=I worked with the [[National Security Agency]] on the design of a secured version of the internet but we used classified security technology at the time and I couldn't share that with my colleagues. If I could start over again I would have introduced a lot more strong authentication and [[cryptography]] into the system.
 +
|subjects=cryptography, broken by design, Internet, NSA
 +
|authors=Vint Cerf
 +
|source_name=The Register
 +
|source_URL=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/07/internet_inception_security_vint_cerf_google_hangout/   
 +
|source_title=Vint Cerf wanted to make internet secure from the start, but secrecy prevented it
 +
|date=7 Apr 2014
 +
}}
  
−
In 2004, a division of the NSA called the [[National Tactical Integration Office]] fitted a 62-foot diameter airship called the Hover Hammer with an eavesdropping device.<ref>https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/nsa-blimp-spied-in-the-united-states/</ref>
+
In 2004, a division of the NSA called the [[National Tactical Integration Office]] fitted a 62-foot diameter [[airship]] called the Hover Hammer with an eavesdropping device.<ref>https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/nsa-blimp-spied-in-the-united-states/</ref>
  
−
 
+
===Death of UN-SG Dag Hammarskjöld===
−
===Death of UN-SG Dag Hammarskjöld==
+
{{FA|Dag Hammarskjöld/Premature death}}
−
{FA|Dag Hammarskjöld/Premature death}}
 
 
[[Susan Williams]]' book ''[[Who Killed Hammarskjöld?]]'' points to the existence of NSA radio intercepts of warplanes in the area in which [[UN Secretary-General]] [[Dag Hammarskjöld]]'s plane crashed in Africa which are still top secret after over 50 years. She suggests that this may be due to involvement in a shootdown by [[Jan van Risseghem]].
 
[[Susan Williams]]' book ''[[Who Killed Hammarskjöld?]]'' points to the existence of NSA radio intercepts of warplanes in the area in which [[UN Secretary-General]] [[Dag Hammarskjöld]]'s plane crashed in Africa which are still top secret after over 50 years. She suggests that this may be due to involvement in a shootdown by [[Jan van Risseghem]].
  
 
==Exposure==
 
==Exposure==
 
In 1971, [[Perry Fellwock]], the first NSA [[whistleblower]], stated that "there's a lot of corruption too. Quite a few people in NSA are into illegal activities of one kind or another. It's taken to be one of the fringe benefits of the job. You know, enhancing your pocketbook. Practically everybody is into some kind of smuggling".<ref>[[Document:Electronic Espionage - A Memoir]]</ref>
 
In 1971, [[Perry Fellwock]], the first NSA [[whistleblower]], stated that "there's a lot of corruption too. Quite a few people in NSA are into illegal activities of one kind or another. It's taken to be one of the fringe benefits of the job. You know, enhancing your pocketbook. Practically everybody is into some kind of smuggling".<ref>[[Document:Electronic Espionage - A Memoir]]</ref>
−
 
  
 
===Cancelled investigation by US DOJ===
 
===Cancelled investigation by US DOJ===
−
The [[US DOJ]] spent a over year looking at the possibility of indicting the [[NSA]] after it was revealed that [[Richard Nixon]] had instructed the agency to spy on anti-war protestors. They concluded that such a prosecution would result in too many secrets being revealed in court, and so they created [[FISA]] in an effort to prevent future [[US presidents]] from using the NSA for domestic political purposes. [[Richard Bamford]] states that this was ineffective because of the ease of subversion of the FISA process.<ref>http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/290</ref>
+
The [[US DOJ]] spent a over year looking at the possibility of indicting the [[NSA]] after it was revealed that [[Richard Nixon]] had instructed the agency to spy on anti-war protestors. They concluded that such a prosecution would result in too many secrets being revealed in court, and so they created [[FISA]] in an effort to prevent future [[US presidents]] from using the NSA for domestic political purposes. [[James Bamford]] states that this was ineffective because of the ease of subversion of the FISA process.<ref>http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/290</ref>
  
 
===Edward Snowden Affair===
 
===Edward Snowden Affair===
Line 91: Line 123:
  
 
===Brian Patrick O’Callaghan===
 
===Brian Patrick O’Callaghan===
−
On Feb 16, 2014, a 36 year old, Brian Patrick O'Callaghan, chief of the NSA's Korea division - whose attorney also said he was involved in the high profile rescue of US Army POW [[Jessica Lynch]] - was charged with first degree murder and child abuse.<ref>http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Father-Charged-With-Adopted-Sons-Death--245972321.html</ref>
+
On Feb 16, 2014, a 36 year old, Brian Patrick O'Callaghan, chief of the NSA's Korea division - whose attorney also said he was involved in the high profile rescue of US Army POW [[Jessica Lynch]] - was charged with first degree [[murder]] and child abuse.<ref>http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Father-Charged-With-Adopted-Sons-Death--245972321.html</ref>
  
 
==Relationship with other intelligence agencies==
 
==Relationship with other intelligence agencies==
  
 
===GCHQ===
 
===GCHQ===
−
The NSA has long had particularly close links with its British counterpart, [[GCHQ]]. In the early [[1980s]] it was suggested that "the relationship between NSA and GCHQ is stronger than any between the NSA and any other American intelligence agency."<ref>Jonathan Bloch and Patrcik Fitzgerald, British Intelligence and Covert Action, Brandon, 1983, p.64.</ref> This relationship does not prevent the NSA spying on the UK. According to [[Howard Teicher]], the former Middle East director of the US [[National Security Council]], the NSA monitored Britain's [[Al-Yamamah]] arms deal with Saudi Arabia from its base at [[Menwith Hill]] in Yorkshire.<ref>Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's, 2003, p.429.</ref>
+
The NSA has long had particularly close links with its British counterpart, [[GCHQ]]. In the early [[1980s]] it was suggested that "the relationship between NSA and GCHQ is stronger than any between the NSA and any other American intelligence agency."<ref>Jonathan Bloch and Patrcik Fitzgerald, British Intelligence and Covert Action, Brandon, 1983, p.64.</ref> This relationship does not prevent the NSA spying on the UK. According to [[Howard Teicher]], the former [[Middle East]] director of the US [[National Security Council]], the NSA monitored Britain's [[Al-Yamamah]] arms deal with [[Saudi Arabia]] from its base at [[Menwith Hill]] in Yorkshire.<ref>Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's, 2003, p.429.</ref>
  
 
===Japan===
 
===Japan===
−
Japan allowed NSA to maintain at least three bases on its territory and contributed more than half a billion dollars to help finance the NSA’s facilities and operations. In return, NSA has kitted out Japanese spies with powerful surveillance tools and shared intelligence with them, although continuing to spy on Japanese officials itself.<ref>https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/japans-secret-deals-with-the-nsa-that-expand-global-surveillance/</ref>
+
[[Japan]] allowed NSA to maintain at least three bases on its territory and contributed more than half a billion dollars to help finance the NSA’s facilities and operations. In return, NSA has kitted out Japanese spies with powerful surveillance tools and shared intelligence with them, although continuing to spy on Japanese officials itself.<ref>https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/japans-secret-deals-with-the-nsa-that-expand-global-surveillance/</ref>
 +
 
 
{{SMWDocs}}
 
{{SMWDocs}}
 +
 
==References==
 
==References==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
−
 
−
[[Category:Spooks]]
 

Latest revision as of 15:27, 29 March 2022

Group.png National Security Agency  
(Intelligence agency) Powerbase Sourcewatch Website ZoominfoRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
NSA HQ.jpg
Fort Meade, Maryland USA
NSA logo.svg
Motto"Defending Our Nation. Securing The Future."
Predecessor Armed Forces Security Agency
FormationNovember 4, 1952
Parent organizationUS/Department/Defense
HeadquartersFort Meade, Maryland
LeaderDirector of the National Security Agency
Subgroups National Tactical Integration Office
Staff?
Interest of'BillCaseyHoneyPot', James Bamford, Fred Chang, Ty Clevenger, Scott Shane, Elizabeth Vos
Member ofUnited States Intelligence Community
Founder ofMain Core
Exposed byJames Bamford
"No Such Agency". Spook agency working closely with Silicon Valley

The National Security Agency is a notoriously secretive US intelligence agency, nominally responsible for signals intelligence and information assurance. It became infamous in 2013 after the commercially-controlled media gave prominence to Edward Snowden's revelations about its mass data collection programs.[1] The Washington Post reported in 2018 that it has suffered from poor morale and lost many of its most capable employees since 2015.[2]

Official Narrative

The NSA promises on its website to "protect national security interests by adhering to the highest standards of behavior".[3]

“Your Data: If You Have Nothing to Hide, You Have Nothing to Fear”
NSA [4]

Problems

The NSA is so shrouded in secrecy that there is no way to know what it is doing, never mind to check its claim to "adhere to the highest standards of behavior". For example, in 1964 the US Congress passed by a great majority a bill giving the Director of the NSA the power to fire at will any employee without due cause - leading the Washington Post to write: "This is the very definition of arbitrariness. It means that an employee could be discharged and disgraced on the basis of anonymous allegations without the slightest opportunity to defend himself."[5]

The NSA appears to be completely controlled by he US deep state. Rather than defending US citizens' data by publicising flaws found in computer code, for example, it has long been using zero day exploits for its own purposes and in 2014 was specifically authorised to do to by Barack Obama.[6] The NSA has denied that it was aware of the Heartbleed bug, but other sources report that the agency used it regularly for years, and decided not to warn anyone else that their data was at risk.[7]

Whistleblowers

The agency had several whistleblowers throughout the years, most where harassed for dissent or going public:

Activities

John Perkins wrote in Confessions Of An Economic Hitman that he was recruited by Einar Greve, NSA liaison. His book was so popular that in 2006 it prompted an official denial by the US State Department, which claimed that Perkins' claim was not credible because "the National Security Agency is a cryptological (codemaking and codebreaking) organization, not an economic organization." Little was known publicly about the NSA's activities at the time of this counterclaim, but subsequently, leaks and whistleblowers have shed more light on them.[8]

"Cyberterrorism"

Full article: “Cyberterrorism”
Tha NSA has contradictory goals - to maximise cyber security and to itself to carry out attacks against cyber security. It has claimed not to be hoarding zero day exploits, but this is belied by the evidence,

The NSA is probably the most advanced and active group worldwide in the area of cyberterrorism. Bruce Schneier observes that "The National Security Agency is lying to us. We know that because data stolen from an NSA server was dumped on the Internet. The agency is hoarding information about security vulnerabilities in the products you use, because it wants to use it to hack others' computers."[9]

Stuxnet

Full article: Stuxnet

Stuxnet was the first piece of malware proven to be an NSA production. The 2016 film Zero Days quotes an anonymous source that this was developed in concert with Unit 8200 and that if it had not been modified by Unit 8200 and released into Iran in this form, it might have never been detected.[10]

Other malware

The NSA created malware, some of which was published by the group Equation Brokers and was compromising security of a lot of Microsoft Windows users.[11]

"Cyberespionage"

Full article: Stub class article Cyberespionage
EquationDrug.jpg

The NSA (or perhaps Unit 8200)[12] is reckoned to be the world's leading developer of cyberespionage tools, a realisation which has gained traction particularly since the Edward Snowden Affair. Documents released by Snowden have pointed the NSA's close collaboration with GCHQ.

In 2015 multiple revelations gave insight on the NSA's cyberterrorism capabilities. In March 2015, Kaspersky Lab revealed details of the EquationDrug cyberespionage platform, which resembles a "mini operating system" due to the use of kernel-mode and user-mode components which interact with each other via a custom message-passing interface. Over 100 plugins are suspected and the existence of Windows 9X modules suggests that it may well date back to the 1990s. Its connection to the NSA is currently somewhat tenuous - resting on text strings, timezone and filestamp data, though considering the platform's sophistication, no alternative teams of developers have been suggested.

Mass Surveillance

Full article: Universal Surveillance
33 Thomas St. in New York, a windowless skyscraper used to carry out mass surveillance.

During the cold war, the NSA watch list included anti-war activists and civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King and Whitney Young, as well as Senator Frank Church.[13] “The National Security Agency has for years controversially collected the call records of Americans from cell providers like AT&T and Verizon (which owns TechCrunch), despite the questionable legality.” [14]

Technological

The NSA's mass surveillance is facilitated by decades of work for using a variety of techniques to insert backdoors and other weaknesses into security products and protocols.

“I worked with the National Security Agency on the design of a secured version of the internet but we used classified security technology at the time and I couldn't share that with my colleagues. If I could start over again I would have introduced a lot more strong authentication and cryptography into the system.”
Vint Cerf (7 Apr 2014)  Vint Cerf wanted to make internet secure from the start, but secrecy prevented it [15]

In 2004, a division of the NSA called the National Tactical Integration Office fitted a 62-foot diameter airship called the Hover Hammer with an eavesdropping device.[16]

Death of UN-SG Dag Hammarskjöld

Full article: Dag Hammarskjöld/Premature death

Susan Williams' book Who Killed Hammarskjöld? points to the existence of NSA radio intercepts of warplanes in the area in which UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld's plane crashed in Africa which are still top secret after over 50 years. She suggests that this may be due to involvement in a shootdown by Jan van Risseghem.

Exposure

In 1971, Perry Fellwock, the first NSA whistleblower, stated that "there's a lot of corruption too. Quite a few people in NSA are into illegal activities of one kind or another. It's taken to be one of the fringe benefits of the job. You know, enhancing your pocketbook. Practically everybody is into some kind of smuggling".[17]

Cancelled investigation by US DOJ

The US DOJ spent a over year looking at the possibility of indicting the NSA after it was revealed that Richard Nixon had instructed the agency to spy on anti-war protestors. They concluded that such a prosecution would result in too many secrets being revealed in court, and so they created FISA in an effort to prevent future US presidents from using the NSA for domestic political purposes. James Bamford states that this was ineffective because of the ease of subversion of the FISA process.[18]

Edward Snowden Affair

Full article: Edward Snowden Affair

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden collected a series of documents which revealed wholesale, illegal, data collection by the NSA. Shunning anonymity, stating that he had done nothing wrong, but was acting in the interests of the US people and the NSA, Snowden began to release a long series of tranches of the documents through the commercially-controlled media.

The NSA claimed on 2014-01-10 that they could not legally inform congress whether they were collecting data on them, since to do so would violate the law.[19] In February 2014, after legal challenges to their data collection program, the NSA suggested that it might be legally obligated to expand the data collection program to avoid potential charges of destroying evidence.[20]

Mass Surveillance

Full article: Rated 3/5 Mass surveillance
The 54 NSA events.png

Following James Clapper's flat out lie to the US Congress about data collection, key NSA personnel have repeatedly lied about its mass surveillance programmes, first by denying their existence and later by making wildly exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of such data collection in preventing "terrorism".

In 2014, it was revealed that the NSA collects nearly all the telephone calls made in the Bahamas and Afghanistan.[21]

Brian Patrick O’Callaghan

On Feb 16, 2014, a 36 year old, Brian Patrick O'Callaghan, chief of the NSA's Korea division - whose attorney also said he was involved in the high profile rescue of US Army POW Jessica Lynch - was charged with first degree murder and child abuse.[22]

Relationship with other intelligence agencies

GCHQ

The NSA has long had particularly close links with its British counterpart, GCHQ. In the early 1980s it was suggested that "the relationship between NSA and GCHQ is stronger than any between the NSA and any other American intelligence agency."[23] This relationship does not prevent the NSA spying on the UK. According to Howard Teicher, the former Middle East director of the US National Security Council, the NSA monitored Britain's Al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia from its base at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire.[24]

Japan

Japan allowed NSA to maintain at least three bases on its territory and contributed more than half a billion dollars to help finance the NSA’s facilities and operations. In return, NSA has kitted out Japanese spies with powerful surveillance tools and shared intelligence with them, although continuing to spy on Japanese officials itself.[25]


 

Events carried out

EventDescription
NSA/PRISM
Project SHAMROCKNSA surveillance program

 

A National Security Agency victim on Wikispooks

TitleDescription
François BaroinFrench politician who attended the 2014 Bilderberg

 

Related Quotations

PageQuoteAuthorDate
Australia/1975 coup d'état“There were a number of points of tension between Whitlam's government and the United States intelligence apparatus. Whitlam had close ties with the United States, in 1964 receiving a "Leader" travel grant from the U.S. Department of State to spend three months studying under U.S. government and military officials.

After coming to power, Whitlam quickly removed the last Australian troops from Vietnam. Whitlam government ministers criticised the US bombing of North Vietnam at the end of 1972. The US complained diplomatically about the criticism. In March 1973, US secretary of State William Rogers told Richard Nixon that "the leftists [within the Labor Party would] try to throw overboard all military alliances and eject our highly classified US defence space installations from Australia". In 1973, Whitlam ordered the Australian security organisation ASIS to close its operation in Chile, where it was working as a proxy for the CIA in opposition to Chile's president Salvador Allende. Whitlam's Attorney-General Lionel Murphy used the Australian Federal Police to conduct a raid on the headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in March 1973. CIA Chief of Counter-Intelligence, James Angleton, later said Murphy had "barged in and tried to destroy the delicate mechanism of internal security".

Australian journalist Brian Toohey said that Angleton considered then Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam a "serious threat" to the US and was concerned after the 1973 raid on ASIO headquarters. In 1974, Angleton sought to instigate the removal of Whitlam from office by having CIA station chief in Canberra, John Walker, ask the director general of ASIO, Peter Barbour, to make a false declaration that Whitlam had lied about the raid in Parliament. Barbour refused to make the statement. In 1974, Whitlam ordered the head of ASIO, Peter Barbour, to sever all ties with the CIA. Barbour ignored Whitlam's order and contact between Australian and US security agencies was driven underground. Whitlam later established a royal commission into intelligence and security. Jim Cairns became Deputy Prime Minister after the 1974 election. He was viewed by US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and defence secretary James Schlesinger as "a radical with strong anti-American and pro-Chinese sympathies". The US administration was concerned that he would have access to classified United States intelligence.

Whitlam instantly dismissed ASIS chief WT Robinson in 1975 after discovering ASIS had assisted the Timorese Democratic Union in an attempted coup against the Portuguese administration in Timor, without informing Whitlam's government.

Whitlam threatened to reveal the identities of CIA agents working in Australia. He also threatened not to renew the lease of the US spy base at Pine Gap, which was due to expire on 10 December 1975. The US was also concerned about Whitlam's intentions towards its spy base at Nurrungar.”		Wikipedia2022
George Carlin“Hello. We’re the ones who control your lives. We make the decisions that affect all of you. Isn’t it interesting to know that those who run your lives would have the nerve to tell you about it in this manner? Suffer, you fools. We know everything you do, and we know where you go. What do you think the cameras are for? And the global-positioning satellites? And the Social Security numbers? You belong to us. And it can’t be changed. Sign your petitions, walk your picket lines, bring your lawsuits, cast your votes, and write those stupid letters to whomever you please; you won’t change a thing. Because we control your lives. And we have plans for you. Go back to sleep.”George Carlin
Cryptome“Cryptome raises serious questions that nobody else on the left or in the media want to talk about, including how Omidar has created a business from Snowden's cache; what exactly Snowden may have been doing while he was working for the CIA prior to his time at NSA (and what else he may have been doing at NSA itself); and why Snowden and The Intercept continue to proselytize for Tor, the anonymization tool, despite its massive funding from the U.S. government, the Pentagon and the national security state.”Tim ShorrockFebruary 2016
Ron Johnson“We met delegation after delegation of European representatives. Basically the entire conversation was about Edward Snowden, about tapping Angela Merkel's phone. But then Charlie Hebdo happened. I haven't heard a word about Edward Snowden or what the American security services were trying to do. What I'm hearing now is 'Where's America?'”Ron Johnson2017
Nieuwsuur“The AIVD and MIVD are subordinates of the Americans. The Dutch work for the Americans. They do what we tell them to do. They aren't valued because of their capacity, but just because they give us a free passage, that's what the NSA uses them for. (...) Look what France is doing and even they couldn't stop all those terror attacks”Edward Snowden
Nieuwsuur
Manuel Noriega“In 1992, Noriega was tried and convicted on eight drug trafficking and conspiracy counts in federal court in Miami. His 40-year sentence was reduced by 10 years after a former CIA station chief and a former U.S. ambassador spoke on his behalf.

By that time, I had already begun investigating the story. I found more than reasonable doubt about his guilt. The government prosecuted the case with the testimony of 26 convicted drug traffickers who received plea bargains that allowed them to get out of prison and, in some cases, keep their drug profits. One of them was Carlos Lehder, a neo-Nazi from Colombia, then the most important trafficker ever captured by the United States. He had never met Noriega—and neither had the other dealers who testified against him. U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler, who tried the case, invited me to his home after Noriega's conviction and sentencing for a series of unusual talks in which he expressed concern about how the trial and verdict would be judged. "I hope, in the end, we'll be able to say that justice was served," he said. He and other U.S. officials took solace in the fact that even if the drug conviction was questionable, Noriega was clearly a murderer.

But the sources I interviewed raised serious questions about one charge against him. In 1993, Noriega was convicted in absentia in Panama of conspiracy in the 1985 murder of Hugo Spadafora, a political protégé turned opponent. A key piece of evidence was that the National Security Agency had intercepted a remote telephone communication in which Noriega allegedly ordered the killing: "What do you do with a rabid dog?... You cut off its head."

Multiple U.S. sources told me the intercept did not exist. They said the NSA did not have the capability at that time to capture communications between Noriega—who was in France when Spadafora was killed—and his minions in the Panamanian jungle. I determined that the charges had been made up in part by a Panamanian newspaper columnist and author, Guillermo Sánchez Borbón. He admitted to me he could cite no source for reporting the killing of Spadafora in a book, In the Time of the Tyrants, that he co-wrote with an American expatriate, Richard Koster. "It is a political book, not a historical book," Sanchez Borbón said. "It has its inexactitudes."”		Manuel Noriega
Peter Eisner		2017
UFO“So, are Unacknowledged Special Access Programs out of control in the United States? Good question. The term "Special Access Program", let alone "Unacknowledged Special Access Program", is only very seldom mentioned in the media. For example, these terms have not been mentioned at all in relation to the NSA spy revelations in recent years of William Binney and Edward Snowden, even though one would expect that many of the NSA spy programs as PRISM, Stellar Wind, Boundless Informant and JTRIG fell into this category. The term "Special Access Program" did recently surface with regard to the Hillary Clinton email scandals. As Obama's secretary of state, Clinton, against protocol, maintained a private mailbox full of information on all kinds of Special Access Programs. No details on these programs have been provided.”Joël van der Reijden

 

Employee on Wikispooks

EmployeeJobEndDescription
Alan StandorfCivil employee1991Alleged to have leaked documents relating to the PROMIS intelligence software. Found dead in 1991.

 

Related Documents

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Document:Dag Hammarskjöld - US, UK and South Africa still withholding crucial informationArticle10 October 2019Ludwig De Braeckeleer“Communications sent from the CX-52 cryptographic machine used by Dag Hammarskjöld appear to have been intercepted by British and United States signals and intelligence agencies as a result of a secret interception and decryption setting that those agencies held that enabled them to intercept surreptitiously.”
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A document sourced from National Security Agency

TitleTypeSubject(s)Publication dateAuthor(s)
Document:Bitter Roots - The Bases of Present Conflicts in the Middle EastspeechMiddle East
US/Israel lobby		1977J. Rives Childs
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References

  1. ↑ About NSA, Frequently Asked Questions, National Security Agency, accessed 1 September 2009.
  2. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-nsas-top-talent-is-leaving-because-of-low-pay-and-battered-morale/2018/01/02/ff19f0c6-ec04-11e7-9f92-10a2203f6c8d_story.html
  3. ↑ http://www.nsa.gov/about/values/index.shtml
  4. ↑ http://archive.today/2013.08.31-092612/http://nsa.gov1.info/data/index.html
  5. ↑ David Kahn, The Codebreakers, Scribner Press, 1967, chapter 19, pp. 672–733.
  6. ↑ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/14/obama_allows_nsa_to_exploit_0days_report/
  7. ↑ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-11/nsa-said-to-have-used-heartbleed-bug-exposing-consumers.html
  8. ↑ http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/Category:NSA
  9. ↑ https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/08/the_nsa_is_hoar.html
  10. ↑ Zero Days
  11. ↑ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/21/windows_hacked_nsa_shadow_brokers/
  12. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2016/05/11/inside-israels-secret-startup-machine/#4b851243157d
  13. ↑ http://leaksource.info/2013/09/28/declassified-documents-reveal-nsa-spied-on-vietnam-war-critics-including-mlk-muhammad-ali-and-senator-frank-church/
  14. ↑ https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/24/hackers-cell-networks-call-records-theft/ TechCrunch , 24 June 2019
  15. ↑ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/07/internet_inception_security_vint_cerf_google_hangout/ The Register
  16. ↑ https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/nsa-blimp-spied-in-the-united-states/
  17. ↑ Document:Electronic Espionage - A Memoir
  18. ↑ http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/290
  19. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/bernie-sanders-nsa-letter_n_4597978.html
  20. ↑ http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/198771-nsa-considers-retaining-phone-data-for-lawsuits
  21. ↑ http://rt.com/news/160988-wikileaks-nsa-phone-afghanistan
  22. ↑ http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Father-Charged-With-Adopted-Sons-Death--245972321.html
  23. ↑ Jonathan Bloch and Patrcik Fitzgerald, British Intelligence and Covert Action, Brandon, 1983, p.64.
  24. ↑ Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's, 2003, p.429.
  25. ↑ https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/japans-secret-deals-with-the-nsa-that-expand-global-surveillance/
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