This is a category of disclosures related to global surveillance.
Court orders, memos and policy documents Memorandum of understanding between the NSA and the Israel SIGINT National Unit (ISNU) April 2013 FISC Order demanding that Verizon hand over all telephony metadata to NSA. The order had been initially granted in May 2006. In 2009 the FISC discovered that the government had made repeated and substantial misrepresentations to the court about its use, and had routinely been "running queries of the metadata using querying terms that did not meet the required standard for querying." It further concluded that the violations had been routine and systematic. Legal Justification of the bulk telephony metadata collection (officially released) 2009 NSA Procedures for Targeting Foreigners for Surveillance 2009 NSA Procedures for Minimizing collection on US Persons 2011 NSA Procedures for Minimizing collection on US Persons (officially released) Reference to a 2011 Change in the court-approved Minimization Procedures allowing analysts to run search queries using US persons' identifiers if there is "effective" oversight by NSA (it is not publicly known if such oversight has been established, or if any such searches have been conducted). The court order mentioned was later officially released. October 2011 Court decision finding NSA's upstream collection program, which collected tens of thousands of non-target communications, to have violated the law. It held, citing multiple Supreme Court precedents, that the Fourth Amendment applies to the contents of all communications, whatever the means (they are "papers"). It also finds that the NSA's minimization and targeting policies to be legally and/or constitutionally deficient, and recommends changes. (officially released). Additional findings: The collection of Upstream data had begun before a court order approving it, in violation of 50 USC § 1809(a), which makes it a crime to engage in, use or disseminate surveillance knowing, or having reason to know such surveillance was not authorized. March 2009 FISC ruling showing a consistent pattern of misrepresentations of the bulk telephone metadata collection program by the government to the Court. It also held that the data was being routinely queried in ways that did not meet "reasonable articulatable suspicion", demonstrating inadequate safeguards in the software and training of analysts. Showing that "thousands of violations resulted from the use of identifiers that were not "RAS-approved by analysts who were not even aware that they were accessing BR metadata," and that in 2006 "there was no single person [in the NSA] who had a complete understanding of the BR FISA system architecture," a situation which persisted until February 2009 or later. RAS is shorthand for Reasonable Articulatable Suspicion. The Court nonetheless reapproved the collection of bulk phone metadata, while mandating additional safeguards and training, and "end-to-end system engineering reviews," and reports from the review. (Officially released by court order) October 2012 Presidential Policy Directive 20 (PPD20), outlining cyberwarfare. 2007 Michael Mukasey memo proposing broader powers. April 2013 list of US Spying targets and topics by priority. The top priority countries are: Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan, North Korea and Afghanistan. Germany, France, the European Union, and Japan are mid-level priorities; Italy and Spain rank lower. FY 2013 Intelligence "Black Budget" Summary. A memorandum of understanding concerning US sharing of raw SIGINT with Israel. The data has not been scrubbed to eliminate US persons, it asks Israel not to deliberately target US persons, however the agreement allows Israel to retain US person data for one full year. The memorandum is not legally binding. A separate document states "And there are other kinds of CI threats that are right on our midst. For example, one of NSA's biggest threats is actually from friendly intelligence services, like Israel.", it continues "Balancing the SIGINT exchange between US and Israeli needs has been a constant challenge. In the last decade, it arguably tilted heavily in favor of Israeli security concerns. 9/11 came and went, and with NSA's only true Third Party CT relationship being driven almost entirely driven by the needs of the partner." September 13, 2013 FISC Court order declassifying all the legal opinions relating to Section 215 of the Patriot Act written after May 2011 not already the subject of Freedom of Information Act litigation. The FISA Court ruled that the White House must identify the opinions in question by October 4, 2013. 1,000 pages of documents were released by James R. Clapper Jr. on November 19, 2013, in response to lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a directive by U.S. President Barack Obama. Among the documents are what appeared to be the original court document authorizing the National Security Agency to conduct sweeping collections of Americans' electronic communications records for counterterrorism purposes, the NSA's failure to abide by court-imposed rules to protect Americans' privacy, reports to Congress, training slides and regulations issued under President Obama. December 16, 2013 ruling by US district court judge for the District of Columbia Richard Leon declaring that the mass collection of metadata of Americans' telephone records by the National Security Agency probably violates the fourth amendment prohibition unreasonable searches and seizures. Leon granted the request for a preliminary injunction that blocks the collection of phone data for two private plaintiffs (Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, father of a cryptologist killed in Afghanistan when his helicopter was shot down in 2011) and ordered the government to destroy any of their records that have been gathered. But the judge stayed action on his ruling pending a government appeal, recognizing in his 68-page opinion the "significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues." 2013-12-27 ruling by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III in New York City holding the U.S. government's global telephone data-gathering system is needed to thwart potential terrorist attacks, and that it can only work if everyone's calls are swept in. In his opinion, he wrote, "a bulk telephony metadata collection program [is] a wide net that could find and isolate gossamer contacts among suspected terrorists in an ocean of seemingly disconnected data" and noted that a similar collection of data prior to 9/11 might have prevented the attack. U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III also ruled that Congress legally set up the program and that it does not violate anyone's constitutional rights. The judge also concluded that the telephone data being swept up by NSA did not belong to telephone users, but to the telephone companies. And further he ruled that, when NSA obtains such data from the telephone companies, and then probes into it to find links between callers and potential terrorists, this further use of the data was not even a search under the Fourth Amendment. He also concluded that the controlling precedent is Smith v. Maryland: "Smith's bedrock holding is that an individual has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information provided to third parties," Judge Pauley wrote.
Reports 2009 OIG report on STELLARWIND Extracts from reports relating to XKeyscore. One entitled "Tales from the Land of Brothers Grimm" and others detailing the successes of said software, another is a note from an analyst who felt that he always had one foot in prison when using it. XKeyscore is also described as "big and scary, strong and powerful" and lets an analyst do whatever they like. Reports detailing thousands of privacy violations Numerous reports relating to drones, including "Threats to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles", a report summarizing attempts to shoot down, intercept, control or otherwise spoof drones. While the report details vulnerabilities of specific aircraft, the document itself has not been published, but only excerpts described. Other reports detail American spin efforts, suggesting that the phrases "drone strike," "kill list," "robot warfare," "Aerial Assassins" be avoided, offering "lethal UAV operations" instead, and also terms like "Pre-emptive and Preventive Military Action" and "Inherent Right of Self Defense." Likewise, reports detail efforts by Al-Qaeda to spin, portraying attacks as cowardly and immoral. Analysts also questioned whether America was losing rhetorical battle in courts, media, and public opinion. Another report stated that drone strikes "could be brought under increased scrutiny, perceived to be illegitimate, openly resisted or undermined." The US learned that Pakistan engaged in a pattern of extrajudicial killings, mostly against militants. However, not all targets militants, Pakistan also planned to murder a human rights activist, Asma Jahangir, while she was on a visit to India. The plot was aborted when she learned of it. The US sought to avoid public disclosure of this, and other incidents. The NSA and GCHQ have access to user data in iPhones, BlackBerrys, and Android phones. They are able to read almost all smartphone information, including SMS, location, emails, and notes.
The following table describes what is known about the below SIGINT Activity Designators (SIGADs). It is not presumed to be complete.
DesignationCovernameParent ProgramLegal AuthorityKey TargetsType of Information collectedAssociated DatabasesRemarksUS-3140(PDDG:TM)MADCAPOCELOTSTORMBREWEO 12333The country of Russia European TerrorismDNI metadata through: XKEYSCORE PINWALE MARINAPINWALEMARINAUS-983(PDDG:FL)STORMBREWSTORMBREWGlobal "DNR (Directory ONMR)" "DNI Collection, limited to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008, Cyber hit counts on FAA DNI access""Key corporate partner with access to international cables, routers, and switches"US-3206(PDDG:6T)MONKEYROCKETOAKSTAREO 12333Counterterrorism in the Middle East, Europe, and AsiaDNI metadata and content"Foreign access point" was expected to go online in spring 2012.US-3217(PDDG:MU)SHIFTINGSHADOWOAKSTARAfghanistan communications: MTN Afghanistan Roshan GSM Network AWCCDNR metadata and voice "Timing Advances" geolocation"Foreign access point"US-3230(PDDG:0B)ORANGECRUSHOAKSTAR"To be determined"Voice Fax DNI DNR Metadata"Foreign access point through PRIMECANE, and 3rd party partner" not online as of the time of source presentation.US-3247(PDDG:PJ)YACHTSHOPOAKSTARWorldwide DNI MetadataWorldwide DNI MetadataMARINA"Access through BLUEANCHOR partner"US-3251ORANGEBLOSSOMNo alvo dos EUA , Infographic, O Globo. Retrieved July 8, 2013.OAKSTARUS-3257(PDDG:SK)SILVERZEPHYROAKSTARTransit Authority FAASouth, Central and Latin AmericaDNR metadata voice fax DNI content metadata"Network access point through STEELKNIGHT partner"US-3277BLUEZEPHYROAKSTARUS-3354COBALTFALCONOAKSTARUS-984XNPRISMIt is possible, though not directly proven that PRISM falls under the umbrella of BLARNEY, given similar designations.Known Targets include Venezuela Military procurement Oil Mexico Narcotics Energy Internal Security Political Affairs Colombia TraffickingThe exact type of data varies by provider: Email Chat – video, voice Videos Stored data VoIP Filer transfers Video Conferencing Notifications of target activity, logins, etc. Online Social Networking details Special Requests TRAFFICTHIEFMARINAMAINWAYFALLOUTPINWALECONVEYANCENUCLEONAccounts for 91% of collection under FAA702 authority. Cooperation between the NSA and internet companies, whereby the companies allow the NSA access (whether direct or indirect is disputed) to their servers. List of PRISM partners: AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PalTalk, Skype, and Yahoo!.