The latest blast from the Snowden whistle are warning us that our most private, personal information isn't just being pored over by analysts at the NSA. It's traveling to Israel.
The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.
Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis. ...Guardian
NPR this morning suggested that close US allies like Germany could be offended they're not included in the dirty linen dump. But my first thought was that we now have proof of the extent to which the American government disrespects its citizens -- its bosses, by the way. If you found out your employees were treating you this way, would you fire them? Or would you rather look like a real dum-dum and go after the person who told you?
Who made this deal with Israel? The administration. Which administration? The Obama administration.
The disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacy of US citizens caught in the dragnet. The intelligence community calls this process "minimization", but the memorandum makes clear that the information shared with the Israelis would be in its pre-minimized state.
The deal was reached in principle in March 2009, according to the undated memorandum, which lays out the ground rules for the intelligence sharing.
The five-page memorandum, termed an agreement between the US and Israeli intelligence agencies "pertaining to the protection of US persons", repeatedly stresses the constitutional rights of Americans to privacy and the need for Israeli intelligence staff to respect these rights.
But this is undermined by the disclosure that Israel is allowed to receive "raw Sigint" – signal intelligence. The memorandum says: "Raw Sigint includes, but is not limited to, unevaluated and unminimized transcripts, gists, facsimiles, telex, voice and Digital Network Intelligence metadata and content. ...Guardian
I don't think the President, six weeks into his presidency, signed off on this. I do think that within the year the new administration should have established control one of its most crucial and potentially most damaging agencies. Why bother about Congress. They haven't done their part of the job in years. But notably both the executive and the legislative branches made it clear to Israel that communications to and from Congress and the administration should be protected.
...A much stricter rule was set for US government communications found in the raw intelligence. The Israelis were required to "destroy upon recognition" any communication "that is either to or from an official of the US government". Such communications included those of "officials of the executive branch (including the White House, cabinet departments, and independent agencies), the US House of Representatives and Senate (member and staff) and the US federal court system (including, but not limited to, the supreme court)". ...Guardian
It's just the American people who are the raw meat in this situation. And, by the way, the government of Israel is allowed to share this "raw sigint" with other countries. Perhaps most likely to weird-out an observer of this mess is that Israel's intelligence services turn around and use the information they glean against us. This image comes from straight from the leaked documents.
Was the FISA court aware of all this?
None of our damn business.
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A Washington Post report on these disclosures has this:
The precautions Israel agrees to use for data on Americans are “consistent with the requirements placed upon the NSA by U.S. law and Executive order to establish safeguards protecting the rights of U.S. persons under the Fourth Amendment,” the memo says. The Israelis also promise to use “similar” safeguards for data concerning people in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom; all those countries cooperate closely with the NSA. Israel also agrees not to deliberately target Americans whose information they find in the data.
But these promises are not legally binding. According to the Guardian, the memo states that “this agreement is not intended to create any legally enforceable rights and shall not be construed to be either an international agreement or a legally binding instrument according to international law.”
What’s also noteworthy is that the memo allows Israeli intelligence to retain data they identify as belonging to Americans for up to a year.
