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<h1 class="entry-title">Exclusive: Top NSA Whistleblower Spills the
Beans on the Real Scope of the Spying Program</h1>
<div class="entry-meta"> <span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">Posted
on</span> <a
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/exclusive-top-nsa-whistleblower-spills-the-beans-on-the-real-scope-of-the-spying-program.html"
title="4:15 am" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">June 8,
2013</span></a> <span class="meta-sep">by</span> <span
class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/author/washingtonsblog"
title="View all posts by WashingtonsBlog">WashingtonsBlog</a></span>
</div>
<h3 style="color: #000099;">Top NSA Official: Government Tapping
CONTENT, Not Just Metadata … Using Bogus “Secret Interpretation”
of Patriot Act</h3>
<p>We <a title="reported"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2008/10/israel-companies-handle-sensitive-u-s-spying-data.html">reported</a>
in 2008 that <em>foreign</em> companies have had key roles
scooping up Americans’ communications for the NSA:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a title="at least two foreign companies"
href="http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Factory-Ultra-Secret-Eavesdropping-America/dp/0385521324"
target="_blank">At least two foreign companies</a> play key
roles in processing the information.</p>
<p>Specifically, an Israeli company called Narus processes all of
the information tapped by AT &T (AT & T taps, and gives
to the NSA, copies of all phone calls it processes), and an
Israeli company called Verint processes information tapped by
Verizon (Verizon also taps, and gives to the NSA, all of its
calls).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Business Insider <a target="_blank" title="notes"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/israelis-bugged-the-us-for-the-nsa-2013-6">notes</a>
today:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The <a target="_blank" title="newest information regarding the
NSA domestic spying scandal"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-washington-post-backtracks-on-claim-tech-companies-participate-knowingly-in-the-nsas-data-collection-2013-6">newest
information regarding the NSA domestic spying scandal</a>
raises an important question: If America’s tech giants didn’t
‘participate knowingly’ in the dragnet of electronic
communication, how does the NSA <a target="_blank" title="get
all of their data"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-impact-of-nsa-domestic-spying-2013-6">get
all of their data</a>?</p>
<p>One theory: the NSA hired two secretive Israeli companies to
wiretap the U.S. telecommunications network.</p>
<p>In April 2012 Wired’s James Bamford — author of the book “<a
target="_blank" title="The Shadow Factory: The NSA from 9/11
to the Eavesdropping on America"
href="http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Factory-NSA-Eavesdropping-America/dp/0307279391">The
Shadow Factory: The NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on
America</a>” — reported that two companies with extensive
links to Israel’s intelligence service <a target="_blank"
title="provided hardware and software the U.S.
telecommunications network"
href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/04/shady-companies-nsa/all/1">provided
hardware and software the U.S. telecommunications network</a>
for the National Security Agency (NSA).</p>
<p>By doing so, this would imply, companies like Facebook and
Google don’t have to explicitly provide the NSA with access to
their servers because major Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
such as AT&T and Verizon already allows the U.S. signals
intelligence agency to eavesdrop on all of their data anyway.</p>
<p>From <a target="_blank" title="Bamford"
href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/04/shady-companies-nsa/all/1">Bamford</a>
(emphasis ours):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“According to a former <a target="_blank" title="Verizon"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/verizon">Verizon</a>
employee briefed on the program, <a target="_blank"
title="Verint" href="http://verint.com/">Verint</a>, owned
by Comverse Technology, <strong>taps the communication lines
at Verizon</strong>…</p>
<p><strong>At AT&T the wiretapping rooms are</strong> <a
target="_blank" title="powered by software and hardware from
Narus"
href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/05/70908">powered
by software and hardware from Narus</a>, now owned by <a
target="_blank" title="Boeing"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/boeing">Boeing</a>,
a discovery made by <a target="_blank" title="AT&T
Whistleblower: How I Learned of Internet Spy Room"
href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/05/att_whistleblow/">AT&T
whistleblower Mark Klein</a> in 2004.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Klein, an engineer, <a target="_blank" title="discovered the
“secret room” at AT&T central office in San Francisco"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110700006.html">discovered
the “secret room” at AT&T central office in San Francisco</a>,
through which the NSA actively “<strong>vacuumed up Internet and
phone-call data from ordinary Americans with the cooperation
of AT&T</strong>” through the wiretapping rooms, <a
target="_blank" title="emphasizing"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-collecting-phone-records-of-americans-2013-6">emphasizing</a>
that “much of the data sent through AT&T to the NSA was
purely domestic.”</p>
<p>NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake corroborated Klein’s assertions,
<a target="_blank" title="testifying"
href="https://www.eff.org/document/drake-declaration-support-plaintiffs-motion">testifying</a>
that while the NSA is using <a target="_blank"
title="Israeli-made NARUS hardware"
href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/05/70914">Israeli-made
NARUS hardware</a> to “<a target="_blank" title="seize and
save"
href="https://www.eff.org/document/drake-declaration-support-plaintiffs-motion">seize
and save</a> all personal electronic communications.”</p>
<p>Both Verint and Narus were founded in Israel in the 1990s.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>“<strong>Anything that comes through (an internet protocol
network), we can record</strong>,” Steve Bannerman, marketing
vice president of <a target="_blank" title="Narus"
href="http://www.narus.com/">Narus</a>, a Mountain View,
California company, <a target="_blank" title="said"
href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/05/70914">said</a>.
“We can reconstruct all of their e-mails along with attachments,
see what web pages they clicked on, we can reconstruct their
(voice over internet protocol) calls.”</p>
<p>With a telecom wiretap the NSA only needs companies like
Microsoft, Google, and Apple to passively participate while the
agency to intercepts, stores, and analyzes their communication
data. The indirect nature of the agreement would provide tech
giants with plausible deniability.</p>
<p><strong></strong>And having a foreign contractor bug the
telecom grid would mean that the NSA gained access to most of
the domestic traffic flowing through the U.S. without <strong>technically</strong>
doing it themselves.</p>
<p>This would provide the NSA, whose official mission is to spy on
foreign communications, with plausible deniability regarding
domestic snooping.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The reason that Business Insider is speculating about the use of
private Israeli companies to thwart the law is that 2 high-ranking
members of the Senate Intelligence Committee – Senators Wyden and
Udall – have long said that the government has <a target="_blank"
title="adopted a secret interpretation of section 215 of the
Patriot Act which would shock Americans"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/us/politics/justice-dept-is-accused-of-misleading-public-on-patriot-act.html">adopted
a <em>secret interpretation</em> of section 215 of the Patriot
Act which would shock Americans</a>, because it provides a
breathtakingly wide program of spying.</p>
<p>Last December, top NSA whistleblower William Binney – a 32-year
NSA veteran with the title of senior technical director, who
headed the agency’s global digital data gathering program
(featured in a <a title="New York Times documentary"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html"
target="_blank">New York Times documentary</a>, and the source
for <a target="_blank" title="much of what we know"
href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1">much
of what we know</a> about NSA spying) – said that the government
is using a secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act
which allows the government to obtain:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Any</strong> data <strong>in any third party</strong>,
like any <strong>commercial data</strong> that’s held about
U.S. citizens ….</p>
</blockquote>
<p><iframe
src="http://www.video.theblaze.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=25516775&width=740&height=414.4&property=theblaze"
width="740" frameborder="0" height="414.4"></iframe></p>
<p>(relevant quote starts at 4:19).</p>
<p>I called Binney to find out what he meant.</p>
<p>I began by asking Binney if Business Insider’s speculation was
correct. Specifically, I asked Binney if the government’s secret
interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act was that a
foreign company – like Narus, for example – could vacuum up
information on Americans, and then the NSA would obtain that data
under the excuse of spying on <em>foreign</em> entities … i.e. an
Israeli company.</p>
<p>Binney replied no … it was <em>broader</em> than that.</p>
<p>Binney explained that the government is taking the position that
it can gather and use <em>any information</em> about American
citizens living on U.S. soil if it comes from:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Any</strong> service provider … <strong>any</strong>
third party … <strong>any commercial company – like a telecom
or internet service provider, libraries, medical companies</strong>
– holding data about anyone, <strong>any U.S. citizen</strong>
or anyone else.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I followed up to make sure I understood what Binney was saying,
asking whether the government’s secret interpretation of Section
215 of the Patriot Act was that the government could use any
information as long as it came from a private company … <em>foreign
or domestic</em>. In other words, the government is using the
antiquated, bogus legal argument that it was not using its
governmental powers (called “acting under color of law” by
judges), but that it was <em>private</em> companies just doing
their thing (which the government <em>happened</em> to order all
of the private companies to collect and fork over).</p>
<p>Binney confirmed that this was correct. This is what the phone
company spying program and the <a target="_blank" title="Prism"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html">Prism</a>
program – the government spying on big Internet companies – is
based upon. Since all digital communications go through private
company networks, websites or other systems, the government just
demands that <a target="_blank" title="all of the companies"
href="http://www.theweek.com/article/index/245311/sources-nsa-sucks-in-data-from-50-companies">all
of the companies</a> turn them over.</p>
<p>Let’s use an analogy to understand how bogus this interpretation
of the Patriot Act is. This argument is analogous to a Congressman
hiring a hit man to shoot someone asking too many questions, and
loaning him his gun to carry out the deed … and then later saying
“I didn’t do it, it was that <em>private citizen</em>!” That
wouldn’t pass the laugh test even at an unaccredited, web-based
law school offered through a porn site.</p>
<p>I then asked the NSA veteran if the government’s claim that it is
only spying on metadata – and not content – was correct. We have
extensively documented that <a title="content, as well as
metadata"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/is-the-government-also-monitoring-the-content-of-our-phone-calls.html">the
government is likely recording <em>content</em></a> as well.
(And the government has previously admitted to “accidentally” <a
target="_blank" title="collecting more information on Americans
than was legal"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/us/16nsa.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1">collecting
more information on Americans than was legal</a>, and then <a
target="_blank" title="gagged the judges so they couldn’t
disclose the nature or extent of the violations"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/us/politics/justice-dept-is-accused-of-misleading-public-on-patriot-act.html">gagged
the judges so they couldn’t disclose the nature or extent of the
violations</a>.)</p>
<p>Binney said that was <em>not</em> true; the government is
gathering everything, <strong><em>including content</em></strong>.</p>
<p>Binney explained – as he has <a title="many times before"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/top-nsa-spying-chief-if-you-ever-get-on-their-enemies-list-like-petraeus-did-then-you-can-be-drawn-into-that-surveillance.html">many
times before</a> – that the government is storing <em>everything</em>,
and creating a searchable database … to be used whenever it wants,
for any purpose it wants (even just going after someone it doesn’t
like).</p>
<p>Binney said that former FBI counter-terrorism agent Tim Clemente
is correct when he <a title="Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente"
href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1305/01/ebo.01.html"
target="_blank">says</a> that <em>no</em> digital data is safe
(Clemente says that <em>all</em> digital communications are being
recorded).</p>
<p>Binney gave me an idea of how powerful Narus recording systems
are. There are probably 18 of them around the country, and they
can each record 10 gigabytes of data – the equivalent of a million
and a quarter emails with 1,000 characters each – per <em>second</em>.</p>
<p>Binney next confirmed the statement of the author of the Patriot
Act – Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner – that the NSA spying programs
<a target="_blank" title="violate the Patriot Act"
href="http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=337001">violate
the Patriot Act</a>. After all, the Patriot Act is focused on
spying on <em>external</em> threats … not on Americans.</p>
<p>Binney asked rhetorically: “How can an American court [FISA or
otherwise] tell telecoms to cough up all domestic data?!”</p>
<p>Update: Binney sent the following clarifying email about content
collection:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s clear to me that they are collecting most e-mail in full
plus other text type data on the web.</p>
<p>As for phone calls, I don’t think they would record/transcribe
the approximately 3 billion US-to-US calls every day. It’s more
likely that they are recording and transcribing calls made by
the 500,000 to 1,000,000 targets in the US and the world.</p>
</blockquote>
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