Monitoring NSA in de VS en erbuiten, deel 8

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Do NSA's Bulk Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorists?

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On June 5, 2013, the Guardian broke the first story in what would become a flood of revelations regarding the extent and nature of the NSA’s surveillance programs. Facing an uproar over the threat such programs posed to privacy, the Obama administration scrambled to defend them as legal and essential to U.S. national security and counterterrorism. Two weeks after the first leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were published, President Obama defended the NSA surveillance programs during a visit to Berlin, saying: “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany. So lives have been saved.” Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, testified before Congress that: “the information gathered from these programs provided the U.S. government with critical leads to help prevent over 50 potential terrorist events in more than 20 countries around the world.” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on the House floor in July that “54 times [the NSA programs] stopped and thwarted terrorist attacks both here and in Europe – saving real lives.”

However, our review of the government’s claims about the role that NSA “bulk” surveillance of phone and email communications records has had in keeping the United States safe from terrorism shows that these claims are overblown and even misleading. An in-depth analysis of 225 individuals recruited by al-Qaeda or a like-minded group or inspired by al-Qaeda’s ideology, and charged in the United States with an act of terrorism since 9/11, demonstrates that traditional investigative methods, such as the use of informants, tips from local communities, and targeted intelligence operations, provided the initial impetus for investigations in the majority of cases, while the contribution of NSA’s bulk surveillance programs to these cases was minimal. Indeed, the controversial bulk collection of American telephone metadata, which includes the telephone numbers that originate and receive calls, as well as the time and date of those calls but not their content, under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, appears to have played an identifiable role in initiating, at most, 1.8 percent of these cases. NSA programs involving the surveillance of non-U.S. persons outside of the United States under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act played a role in 4.4 percent of the terrorism cases we examined, and NSA surveillance under an unidentified authority played a role in 1.3 percent of the cases we examined.

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Kamer wil opheldering over apparatuur VS

Het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie heeft eigen apparatuur om satelliet-informatie op te vangen in het Friese Burum. Die apparatuur is, op afstand of op locatie, alleen toegankelijk voor Amerikaanse staatsburgers met speciale toegang. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van Nieuwsuur.

Grote Oor

It Greate Ear noemen omwonenden het terrein met tientallen schotels: Het Grote Oor. Op het satellietstation in Burum is onder andere de Nationale Sigint Organisatie (NSO) gevestigd. De NSO valt onder het ministerie van Defensie en vergaart inlichtingen uit telecommunicatie voor de MIVD en de AIVD. De andere helft van het terrein in Burum is van het internationale bedrijf Inmarsat. Op dit commerciële deel van het satellietgrondstation staat de apparatuur van de Amerikaanse Defensie.


Contracten

Nieuwsuur heeft meerdere contracten gevonden tussen het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie en de Amerikaanse bedrijven Viasat en Northrop. Via de contracten wordt opdracht gegeven voor upgrades van software voor de eigen apparatuur in Burum. Een woordvoerder van het Amerikaanse ministerie bevestigt dit.

"Het ministerie van Defensie heeft zijn eigen satellietgrondstation-apparatuur geïnstalleerd op het Nederlandse grondstation om zo aan te kunnen sluiten op een satelliet die landt in Burum. Het Amerikaanse leger betaalt huur, zogeheten telehousing, om onze apparatuur in Burum te kunnen plaatsen en om satellietservice te ontvangen."

Missies

De Amerikanen gebruiken de apparatuur bijvoorbeeld om voor het monitoren van de eigen troepen tijdens missies. Defensiedeskundige Ko Colijn: "Als de Amerikanen in Irak of Afghanistan iets doen, dan willen ze precies weten wie waar zit. En dat is informatie die in de hoofdkwartieren in de VS bekend moet zijn. Dat kan niet rechtstreeks gecommuniceerd, dat gaat weer via die satellieten, dus logistiek is dit vrij belangrijk."

Belangrijke schakel

Burum blijkt inderdaad een belangrijke schakel in het Amerikaanse militaire netwerk te zijn. In een document op de website van de Amerikaanse overheidsdienst GSA staat: "Het United States Government Network van Inmarsat verschilt van commerciële netwerken in ontwerp, gebruik en gebruikers. Het netwerk wordt exclusief beheerd door één Amerikaans bedrijf en enkel bediend door Amerikaanse staatsburgers met een speciale clearance. USGN-grondstations bevinden zich in Hawaï en Nederland."

Geen antwoorden

Via welk bedrijf de satellietdiensten in Burum precies verlopen is onduidelijk. Het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie en Inmarsat weigeren daar op in te gaan. "Het is ons beleid niet in te gaan op vragen over specifieke klanten, of dit nu commerciële partijen zijn of overheidsorganisaties. Maar ik kan bevestigen dat we diensten bieden aan vele overheden ter wereld en dat we werken binnen de juridische en regelstellende kaders van ieder land waar we actief zijn", aldus de verklaring van Inmarsat.

Een woordvoerder van het Nederlandse ministerie van Defensie wil niet ingaan op vragen over de Amerikaanse apparatuur in Burum. "Er staat geen Amerikaanse overheidsapparatuur op het Defensie grondstation. Inmarsat is een commercieel bedrijf op het gebied van satellietcommunicatie. Het is niet aan Defensie om vragen te beantwoorden over wat er gebeurt op bedrijventerreinen in Nederland."

Spioneren

PvdA, SP, D66, GroenLinks, de ChristenUnie, de Partij van de Dieren en 50PLUS willen van minister Hennis-Plasschaert van Defensie weten wat de Amerikanen precies doen met de apparatuur in Burum. Van Raak (SP): "We moeten weten wat daar gebeurt. Het lijkt er in eerste instantie op dat het gebruikt wordt voor militaire inlichtingen, maar dat weet je dus niet. We hebben de afgelopen tijd gezien dat de Amerikanen elke mogelijkheid aangrijpen om te spioneren en ik wil wel van de Nederlandse regering, met name van minister Hennis weten wat de Amerikanen uitspoken en wat onze betrokkenheid daarbij is."

Veiligheidsverantwoordelijkheid

Ko Colijn: "Als de overheid werkelijk greep wil hebben op wat andere landen hier doen en in het vitale en hele delicate veiligheidssegment, dan zou de overheid dat precies in kaart moeten brengen. Maar ik denk dat de overheid dat niet meer doet en ik denk dat wij in dat opzicht ook wel allang niet meer soeverein zijn. Wij delen onze veiligheidsverantwoordelijkheid helemaal met andere landen."

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Obama to ‘Overhaul’ Security Clearances System, Not Surveillance Programs

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When President Barack Obama delivers his speech on alleged surveillance reforms on Friday, he will not be suggesting measures that will truly prevent future abuse of surveillance powers. He will be advocating for reforms that could prevent another whistleblower like NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

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The New York Times described Obamas strategy for responding to disclosures from Snowden as trying to straddle a difficult line that will placate civil liberties advocates without a backlash from national security agencies. In other words, he does not think much of anything needs to be done at all but he wants civil liberties advocates to stop nipping at his heels.

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NSA onderschepte lukraak 194 miljoen sms'jes per dag

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De Amerikaanse afluisterdienst NSA onderschepte in april 2011 gemiddeld 194 miljoen sms'jes per dag, van willekeurige burgers over de hele wereld. Dat hebben The Guardian en Channel 4 News onthuld.

Sms-berichten zijn volgens een document van de NSA 'een goudmijn die kan worden uitgebuit'. In een reactie aan The Guardian houdt de dienst het erop dat de spionage alleen gericht was tegen 'gerechtvaardigde buitenlandse doelwitten'. Uit de informatie waar de krant zich op baseert, valt echter op te maken dat de dienst op zijn minst heeft geïnventariseerd wat de mogelijkheden zijn van dit soort grootschalige onderscheppingen.

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YourAnonNews twitterde op vrijdag 17-01-2014 om 16:57:43 In a few minutes, President Obama is going to piss off basically everybody. Here is why: http://t.co/su4NmyyBKm reageer retweet

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NSA leaks prompted major Canadian eavesdropping review: declassified memo

OTTAWA – The massive intelligence leak by former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden prompted Canada’s secret eavesdropping agency to review its policies on sharing information with the Americans and other key partners, a newly declassified memo reveals.

The three-page note from Communications Security Establishment Canada chief John Forster says the unprecedented breach also sparked a CSEC examination of its practices for protecting the privacy of Canadians.

The undated memo to national security adviser Stephen Rigby — obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act — was prepared some time in mid-2013, after Snowden’s leaks began making global headlines.

The memo, originally classified top secret, says CSEC set about assessing the potential damage to Canadian signals intelligence collection capabilities, as well as asking its partners for confirmation on what data Snowden took from the U.S. National Security Agency.

The highly sensitive material showed the NSA had quietly obtained access to a broad spectrum of emails, chat logs and other information from major Internet companies, as well as data about a huge volume of telephone calls.

CSEC, the NSA’s Canadian counterpart, monitors foreign computer, satellite, radio and telephone traffic for information of intelligence interest.

With a staff of more than 2,000 — including skilled mathematicians, linguists and computer specialists — CSEC is a key player in the so-called Five Eyes community comprising Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

“In collaboration with domestic and international partners, CSEC is undertaking an organization-wide operation to assess the impacts of these unlawful disclosures of classified information,” says the memo, portions of which remain secret.

“Due to the unauthorized disclosures CSEC has developed an ongoing damage assessment, initiated external and internal communications strategies and introduced preventative measures to mitigate the potential of future damage.”

A section on Forster’s initial assessment of the damage is blacked out.

In addition to liaising with its Five Eyes partners, the spy agency briefed a committee of deputy ministers on the fallout and arranged a series of bilateral meetings with the Privy Council Office (where Rigby works), Foreign Affairs, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP.

The Ottawa-based CSEC held two briefings for staff members, along with specialized sessions, and took steps to “remind them of security protocols and provide guidance and support where appropriate,” the memo says.

“CSEC is also reviewing internal policies related to information sharing with the Five Eyes as well as the protection of the privacy of Canadians to ensure that they are appropriate and clear.”

CSEC spokeswoman Lauri Sullivan said Friday the agency “continues to review its policies, processes and procedures to ensure they are effective, and to ensure that CSE is taking the appropriate steps to protect information and the privacy of Canadians.”

The CSEC memo’s release came as U.S. President Barack Obama announced changes Friday to NSA practices with the aim of reassuring Americans their civil liberties will not be trampled.

At the time of the Forster memo, there had been no direct mention of CSEC in any of the stories spawned by Snowden’s cache of documents.

However, material later disclosed by the whistleblower indicated that Canada helped the United States and Britain spy on participants at the London G20 summit in 2009. Other documents suggested CSEC once monitored Brazil’s department of mines and energy.

Articles based on Snowden’s material continue to appear in the media.

Forster told Rigby the electronic spy agency — so low-profile it is still unknown to many Canadians — was exploring ways to better inform the public about what it does, including its efforts to prevent terrorism and cyber-attacks.

CSEC has since posted new information on its website about how the agency functions.

“CSEC will also keep employees informed as its damage assessment and forensic work unfold,” the memo says.

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At Home With Glenn Greenwald

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The UK and US governments hate the journalism that we're doing," he told VICE at his home near Rio de Janeiro, regarding Miranda's 11-hour detention and questioning by authorities at an airport in London in July. He was held under an anti-terror law, which was "a way of saying look at what it is we can do to people who defy us if we choose."

In that injustice, however, Greenwald found a silver lining. "At the time that it happened, I was angry, I felt helpless, I was furious they would target someone peripheral to these events, instead of me or Laura or the other journalists with whom we've been working," he said. "But at the same time I found it incredibly emboldening. They showed their true face to the world, or to me, about how abusive they are when it comes to the exercise of their power. And that made me know just how compelling it was to continue to bring transparency to what it is that they're doing. And it showed how they can't be trusted to exercise power without transparency and accountability."

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Human Rights Watch annual report 2014 criticises NSA mass surveillance

States with poor human rights records may use spying scandal as excuse to clamp down on internet freedom, report warns

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US withholding Fisa court orders on NSA bulk collection of Americans' data

Justice Department refuses to turn over 'certain other' documents in ACLU lawsuit meant to shed light on surveillance practices

The Justice Department is withholding documents related to the bulk collection of Americans’ data from a transparency lawsuit launched by the American Civil Liberties Union.

US attorney Preet Bharara of the southern district of New York informed the ACLU in a Friday letter that the government would not turn over “certain other” records from a secret surveillance court, which are being “withheld in full” from a Freedom of Information Act suit the civil liberties group filed to shed light on bulk surveillance activities performed under the Patriot Act.

The decision to keep some of the records secret, in the thick of Edward Snowden’s revelations, has raised suspicions within the ACLU that the government continues to hide bulk surveillance activities from the public, despite US president Barack Obama’s Friday concession that controversial National Security Agency programs have “never been subject to vigorous public debate”.

The ACLU lawsuit, like others filed by civil liberties groups, has resulted in a trove of documents from the so-called Fisa court detailing the scope, authorizations and, in some cases, violations surrounding NSA surveillance ostensibly occurring under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The director of national intelligence now posts the released documents to a Tumblr page, usually without revealing that the disclosures were spurred by lawsuits.

The latest such disclosure happened Friday with the release of 24 documents, mostly detailing Fisa court reauthorizations of the bulk phone records collection first reported by the Guardian thanks to leaks from whistleblower Snowden.

Among the information disclosed in the documents, which date back to 2006 – the first year in which the program received authorization from the Fisa court at all – is the footnoted stipulation that the court “understands that NSA expects it will continue to provide, on average, approximately 3 telephone numbers per day to the FBI”.

If true – the footnote only appears in pre-2009 court reauthorizations – the estimate suggests the NSA has given the FBI approximately 13,203 phone numbers based on the 12-year-old domestic bulk phone data program.

In his letter, written on the day Obama gave a long-awaited speech on surveillance that pledged additional transparency, Bhahara said that Friday’s release will be the last disclosure under the terms of the ACLU’s lawsuit.

“As discussed by telephone this morning, the government in fact has processed all of the remaining FISC Orders responsive to the FOIA request in this case that relate to bulk collection, regardless of whether the order contains any additions and/or adjustments to the implementation procedures, minimization procedures, and/or reporting requirements set out in other FISC orders,” the US attorney wrote.

“The government cannot specify the total number of documents withheld in full from this final set of responsive documents because the number itself is classified."

Alexander Abdo, an ACLU attorney, noted that the government’s bulk surveillance disclosures have yet to include, among other efforts, a reported CIA program to collect international money transfers in bulk, revealed in November by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

“It appears that the government is concealing the existence of other bulk collection programs under the Patriot Act, such as the CIA’s reported collection of our financial records,” Abdo said.

“In other words, on the same day that President Obama recognized the need for a vigorous debate about bulk collection, the government appears to be hiding the ball. We can't have the public debate that President Obama wants without the facts that his agencies are hiding.”

Abdo said that the scope of the ACLU’s disclosure lawsuit only concerned surveillance efforts under Section 215 of the Patriot Act and that surveillance authorizations containing individualized suspicion were already excluded.

The NSA conducts other bulk data collection under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, an update to that law in 2008, and under a three-decade-old executive order known as 12333, all of which are outside the terms of the ACLU’s lawsuit.

Bharara's office routed a request for comment back through the Justice Department, which declined to elaborate on the 17 January letter.

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Independent commission to investigate future of internet after NSA revelations

Two-year inquiry headed by Swedish foreign minister, set up by Chatham House and CIGI thinktanks, is announced at Davos

A major independent commission headed by the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, was launched on Wednesday to investigate the future of the internet in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations.

The two-year inquiry, announced at the World Economic Forum at Davos, will be wide-ranging but focus primarily on state censorship of the internet as well as the issues of privacy and surveillance raised by the Snowden leaks about America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ spy agencies.

The investigation, which will conducted by a 25-member panel of politicians, academics, former intelligence officials and others from around the world, is an acknowledgement of the concerns about freedom raised by the debate.

Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, said: "The rapid evolution of the net has been made possible by the open and flexible model by which it has evolved and been governed. But increasingly this is coming under attack.

"And this is happening as issues of net freedom, net security and net surveillance are increasingly debated. Net freedom is as fundamental as freedom of information and freedom of speech in our societies."

The Obama administration on Friday announced the initial findings of a White House-organised review of the NSA. There are also inquiries by the US Congress and by the European parliament, but this is the first major independent one.

The inquiry has been set up by Britain's foreign affairs thinktank Chatham House and by the Center for International Governance and Innovation (CIGI), which is partly funded by the Canadian government.

In a joint statement, Chatham House and the CIGI said the current internet regime was under threat. "This threat to a free, open and universal internet comes from two principal sources. First, a number of authoritarian states are waging a campaign to exert greater state control over critical internet resources."

The statement does not name the countries but it is aimed mainly at China and Iran, both of whom are censoring the internet.

The other big issue, according to Chatham House and the CIGI, is the revelations from Snowden.

"Second, revelations about the nature and extent of online surveillance have led to a loss of trust."

Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, said: "The issue of internet governance is set to become one of the most pressing global policy issues of our time."

The intention of the inquiry is to hold public consultations around the world. About half a dozen meetings are planned, at a cost of about £150,000 each.

Among those on the panel are: Joseph Nye, former dean of the Kennedy school of governance at Harvard; Sir David Omand, former head of GCHQ; Michael Chertoff, former secretary of the US homeland security department and co-author of the Patriot Act that expanded NSA surveillance powers; the MEP Marietje Schaake, who has been a leading advocate of internet freedom; Latha Reddy, former deputy national security adviser of India; and Patricia Lewis, research director in the international security department at Chatham House, who said: "Internet governance is too important to be left just to governments."

Asked about the lack of debate in the UK so far compared with the US and elsewhere in Europe and around the world, Lewis said: "People in Britain are more concerned than we realise. They have clearly agreed at some level to exchange data for goods and services but they did not agree for that data to be given to the government and security services.

"This is a debate we sorely need."

Gordon Smith, who is to be deputy chair of the commission, said: "For many people, internet governance sounds technical and esoteric but the reality is that the issues are 'high politics' and of consequence to all users of the internet, present and future."

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The Global Commission on Internet Governance

The Global Commission on Internet Governance was established in January 2014, to articulate and advance a strategic vision for the future of Internet governance. With work commencing in May 2014, the two-year project will conduct and support independent research on Internet-related dimensions of global public policy, culminating in an official commission report.

Chaired by Carl Bildt, the commission will inform concrete policy recommendations for the future of Internet governance, by providing a framework both for coordination among advanced industrial democracies and for addressing the interests and values of states that are uncertain about the future of multi-stakeholder governance. Key issues to be addressed by the commission include governance legitimacy and regulation, innovation, online rights and systemic risk.

Launched by two independent global think tanks, The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Chatham House, the Global Commission on Internet Governance will help educate the wider public on the most effective ways to promote Internet access, while simultaneously championing the principles of freedom of expression and the free flow of ideas over the Internet.

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Leaked US independent surveillance watchdog report concludes NSA program is illegal and recommends shut-down

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The forthcoming report of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, the arm's-length body established by the Congress to investigate NSA spying, has leaked, with details appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

From its pages, we learn that the board views the NSA's metadata collection program -- which was revealed by Edward Snowden -- as illegal, without "a viable legal foundation under Section 215, implicates constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments, raises serious threats to privacy and civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value…As a result, the board recommends that the government end the program."

The report goes farther than the President's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies (whose recommendations Obama ignored) and even farther than the policies announced by the President himself.