A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to
search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing
emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of
individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward
Snowden.
The
NSA
boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its
"widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the
internet.
The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of
surveillance
programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the
Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents
in response to
the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and surveillance court oversight.
The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his
first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.
"I,
sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or
your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a
personal email".
US officials vehemently denied this specific
claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence
committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for
him to do what he was saying he could do."
But training materials
for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine
enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving
only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed
by a court or any personnel before it is processed.
XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the 's
"widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks
– what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence ().
One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical
user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites
visited and searches, as well as their .
Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity.
Under US law, the is required to obtain an individualized warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a '',
though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications
of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the
technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US
persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided
that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address,
is known to the analyst.
One training slide illustrates the
digital activity constantly being collected by XKeyscore and the
analyst's ability to query the databases at any time.
The purpose of XKeyscore is to allow analysts to search the
as well as the content of emails and other internet activity, such as
browser history, even when there is no known email account (a "selector"
in parlance) associated with the individual being targeted.
Analysts
can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the
language in which the internet activity was conducted or the type of
browser used.
One document notes that this is because "strong
selection [search by email address] itself gives us only a very limited
capability" because "a large amount of time spent on the web is
performing actions that are anonymous."
The documents assert that by 2008, 300 terrorists had been captured using intelligence from XKeyscore.
Analysts
are warned that searching the full database for content will yield too
many results to sift through. Instead they are advised to use the also stored in the databases to narrow down what to review.
A
slide entitled "plug-ins" in a December 2012 document describes the
various fields of information that can be searched. It includes "every
email address seen in a session by both username and domain", "every
phone number seen in a session (eg address book entries or signature
block)" and user activity – "the webmail and chat activity to include
username, buddylist, machine specific cookies etc".
Email monitoring
In
a second Guardian interview in June, Snowden elaborated on his
statement about being able to read any individual's email if he had
their email address. He said the claim was based in part on the email
search capabilities of XKeyscore, which Snowden says he was authorized
to use while working as a Booz Allen contractor for the .
One
top-secret document describes how the program "searches within bodies
of emails, webpages and documents", including the "To, From, CC, BCC
lines" and the 'Contact Us' pages on websites".
To search for
emails, an analyst using XKS enters the individual's email address into a
simple online search form, along with the "justification" for the
search and the time period for which the emails are sought.
The analyst then selects which of those returned emails they want to read by opening them in reading software.
The system is similar to the way in which
analysts generally can intercept the communications of anyone they
select, including, as one NSA document put it, "communications that
transit the
United States and communications that terminate in the United States".
One document, a top secret 2010 guide describing the training received by analysts for general surveillance under the
Amendments Act of 2008, explains that analysts can begin surveillance
on anyone by clicking a few simple pull-down menus designed to provide
both legal and targeting justifications. Once options on the pull-down
menus are selected, their target is marked for electronic surveillance
and the analyst is able to review the content of their communications:
Chats, browsing history and other internet activity
Beyond
emails, the XKeyscore system allows analysts to monitor a virtually
unlimited array of other internet activities, including those within
social media.
An tool called
Presenter, used to read the content of stored emails, also enables an
analyst using XKeyscore to read the content of Facebook chats or private
messages.
An analyst can monitor such Facebook chats by entering the Facebook user name and a date range into a simple search screen.
Analysts can search for internet browsing activities
using a wide range of information, including search terms entered by the
user or the websites viewed.
As one slide indicates, the ability to search HTTP activity by keyword permits the analyst access to what the calls "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet".
The XKeyscore program also allows an analyst to learn
the IP addresses of every person who visits any website the analyst
specifies.
The quantity of communications accessible through programs such as XKeyscore is staggeringly large. One
report from 2007 estimated that there were 850bn "call events"
collected and stored in the NSA databases, and close to 150bn internet
records. Each day, the document says, 1-2bn records were added.
William Binney, a former
mathematician, said last year that the agency had "assembled on the
order of 20tn transactions about US citizens with other US citizens", an
estimate, he said, that "only was involving phone calls and emails". A
2010 Washington Post article reported that "every day, collection
systems at the [NSA] intercept and store 1.7bn emails, phone calls and
other type of communications."
The XKeyscore system is
continuously collecting so much internet data that it can be stored only
for short periods of time. Content remains on the system for only three
to five days, while
is stored for 30 days. One document explains: "At some sites, the
amount of data we receive per day (20+ terabytes) can only be stored for
as little as 24 hours."
To solve this problem, the
has created a multi-tiered system that allows analysts to store
"interesting" content in other databases, such as one named Pinwale
which can store material for up to five years.
It is the
databases of XKeyscore, one document shows, that now contain the
greatest amount of communications data collected by the .
In 2012, there were at least 41 billion total records collected and stored in XKeyscore for a single 30-day period.
Legal v technical restrictions
While the Amendments Act of 2008 requires an individualized warrant for the targeting of US persons,
analysts are permitted to intercept the communications of such
individuals without a warrant if they are in contact with one of the
NSA's foreign targets.
The ACLU's deputy legal director, Jameel
Jaffer, told the Guardian last month that national security officials
expressly said that a primary purpose of the new law was to enable them
to collect large amounts of Americans' communications without
individualized warrants.
"The government doesn't need to 'target'
Americans in order to collect huge volumes of their communications,"
said Jaffer. "The government inevitably sweeps up the communications of
many Americans" when targeting foreign nationals for surveillance.
An example is provided by one XKeyscore document showing an target in Tehran communicating with people in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York.
In recent years, the
has attempted to segregate exclusively domestic US communications in
separate databases. But even NSA documents acknowledge that such efforts
are imperfect, as even purely domestic communications can travel on
foreign systems, and NSA tools are sometimes unable to identify the
national origins of communications.
Moreover, all communications
between Americans and someone on foreign soil are included in the same
databases as foreign-to-foreign communications, making them readily
searchable without warrants.
Some searches conducted by
analysts are periodically reviewed by their supervisors within the NSA.
"It's very rare to be questioned on our searches," Snowden told the
Guardian in June, "and even when we are, it's usually along the lines
of: 'let's bulk up the justification'."
In a letter this week to senator Ron Wyden, director of national intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that analysts have exceeded even legal limits as interpreted by the NSA in domestic surveillance.
Acknowledging
what he called "a number of compliance problems", Clapper attributed
them to "human error" or "highly sophisticated technology issues" rather
than "bad faith".
However, Wyden said on the Senate floor on
Tuesday: "These violations are more serious than those stated by the
intelligence community, and are troubling."
In a statement to the Guardian, the
said: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against –
and only against – legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response
to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to
protect our nation and its interests.
"XKeyscore is used as a part of 's lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system.
"Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to
collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as
all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who
require access for their assigned tasks … In addition, there are
multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within
the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring."
"Every search by an analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law.
"These
types of programs allow us to collect the information that enables us
to perform our missions successfully – to defend the nation and to
protect US and allied troops abroad."
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