five-eyes

11/20/2013

James Ball/Guardian:

A draft memo, marked top-secret and dated from 2005, reveals a proposed NSA procedure for spying on the citizens of the UK and other Five Eyes nations, even where the partner government has explicitly denied the US permission to do so. The memo makes clear that partner countries must not be informed about this surveillance, or even the procedure itself.

Since the signing in 1946 of the UKUSA Signals Intelligence Agreement, which first established the Five Eyes partnership, it has been a convention that the allied intelligence agencies do not monitor one another's citizens without permission – an agreement often referred to publicly by officials across the Five Eyes nations.

However, a draft 2005 directive in the name of the NSA's director of signals intelligence reveals the NSA prepared policies enabling its staff to spy on Five Eyes citizens, even where the partner country has refused permission to do so.

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The document, titled 'Collection, Processing and Dissemination of Allied Communications', has separate classifications from paragraph to paragraph. Some are cleared to be shared with America's allies, while others – marked "NF", for No Foreign – are to be kept strictly within the agency. The NSA refers to its Five Eyes partners as "second party" countries.

The memo states that the Five Eyes agreement "has evolved to include a common understanding that both governments will not target each other's citizens/persons".

But the next sentence – classified as not to be shared with foreign partners – states that governments "reserved the right" to conduct intelligence operations against each other's citizens "when it is in the best interests of each nation".

"Therefore," the draft memo continues, "under certain circumstances, it may be advisable and allowable to target second party persons and second party communications systems unilaterally, when it is in the best interests of the US and necessary for US national security."

The draft directive states who can approve the surveillance, and stresses the need for secrecy.

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The document does not reveal whether such operations had been authorized in the past, nor whether the NSA believes its Five Eyes partners conduct operations against US citizens.

The other sections of the document, cleared for sharing with the UK and other partners, strike a different tone, emphasising that spying on each other's citizens is a collaborative affair that is most commonly achieved "when the proposed target is associated with a global problem such as weapons proliferation, terrorism, drug trafficking or organised crime activities."

It states, for example: "There are circumstances when targeting of second party persons and communications systems, with the full knowledge and co-operation of one or more second parties, is allowed when it is in the best interests of both nations."

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The memo says the circumstances might include "targeting a UK citizen located in London using a British telephone system"; "targeting a UK person located in London using an internet service provider (ISP) in France; or "targeting a Pakistani person located in the UK using a UK ISP."

A spokeswoman for the NSA declined to answer questions from the Guardian on whether the draft directive had been implemented and, if so, when.

The British foreign secretary in 2005 was Jack Straw, and in 2007 it was Margaret Beckett. The Guardian approached both of them to ask if they knew about or sanctioned a change in policy. Both declined to comment.

Related Links:

Unmasked: GCHQ Allowed NSA to Collect Phone/Internet/Email Records of Innocent UK Citizens

Leaked Snowden Documents Reveal NSA Efforts to Spy on Both Enemies and Allies