NSA Signals Intelligence – Industrial and Diplomatic Espionage
WHISTLEBLOWING - SURVEILLANCE, 23 Sep 2013
WikiLeaks Press – TRANSCEND Media Service
In a recent keynote speech at the annual Blackhat Security conference aiming to address concerns over recently revealed NSA surveillance programs, NSA director General Alexander assured his audience that the NSA’s main mission is protect the US and save lives. “What we’re doing is for foreign intelligence purposes,” he said, and that included counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and cyber attacks. The General emphasized that he wanted to start a dialogue with the community, and reiterated a point made by the Blackhat hosts – that there is a balance to be found between security and privacy.
The General’s description of NSA surveillance activities focused on counter-terrorism, implicitly putting security and privacy at odds. What the General did not go into detail on was the more general NSA mandate of producing intelligence in support of US interests. Intelligence is gathered in relation to far more than counter-terrorism activities – documents revealed by Edward Snowden show that German and Brazilian diplomatic activities are included in the broad sweep of foreign intelligence.
When NSA representatives came to the University of Wisconson-Madison for a recruiting session, PhD candidate Madiha Tahir questioned them about who the NSA considers appropriate to surveil, referencing in particular US allies such as Germany. The representatives specified, “We do not generate the intelligence requirements,” but also stated that “Germany is not our enemy but would we have foreign national interest from an intelligence perspective on what’s going on across the globe.”
While the NSA does not define US intelligence priorities (most often, requests for intelligence come from the CIA, FBI, and other federal agencies, as well as from the US diplomatic corps), it is uniquely equipped with technology, legal support, and strategic advantage. These features are due to US communications infrastructure access that allows for gathering intelligence not only on terrorist activities, but a broad spectrum of of intelligence on any number of issues – for example, energy, oil, military procurement, and even how some UN votes will play out before they are held.
Industrial and diplomatic espionage
The Brazilian news outlet O Globo released several documents obtained from Edward Snowden, which included a slide on the PRISM program indicating an interest in a range of topics. The slide was entitled “A week in the Life of PRISM Reporting,” and it featured a list showing oil and military procurement as topics of interest on Venezuela, while energy, narcotics, internal security, and political affairs were listed as topics of interest relating to Mexico. Other documents showed that Brazil was an important intelligence target in Latin America, and that Brazilian telecommunications companies had cooperated in obtaining data.
Following these revelations, the US Ambassador to Brazil, Thomas A. Shannon Jr., said that some of the information published in O Globo was inaccurate, and announced an investigation into the allegations stemming from the publication. A few weeks later, journalist Glenn Greenwald testified to the Brazilian Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense (CRE), revealing a letter written by Shannon (then Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs) in 2009 to General Alexander, in which he thanked the NSA for “deep insight into the plans and intentions” of participants of the Fifth Summit of Americas. The letter continued by anticipating the Organization of American States General Assembly and expressing hopes that the NSA would obtain more important intelligence information for US diplomatic efforts.
Another document provided by Edward Snowden appeared in the Brazilian magazine Época detailing how NSA signals intelligence capabilities were used to successfully undermine Brazil’s mediation attempts at the UN Security Council during negotiations over Iran sanctions. In effect, surveillance of UN Security Council partners helped the US determine the optimal moment to push for a vote on sanctions. The vote was advanced and succeeded in spite of a signed agreement having being reached by Iran, with the support of Brazil and Turkey.
A summary of the US Intelligence Community budget for fiscal year 2013 states that the top five mission objectives for the community are: combating terrorism, stopping the spread of nuclear and other unconventional weapons, warning U.S. leaders about critical events overseas, defending against foreign espionage, and conducting cyber-operations. While the report on how the US was able to monitor a UN vote on Iran sanctions seems to fit with the second mission objective, this sort of surveillance is clearly of a more diplomatic nature than a security concern.
Communications between aides of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, as well as those of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, were also of interest to the NSA, according to a recent TV Globo interview with Glenn Greenwald. Brazil Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo called the spying “an attack on our country’s sovereignty.”
It is still unclear what proportion of the NSA’s activities is dedicated to gathering intelligence for diplomacy and counterterrorism purposes. How the NSA authorizes gathering of so much information on diplomatic negotiations in the UN Security Council and in particular US allies is also not altogether clear.
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[…] Communications between aides of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, as well as those of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, were also of interest to the NSA, according to a recent TV Globointerview with Glenn Greenwald. Brazil Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo called the spying “an attack on our country’s sovereignty.” http://www.transcend.org/tms/2013/09/nsa-signals-intelligence-industrial-and-diplomatic-espionage/ […]