ARAŞTIRMA DOSYALARI | Yurtsever Bilgi Platformu

In the midst
of Congress looking into the U.S. Government surveillance programs, the
intelligence agencies ironically declassified multiple documents to offer
insight into exactly what they were doing.

Based on the
fact that leaker Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the information, they felt
to be more transparent with the public, they would release the following
information.

U.S. Court Rulings

Federal
Judge Ruling, 12/13/2013, that the NSA spying on domestic phone records is
“unconstitutional” [68 Pages, 2.94MB]

Department of Defense – Inspector General

Requirements
for the TRAILBLAZER and THINTHREAD Systems – [165
Pages, 13.6MB] – This is the official DOD/IG Investigation into the
TRAILBLAZER and THINTHREAD programs.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Surveillance
Warrants submited to FISA by the FBI in 2001 [5 Pages,
1.63MB] – FBI will not accept these requests due to the fact that each warrant
is in an individual file, and requires consent under the Privacy Acts.
They are not centralized file in one location, or available as requested.

Electronic
Surveillance at the Department of Justice, 1966-1967 File
62-HQ-318 [735 Pages, 33.7 MB](Source: GovernmentAttic.org)

Ultrasonic
Listening Devices / Wiretapping, 1945 – 1989 File
80-HQ-760 [1,076 Pages, 61.87 MB] (Source:GovernmentAttic.org)

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Telecom
Complaints about NSA Cooperation [30 Pages, 5.3MB] –

National Security Agency (NSA)

NSA
Contract with NARUS, allegedly the software firm that wrote the software for
tapping [17 Pages, 0.8 MB]

Order
for Business Records Collection Under the USA PATRIOT Act, Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court [17 Pages, 5.64 MB]

Declassified
FISA court documents on intelligence collection, 2008-2009
[379 Pages, 25.28MB] – Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
declassified documents about intelligence collection under Section 501 of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Sept. 10, 2013.

2009
Report on the NSA Bulk Collection Program for USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization
[7 Pages, 3.78 MB]

2011
Report on the NSA Bulk Collection Program for USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorizations
Report Collection[9 Pages, 4.33 MB]

FTC
Complaints Regarding NSA and Telecom Cooperation for Surveillance, 2013 [30
Pages, 5.21 MB]

Overview of Constitutional Challenges to NSA Collection Activities
and Recent Developments, April 1, 2014 [20
Pages, 0.4MB] – Beginning in the summer of 2013, media reports of
foreign intelligence activities conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA)
have been widely published. The reports have focused on two main NSA collection
activities approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978. The
first is the bulk collection of telephony metadata for domestic and
international telephone calls. The second involves the interception of
Internet-based communications and is targeted at foreigners who are not within
the United States, but may also inadvertently acquire the communications of
U.S. persons. As public awareness of these programs grew, questions about the
constitutionality of these programs were increasingly raised by Members of
Congress and others. This report provides a brief overview of these two
programs and the various constitutional challenges that have arisen in judicial
forums with respect to each.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)

Remarks
as delivered by James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence at an Open
Hearing on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Authorities, 9/26/13
[4 Pages, 0.2 MB]

08/6/2014 Release

Following
a declassification review by the Executive Branch, the Department of Justice
released on August 6, 2014, in redacted form, 38 documents relating to the
now-discontinued NSA program to collect bulk electronic communications metadata
pursuant to Section 402 of the FISA (“PRTT provision”). These documents
are also responsive to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic
Privacy Information Center.

Under the
program NSA was permitted to collect certain electronic communications metadata
such as the “to,” “from,” and “cc” lines of an email and the email’s time and
date. This collection was done only after the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court approved the government’s applications, and pursuant to
court order generally lasting 90 days. NSA was not permitted to collect
the content of any electronic communications. Like NSA’s bulk telephony
metadata program under FISA section 501, this program was subject to several
restrictions approved by the FISC, such as:

The
information could be used only for counterterrorism purposes.
The
information had to be stored in secure databases.
The
databases could be queried using an identifier such as an email address
only when an analyst had a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the
email address was associated with certain specified foreign terrorist
organizations that were the subject of FBI counterterrorism
investigations. The basis for that suspicion had to be documented in
writing and approved by a limited number of designated approving officials
identified in the Court’s Order. Moreover, if an identifier was
reasonably believed to be used by a United States person, NSA’s Office of
General Counsel would also review the determination to ensure that the
suspected association was not based solely on First Amendment-protected
activities.
NSA
was required to destroy the bulk metadata after a set period of time.

The
information released on August 6, 2014, together with documents previously
released, demonstrates the extent to which the IC sought and received FISC
approval to collect electronic communications metadata under the PRTT
provision, the oversight regime of internal checks over the program, and that
Congress was kept fully apprised of the status of NSA’s electronic metadata
collection. The documents released include several associated with
government applications and FISC orders authorizing the collection of metadata
under the PRTT program. Other documents included in this release include
the report of an end-to-end review of the PRTT program undertaken by the
Executive Branch, DOJ’s letter to the FISC seeking clarification on the FISC’s
authorization to collect metadata, and correspondence from the NSA Inspector
General.

After the
2009 discovery of certain compliance issues associated with NSA’s electronic
communications and telephony bulk metadata collection programs, the Government
took measures to strengthen compliance and oversight.

As
previously stated, this Internet communications metadata bulk collection
program has been discontinued. The Intelligence Community regularly
assesses the continuing operational value of all of its collection
programs. In 2011, the Director of NSA called for an examination of this
program to assess its continuing value as a unique source of foreign
intelligence information. This examination revealed that the program was
no longer meeting NSA’s operational expectations. Accordingly, after
careful deliberation, the Government discontinued the program, and the metadata
collected pursuant to this program has been purged.

In addition,
the DOJ also released four documents that do not directly relate to bulk
collection under the PRTT provision but are responsive to EPIC’s FOIA
request. Like the documents relating to the bulk collection, these
documents demonstrate the FISC’s judicial oversight of PRTT collection under
the FISA.

Office of
the Director of National Intelligence Public Affairs Office