NSA agents illegally spied on love interests ‘only’ 12 times
US lawmakers and intelligence community higher-ups have
consistently asserted that instances of NSA analysts abusing
their power is rare to the point of irrelevance. Yet on top of
the dozen violations, officials are investigating two more cases
and considering a third.
The revelations were made public late Thursday in a letter from
NSA inspector general George Ellard to Senator Charles Grassley
(R-Iowa).
Grassley requested a report from the inspector general last month
after a report surfaced indicating intelligence agents had
assigned a shorthand code to describe their internal activity.
Signal intelligence, for example, is expressed with SIGINT.
Another, LOVEINT, was apparently used when agents would use
surveillance on a specific love interest.
The US Department of Justice was notified about at least six of
the 12 cases, although the offending employee was often allowed
to retire from the NSA before they could be punished. In other
cases workers were suspended without pay, had their promotions
cancelled, or saw brief reductions in pay or rank.
“Where (a media report) says we’re sweeping up the
communications of civilians overseas that aren’t targets of
collection systems is wrong,” NSA Director General Keith
Alexander said in a congressional hearing Thursday. “If our
folks do that, we hold them accountable.”
One case consisted of a civilian NSA employee, who after
suspecting her husband of being unfaithful, searched for foreign
telephone numbers she previously found in his phone. She resigned
before any disciplinary action could be taken.
In 2005 another employee was caught monitoring his foreign
national girlfriend “Without an authorized purpose” for at
least one month. He claimed, according to the inspector general’s
letter, he was attempting to find out if she was
“involved” with any foreign officials or participating in
activity that “might get him in trouble.”
Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper,
testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday,
encouraged lawmakers not to believe the headlines.
“The press claims evidence of thousands of privacy
violations,” Alexander said. “This is false and
misleading. According to NSA’s independent Inspect General that
have been only 12 substantiated cases of willful violations over
10 years, essentially one per year.”
But Senator Grassley was unsatisfied, saying “We
shouldn’t tolerate even one misuse of this program.”
Civil liberty advocates, a community of lawyers and concerned
citizens that has long been at odds with the NSA, remain
unimpressed by the latest news.
“What’s clear about the instances of abuse is that these have
nothing to do with terrorism,” Anthony Romero, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union, told NBC.
“This is about individuals prying into the personal lives of
the people closest to them. It’s an abuse of government data that
should not be in the government’s hands.”
Copyright: RT
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