http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-nsa-slide-you-havent-seen/2013/07/10/32801426-e8e6-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html
The NSA slide you
haven’t seen
· More
By , 8:53 AM E-mail the writer
Recent debate over U.S. government surveillance
has focused on the information that American technology companies secretly
provide to the National Security Agency. But that is only one of the ways the
NSA eavesdrops on international communications.
A classified NSA slide obtained by The
Washington Post and published here for the first time lists “Two Types of
Collection.”
Gallery
One is PRISM, the NSA program that collects information
from technology companies, which was first revealed in reports by the Post and
Britain’s Guardian newspaper last month. The slide also shows a separate
category labeled “Upstream,” described as accessing “communications on fiber
cables and infrastructure as data flows past.”
The interaction between Upstream and PRISM —
which could be considered “downstream” collection because the data is already
processed by tech companies — is not entirely clear from the slide. In
addition, its description of PRISM as “collection directly from the servers” of
technology giants such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook has been disputed by
many of the companies involved. (They say access to user data is legal and
limited).
However PRISM works, the NSA slide makes clear
that the two collection methods operate in parallel, instructing analysts that
“You Should Use Both.” Arrows point to both “Upstream” and “PRISM.”
The overall heading of the slide is “FAA 702
Operations” – a reference to a 2008 law that enabled collection on U.S. soil of
communications of foreigners thought to be overseas without an individual
warrant from a court, including when the foreigners are communicating with
someone in the United States. The law says the collection may be for a foreign
intelligence purpose, which includes terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation
or cyber-security.
The slide also shows a crude map of the undersea
cable network that carries data from either side of North America and onto the
rest of the world. As a story in Sunday’s Post made clear, these
undersea cables are essential to worldwide data flows – and to the surveillance
capabilities of the U.S. government and its allies.
This slide bears many resemblances to one published by the Guardian on June 8,
shortly after the initial disclosures about PRISM. But the Guardian’s slide
shows an undersea cable map of most of the world. The one obtained by the Post
shows mainly sections of North America. It is not clear why the slides vary in
this way.
Both slides have circles attached to arrows
suggesting possible collection points, but they cover areas too broad to
discern where NSA accesses fiber-optic cable networks. The slides also list
code names under the Upstream program.
The Post version lists Fairview, Stormbrew,
Blarney and Oakstar but does not describe any of them. The Guardian slide lists
Fairview and Blarney but has two others blacked out.
The Post has previously reported that Blarney
gathers up metadata – describing who is speaking to whom and through what
networks and devices – as data flows through the Internet’s backbone.
For Sunday’s story, the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence issued a statement defending its collection methods as
crucial to protecting national security.
“As always,” the statement said, “the
Intelligence and law enforcement communities will continue to work with all
members of Congress to ensure the proper balance of privacy and protection for
American citizens.”
Staff reporter Ellen Nakashima contributed to
this report.
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