The NSA shares the data it collects, including information on U.S. citizens, with the Israeli government, yet another document leaked by Edward Snowden has revealed.
The document, published by The Guardian, reveals that not only does the NSA share intelligence with its Israeli counterpart, the SIGINT National Unit (ISNU), but there are no legal boundaries to what can be shared.
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Even though the document, called a memorandum of understanding, states that the Israeli intelligence agency should respect Americans' privacy rights according to U.S. laws, it doesn't appear that there are any oversight mechanisms, and the intelligence shared is "raw." That means it's shared without being filtered, anonymized or, in NSA lingo, "minimized."
"Raw Sigint includes, but is not limited to, unevaluated and unminimized transcripts, gists, facsimiles, telex, voice and Digital Network Intelligence metadata and content," the document states.
The agreement, as reported by The Guardian, was reached in 2009 and allows Israel to retain for up to a year "any files containing the identities of U.S. persons," though the agreement states ISNU should consult with the NSA when it encounters such data.
The Israeli intelligence agency, on the other hand, must immediately destroy any data relating to U.S. government communications that might be shared, including "officials of the executive branch (including the White House, cabinet departments, and independent agencies), the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate (member and staff) and the U.S. federal court system (including, but not limited to, the supreme court)."
The INSU can also "disseminate foreign intelligence information concerning U.S. persons derived from raw Sigint by NSA," as long as they do it "in a manner that does not identify the U.S. person," according to the document.
In a statement sent to The Guardian, an NSA spokesperson said that "any U.S. person information that is acquired as a result of NSA's surveillance activities is handled under procedures that are designed to protect privacy rights."
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