Latest leak shines a light on how the NSA operates
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IN-HOUSE newsletters from the National Security Agency have been released online — part of the mountain of documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The Intercept news website, whose founding editors were the first to publish documents leaked by Snowden, has released the first batch of nine years’ worth of newsletters, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the NSA’s work.
The newsletters reveal efforts to eavesdrop on a Russian crime boss, the search in Iraq for possible weapons of mass destruction and help with interrogations at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
An article in the May 2003 newsletter describes how the NSA spent “many months” obtaining the phone number of a Russian organized crime figure so his calls could be intercepted.
The State Department asked the NSA for information on the boss of the Tambov crime network in Russia — a figure known only as “Mr Kumarin” — and whether he had any ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kumarin was later convicted of fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 14 years behind bars.
In a newsletter article published in December 2003, an NSA liaison officer recounts a temporary duty assignment at Guantanamo Bay where the task was to provide intelligence to support Defense Department, CIA and FBI interrogations of detainees picked up off battlefields.
The job entailed relaying information back to the NSA, based at Fort Meade in Maryland. But sometimes the NSA would share “sensitive NSA-collected technical data” to help the interrogators.
According to Intercept, “neither the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s detention and rendition program (which confirmed the existence of two CIA facilities at Guantanamo) nor a 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee report on detainee abuse by the military addresses the role of the NSA, at least in the heavily censored versions that have been made public.”
It was serious business, but in their off-duty hours, NSA liaisons at Guantanamo could visit the Tiki Bar, or enjoy water sports, such as sailing and snorkeling.
Become a diver in weeks
“Learn how to operate a boat in a weekend,” the liaison wrote. “Become a certified open-water scuba diver within weeks. ... The local dive shop has all the gear and tips to ensure a perfect outing.”
In a more taxing assignment, the newsletter reports on a rendition where six Algerians, linked to a plan to bomb the US Embassy in Sarajevo, were moved from Bosnia to Guantanamo in early 2002.
The US rendition program involved secretly sending foreign captives to other countries that have more lax practices for the humane treatment of detainees.
A Bosnian judge ordered the Algerians released for lack of evidence, but the US persuaded the Bosnian government to turn them over to US custody.
An NSA employee wrote about the movement in the newsletter, as part of a series replete with stories about working overtime for the agency.
As soon as they were released, the Algerians were to be transported from Sarajevo to another Bosnia city and then on to Guantanamo. The employee’s job was to watch the route for a possible ambush from a military convoy.
The Algerians’ release “was delayed for several hours due to a large demonstration outside the building they were being held in,” and “the convoy did not leave Sarajevo until after midnight,” she wrote.
One of the Algerians, Lakhdar Boumediene, went on to file a lawsuit that led to a landmark decision in June 2008 that Guantanamo detainees had the right to challenge their detention in federal court.
Other tales came from the NSA’s work in Iraq.
NSA staff researched locations for weapons of mass destruction material, although claims about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction proved false.
NSA also provided timely intelligence support, including a “summary of contacts” that helped secure the capture of a top Baathist official in May 2003.
Aziz Sajih Al-Numan, accused of torture and murder in Iraq, was the king of diamonds in the US Central Command’s deck of cards of most-wanted Iraqis.
The newsletter boasted: “Al-Numan was caught within 25 hours after the Army contacted NSA to request support.”
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