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NSA Shares Intel On Americans With Israel

An anonymous reader writes "The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper is reporting that the NSA shares the raw intel collected on Americans with Israel. From the article: 'Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the U.S. government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis. ... The deal was reached in principle in March 2009, according to the undated memorandum, which lays out the ground rules for the intelligence sharing. The five-page memorandum, termed an agreement between the U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies "pertaining to the protection of U.S. persons," repeatedly stresses the constitutional rights of Americans to privacy and the need for Israeli intelligence staff to respect these rights. But this is undermined by the disclosure that Israel is allowed to receive "raw Sigint" – signal intelligence. The memorandum says: "Raw Sigint includes, but is not limited to, unevaluated and unminimized transcripts, gists, facsimiles, telex, voice and Digital Network Intelligence metadata and content."'

14 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. Legal and NSA by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Informative

    are mutually exclusive

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:Legal and NSA by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I think it is time to 'clean house' in Washington.

      PLEASE....vote out whoevers currently in office, and vote in anyone that will at least make lip service that this type of thing will end.

      Personally, I'm less worried about a terrorist attack ending my life, than I am of my govt running roughshod over my privacy and my rights.

      The giving it willingly to foreign countries' intelligence agencies is just painful icing on the cake.

      Why is there not more of an uproar over this? Are US citizens that scared? Or do they just not give a fuck anymore for the rights that so many have died for over the years to protect for us....?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re:Legal and NSA by losfromla · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't know but did you see the last episode of "Breaking Bad"?

      --
      Only I can judge you.
    3. Re:Legal and NSA by ron_ivi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You can't vote out bureaucrats. They stay in place from administration to administration and really run things.

      You can't vote them out because they and their partners have acccess to all this sigint on their competitors. I imagine any politician who did vote to defund such agencies would be quickly be labeled as a threat to national security and re-educated.

    4. Re:Legal and NSA by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Fake debt, false concern.

      To WHOM is this debt owed? By whom?

      It is a macroeconomic fiction, perpetrated to manage large-scale social control, and to impose hierarchies of Elite governance, through feudal taxation models.

      You don't possess US Citizenship. You rent it, through various Federal taxes, and lose it through non-compliance with the collectors. Your supposed "citizenship" entitles you to no actual meaningful role in policy or governance, and is a dubious merit. Think of it as being a "Trustee" in the pen.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
  2. General Petraeus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Made comments critical of Israel, next thing you know his Gmail documenting a fling with what's-her-name is brought out. Coincidence? I think not!

  3. How close is this to treason? by AtariEric · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The NSA is *spying* on us, and aiding a foreign country with the data. Seriously, what separates this from treason? The fact that they're not betraying the government, just the people?

    --
    Don't trust any concentration of power.
    1. Re:How close is this to treason? by LMariachi · · Score: 5, Informative

      Jonathan Pollard got life in prison for passing classified data to Israel.

  4. Re:that's not good. by TWiTfan · · Score: 5, Funny

    If it makes you feel any better, the Israeli government pinky-promised that they wouldn't use it for anything bad. And that's a PINKY promise, mister!

    --
    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  5. It is treason by Phoenix666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What the NSA, White House, Congress, and Judiciary (ie. FISA courts) are doing is un-Constitutional, meaning you can't get more illegal and deserving of maximum penalty than that. Murder is terrible and wrong, but it does not rise to the level of undermining the basis for our very society and the social contract that binds people to government and vice versa. With murder, one person dies; with undermining our system of government you get chaos, civil war, deprivation, demise of the rule of law, and masses of men, women, and children dying. Which is worse?

    So what we're looking at right now, folks, and I mean all of us on the political Right and Left, is an entire government that has colluded to violate the Constitution, that is, the social contract that separates our country and society from Malthusian consequences. There can be no penalty harsh enough to punish them for what they have done. If we do not, as a People, levy that punishment on them now, immediately, then we deserve the misery of the slavery that meek acquiescence consigns us to.

    --
    Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
  6. Still waiting for US Govt to clarify 'acts of war' by X.25 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    US said they consider cyber-attacks to be an act of war, so I am wondering when will US Government clarify who gave them authorization to declare war on so many countries, including 'allies'.

    Because what NSA has been doing for years were acts of war, according to US Government.

  7. I don't know yet, and I don't want to find out. by Valdrax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, Americans? What do you care? What do you have to hide!?

    I don't know yet. Personally, I don't want to find out after the fact that there was something I would have wanted hidden. Maybe I'm doing nothing wrong by today's standards, but who knows how we'll think about ourselves 10, 20, or 40 years from now?

    Think of how many older people you know/knew who lived through the days when racism was still openly practiced and encouraged. Think of people who have mellowed their views about homosexuality only in the past decade. Think of how people used to smoke in their homes around their children. Or how they used to spank children that misbehaved. Or let them ride in the back of a truck with no seat belt. Or let them run around naked and even take pictures of it.

    If you grew up in a rural area, you probably remember someone having hunting rifles on a gun rack in the back of their truck at school or maybe you even carried a pocketknife to school. Maybe you used to be the kind of geek that wore a trenchcoat before Columbine killed that fashion off.

    So who knows what innocent thing I'm doing today that will be disapproved of later? Maybe it'll just be embarrassing. Maybe it'll be blackmail worthy. Maybe it'll even be grounds for suspecting me as some kind of future or current criminal. I mean, how many Muslims in America thought their social networks would be under heavy scrutiny before 9/11?

    We shouldn't have to live in perpetual fear of the future or of the judgment of our peers. We need a personal space in which to unwind and to develop our thoughts before they're ready to take before public scrutiny. We need privacy to become ourselves and not just an empty reflection of what others expect from us.

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  8. Re:In other words... by shaitand · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We provide most of the Israeli arms. Their jets, missiles, guns, etc are largely supplied by the US. The United States gave Israel nuclear arms technology, an unprecedented move on the part of the US indicating they have the highest level of trust with the United States.

    You don't need to draw on any racist conspiracy theory to be aware that there is a huge Christian/Jewish political base in the United States. Additionally, there are a large number of wealthy Jewish families entrenched in the top tiers of US privatized banking system including most of the Federal Reserve board. That is a massive hammer of political and financial power that pretty much guarantees the US will never be in bed with any nation as tightly as Israel.

    None of this is a secret, it is a big part of why the US is now such a big target for Muslim terrorist groups. The US hasn't been fighting these groups directly but has been supplying arms, funds, technology, to prop up Israel against Muslim nations and in more recent times the "war on terror" has given the excuse for more direct involvement.

    This part is speculation, the above is well known, on the record, and not denied. If there is a magical wave of dissent suddenly springing out of nowhere in the past few years in the Muslim nations where the US has been taking interest and action I would be completely shocked. Recent events and unrest in Saudi Aradia, Egypt, Syria, etc definitely have the smell of the CIA with it's hands untied playing a lot of the same games it's already admitted to playing using other nations against the USSR in the cold war.

    Also, there is data sharing with common wealth nations exposed in other memos already leaked just not on this level. There could be similar sharing programs with them that aren't part of this particular set of leaked information.

  9. Re:that's not good. by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 5, Funny

    If it makes you feel any better, the Israeli government pinky-promised that they wouldn't use it for anything bad. And that's a PINKY promise, mister!

    Right; I mean, it's not like Mossad has a reputation for being disreputable or anything...

    And, one should keep in mind that Israel is basically the 51st state so It's not as if the NSA is sharing this data with foreigners.

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow