DUSHANBE, July 2, 2014, Asia-Plus – An Article “Court Gave NSA Broad Leeway in Surveillance, Documents Show” by Ellen Nakashina and Barton Gellman that was published by
The Washington Post
on June 30 notes that virtually no foreign government is off-limits for the National Security Agency (NSA), which has been authorized to intercept information “concerning” all but four countries, according to top-secret documents.
According to the article, the United States has long had broad no-spying arrangements with those four countries — Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — in a group “known collectively with the United States as the Five Eyes.” But a classified 2010 legal certification and other documents reportedly indicate the NSA has been given a far more elastic authority than previously known, one that allows it to intercept through U.S. companies not just the communications of its overseas targets but any communications about its targets as well.
The article notes that the certification — approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and included among a set of documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — lists 193 countries that would be of valid interest for U.S. intelligence. Among those countries are all the Central Asian nations, including Tajikistan.
The certification reportedly also permitted the agency to gather intelligence about entities including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The article notes that the NSA is not necessarily targeting all the countries or organizations identified in the certification, the affidavits and an accompanying exhibit; it has only been given authority to do so.
