New Greenwald Revelation: ‘Widest Reaching’ NSA Program Accesses ‘Nearly Everything’ User Does Online
On Wednesday morning, Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald revealed information about a National Security Agency program called XKeyscore, which the agency itself called the “‘widest-reaching’ system for developing intelligence from the internet.”
Working from training slides leaked by Edward Snowden, Greenwald described the program as a “simple on-screen form” that allows analysts access to “‘nearly everything a typical user does on the internet,’ including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata.”
Targeted surveillance of U.S. citizens requires FISA approval, but the technology still allows analysts to sweep up vast amounts of information on U.S. citizens through their contact with foreign nationals—which may have been the program’s overriding intent.
This information about XKeyscore would seem to confirm Snowden’s claim in his initial video interview that “I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email.” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers had strongly disputed this allegation, saying such access was “impossible.”
Greenwald foreshadowed these new revelations last Sunday on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, defying senior NSA officials to contradict Snowden’s description of the program when they testified before the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday.
Read the full article HERE.
[h/t The Guardian]
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