[ The Guardian - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents ]
• Secret deal places no legal limits on use of data by Israelis
• Only official US government communications protected
• Agency insists it complies with rules governing privacy
• Read the NSA and Israel's 'memorandum of understanding'
The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.
Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA
and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US 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 disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacy
of US citizens caught in the dragnet. The intelligence community calls
this process "minimization", but the memorandum makes clear that the
information shared with the Israelis would be in its pre-minimized
state.
-[Full Article]
