Such communications included those of "officials of the executive branch including the White House, cabinet departments, and independent agencies , the US House of Representatives and Senate member and staff and the US federal court system including, but not limited to, the supreme court ". It is not clear whether any communications involving members of US Congress or the federal courts have been included in the raw data provided by the NSA, nor is it clear how or why the NSA would be in possession of such communications.
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In , however, the New York Times reported on "the agency's attempt to wiretap a member of Congress, without court approval, on an overseas trip". The NSA is required by law to target only non-US persons without an individual warrant, but it can collect the content and metadata of Americans' emails and calls without a warrant when such communication is with a foreign target. US persons are defined in surveillance legislation as US citizens, permanent residents and anyone located on US soil at the time of the interception, unless it has been positively established that they are not a citizen or permanent resident.
Moreover, with much of the world's internet traffic passing through US networks, large numbers of purely domestic communications also get scooped up incidentally by the agency's surveillance programs.
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The document mentions only one check carried out by the NSA on the raw intelligence, saying the agency will "regularly review a sample of files transferred to ISNU to validate the absence of US persons' identities". It also requests that the Israelis limit access only to personnel with a "strict need to know".
Israeli intelligence is allowed "to disseminate foreign intelligence information concerning US persons derived from raw Sigint by NSA" on condition that it does so "in a manner that does not identify the US person". Although Israel is one of America's closest allies, it is not one of the inner core of countries involved in surveillance sharing with the US - Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This group is collectively known as Five Eyes.
The relationship between the US and Israel has been strained at times, both diplomatically and in terms of intelligence. In the top-secret intelligence community budget request, details of which were disclosed by the Washington Post , Israel is identified alongside Iran and China as a target for US cyberattacks. While NSA documents tout the mutually beneficial relationship of Sigint sharing, another report, marked top secret and dated September , states that the relationship, while central to US strategy, has become overwhelmingly one-sided in favor of Israel. In another top-secret document seen by the Guardian, dated , a senior NSA official points out that Israel aggressively spies on the US.
Later in the document, the official is quoted as saying: "One of NSA's biggest threats is actually from friendly intelligence services, like Israel. There are parameters on what NSA shares with them, but the exchange is so robust, we sometimes share more than we intended.
The memorandum of understanding also contains hints that there had been tensions in the intelligence-sharing relationship with Israel. At a meeting in March between the two agencies, according to the document, it was agreed that the sharing of raw data required a new framework and further training for Israeli personnel to protect US person information.
Pollard Motivated As Much By Money as Israel, Investigator Says
It is not clear whether or not this was because there had been problems up to that point in the handling of intelligence that was found to contain Americans' data. However, an earlier US document obtained by Snowden, which discusses co-operating on a military intelligence program, bluntly lists under the cons: "Trust issues which revolve around previous ISR [Israel] operations. The Guardian asked the Obama administration how many times US data had been found in the raw intelligence, either by the Israelis or when the NSA reviewed a sample of the files, but officials declined to provide this information.
Nor would they disclose how many other countries the NSA shared raw data with, or whether the Fisa court, which is meant to oversee NSA surveillance programs and the procedures to handle US information, had signed off the agreement with Israel. In its statement, the NSA said: "We are not going to comment on any specific information sharing arrangements, or the authority under which any such information is collected.
A video shared by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed the year-old kissing the ground upon arrival. Netanyahu then welcomed Pollard and his wife Esther with a prayer before handing an Israeli passport to the Texas-born former prisoner. Pollard, who obtained Israeli nationality whilst in jail, said he and his wife were "ecstatic to be home at last after 35 years, and we thank the people and the prime minister of Israel for bringing us home.
Jonathan Pollard
Pollard is a former US Navy intelligence officer. He was caught selling classified documents in and given a life sentence two years later. Israel lobbied for years to secure Pollard's early release. He finally left a North Carolina prison in after serving 30 years. The former spy remained subject to a curfew, had to wear a wrist monitor, and was prohibited from working for any company that lacked US government monitoring software on its computer systems.
The case proved to be one of the most contentious issues between the two allies for nearly three decades. At the time of his arrest, Pollard said he gave classified documents to Israel because Washington failed to pass on important information. However, some intelligence officials have said that he also offered information to other countries. The US Justice Department announced in November that Pollard had completed his parole, clearing the way for him to move to Israel 35 years after he was arrested.
Israel initially denied Pollard had spied for them. However, in , Israel made Pollard a citizen, and he is widely seen as a hero there. Three years later the Jewish state admitted he was their agent. Israel raided the Palestinian Liberation Organization's Tunis headquarters in in an operation that left 60 people dead.