An internal audit reveals that the NSA overstepped its legal authority thousands of times a year since 2008, the Washington Post’s Barton Gellman is reporting tonight. Among the most embarrassing revelations: the agency mixed up Washington, D.C.’s area code (202) with Egypt’s country code (20), unintentionally intercepting a “large number” of calls placed by U.S. citizens in the nation’s capital.
That time the NSA misread area code 202 as country code 20 & grabbed all the calls from Washington instead of Egypt. http://t.co/ixFqsiM7xB
— Barton Gellman (@bartongellman) August 16, 2013
It seems odd to me that NSA can't "quickly determine" if a foreign phone is in the United States.
— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) August 16, 2013
That was just a simple mistake, though, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is on it.
https://twitter.com/hsamyoung4vt/status/368185795762327553
https://twitter.com/MaxwellEileen/status/368184891110080512
The NSA spin on this @bartongellman bombshell is something special http://t.co/ToTOKfSLOR
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) August 16, 2013
The NSA's argument is basically: Well, we spy on so many people that 2,700 violations are no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) August 16, 2013
Obama officials: Maybe a mistake by #NSA every now and then. Internal audit: 2,776 violations in just 1 year in just 1 metro area
— James Wheeler (@wheelertweets) August 16, 2013
NSA audit counts 2,776 incidents of unauthorized collection, storage, access, distribution of protected communication http://t.co/dgYjSh3xUS
— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) August 16, 2013
To be clear, that was only an audit spanning 12 months, May 2011 to May 2012. There may have been more violations by NSA before and after.
— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) August 16, 2013
Also, this audit only covers NSA’s Fort Meade headquarters and other facilities in the Washington area.
— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) August 16, 2013
Audit only includes incidents at NSA HQ & facilities in the DC area. Number would apparently be much higher if it took into account all ops.
— Sunny (@sunnyright) August 16, 2013
WaPo: NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times.
Obama: "Strong oversight by all 3 branches of gov and clear safeguards to prevent abuse"
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) August 16, 2013
If Obama knew about this WashPost story when he gave that speech on Friday, his comments were TOTALLY inadequate
— marcus baram (@mbaram) August 16, 2013
OK, BO. You showed today you don’t know squat about #Egypt. Can we expect a little more informed statement about #NSA tomorrow?
— Colley Cibber (@situate) August 16, 2013
Obama’s on vacation. Maybe the White House could send out David Frum to explain.
One in 10 NSA rule-breaking incidents occurred because of typographical error.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) August 16, 2013
These are management errors, not the stuff of a police state. Perspective, please
— David Frum (@davidfrum) August 16, 2013
.@davidfrum You do understand one of the absolute terrors of a police state are precisely the management errors?
— Kip Manley (@kiplet) August 16, 2013
Apparently we're too incompetent to be police state RT @davidfrum: These are management errors, not stuff of police state. Perspective, pls
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 16, 2013
@davidfrum Don't worry, NSA, if you want to spy on an American, just do it and claim typo afterward. That's an established defense now.
— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) August 16, 2013
@blakehounshell @davidfrum and what about all the intel they missed during that period from egypt? seems like it would be valuable about now
— Dafna Linzer (@DafnaLinzer) August 16, 2013
