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Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper famously (or infamously) told Congress the National Security Agency did not wittingly collect data on Americans. That turned out to be false.

More recently, Sen. Ron WydenRon WydenHow many Americans are swept up in the NSA's snooping programs? Overnight Finance: Yellen pushes back on GOP banking deregulation plan | Trump dodges on Russia sanctions bill | Trump floats tariffs on steel imports | Budget director touts MAGAnomics Dems on tax reform outreach: Talk is cheap MORE (D-Ore.) asked the current director of national intelligence, Dan CoatsDan CoatsHouse moves to bar Pentagon contracts with firms backing North Korean cyberattacks How many Americans are swept up in the NSA's snooping programs? Granting NSA permanent bulk surveillance authority would be a mistake MORE whether the government could use Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to collect communications it knows are entirely domestic.

Not to my knowledge. That would be illegal, Coats responded.

However, a subsequent letter from Coats office to Wydens office suggests the directors answer was incomplete. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence clarified that section 702(b)(4) plainly states we may not intentionally acquire any communication as to which the sender and all intended recipients are known at the time of acquisition to be located in the United States. The DNI interpreted Senator Wydens question to ask about this provision and answered accordingly.

FISA Section 702 authorizes two major NSA snooping programs. One is upstream collection, a process in which the NSA collects digital communications through the internets backbone undersea cables that process large volumes of internet traffic, which internet service providers send to the government. The government attempts to sort the data for foreign targets information and then is supposed to discard the rest.

We know some Americans information is retained when they communicate with a target, though minimization procedures are in place to protect their identities. Until recently, the information also could be swept up if they communicated about a target. The NSA recently announced it was ending about collection in the wake of a series of compliance incidents and privacy concerns. Some other Americans data may be swept up due to technological limitations that affect scope of collection. In other words, the NSA hasnt invested in infrastructure that can narrow their collection.

The problem is that we do not know how many Americans are swept up in 702 surveillance. We do not even have a rough estimate. A recent letter from privacy groups admonished Coats for refusing to provide information on the number of Americans swept up in 702 collection information that both he and his predecessor had promised to deliver.

Coats intransigence follows a familiar pattern of the NSA promising transparency and then reneging on those promises. Indeed, for the past six years the agency has flummoxed congressional oversight, with its reluctance to give the public hard data on this matter. When a powerful bureaucracy ignores both civil-society groups and its constitutional overseers, what is the solution?

Congress should step in and do its job, which requires going beyond public reprimands from a handful of members. The first branch has the power to legislate and write laws requiring the executive branch to reveal the number of Americans swept up in 702 collection. The letter from privacy groups recommended such a deep dive, but the intelligence community argued it would be counterproductively invasive. A clear legal mandate from Congress could outline how the search would be conducted, with accurate protections for Americans who potentially could be unmasked.

As to why the NSA would be so reluctant to answer such a simple request, privacy blogger Marcy Wheeler recently detailed a culture of ignorance that has emerged within the NSA in the wake of an July 2010 ruling by Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge John Bates concerning the deliberate collection of domestic content via upstream collection. In Wheeler's characterization, Bates said that if the government knew it had obtained domestic content, it had to delete the data, but if it didnt know, it could keep it. A perfect catch-22.

These instructions cultivate a practice of willful ignorance, which probably explains the hesitance of the intelligence community to answer Wyden's question publicly. A new law would nip this habit in the bud and place heavy incentives for transparency. Until a new law is passed, privacy advocates will be at the mercy of the NSAs mood.

Civil-society groups have nobly tried to fill the gap where Congress has been lacking in its oversight and lawmaking role. It is imperative then that Section 702 be updated substantially, before it is reauthorized at the end of the year. Both Americans privacy rights and the intelligence community stand to benefit from clearer legal boundaries. It is Congress job to hold the executive branchs feet to the fire the very notion of the separation of powers, of checks and balances and of a free democracy depend on it.

Jonathan Haggerty (@RplusLequalsJLH) is a research assistant at the R Street InstituteandArthur Rizer (@ArthurRizer) is the national security and justice policy director.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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How many Americans are swept up in the NSA's snooping programs? - The Hill (blog)

Staff Reporter

Windhoek-The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has explained that employment and unemployment rates are derived from the labour force or the economically active population. In Namibia, this population is 1,026,268 people, and out of this about 676,885 persons are employed (66 percent).

The unemployment rate among the youth is 43.4 percent for those in the 15 to 34 year old age bracket. This age bracket adopted by the NSA is the official definition of youth, as recommended by Africa Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for the purpose of international comparisons of labour statistics.

The 70 percent unemployment rates in the age group 15 to 19 years, which recently made headline news in the press and on social media must be seen in relation to the labour force population of that age group, which is 51,725 persons, the NSA said.

The total population in this age group is 242,819 persons, of which majority of them (about 191,094 people or 78.7 percent) are regarded as economically inactive (in school and not available for work and those who are disabled), because they are still in school or training, or for other reasons like disabilities, explained the NSA spokesman Nelson Ashipala.

Ashipala noted that the survey results recorded 46,377 persons who are not in education and/or not in training either, plus 5,348 who are in education/training, which makes up 51,725 people in the age-group 15 to 19 years during the interview period in October/November of 2016.

As per International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions, work or employment take precedence over anything, and also the entire Labour Force Survey Analysis is always and has always been from 15 years and above. Hence, we cannot exclude them unless they state that they are not available for work either, because they are in school or for other reasons which makes them inactive, said Ashipala.

Historically, unemployment rates in this group has always been high due to the fact that many of those who found themselves in the labour force have low qualifications as well and the labour market is not able to absorb them.

The question that should be asked is: why do we find so many youths who are supposed to be in school now in the labour force, rather than questioning the validity of the results of the survey, which has been consistent in all the four surveys conducted by the NSA.

In fact, it is true that the picture should have shown many (if not all) of the 15 to 19 years to be in the category of economically inactive, as they should be in school. This means that there is a need for a socio-economic analysis on this matter and it also implies that the Ministry of Labour, through its labour inspectors, needs to look into the matter of minimum legal age of employment, Ashipala added.

In addition, the strict unemployment rate (people who have actively been looking for work during the four weeks prior to survey) for the youth aged 15 to 19 years is 51.3 percent. This figure is still high and it tells a story of the dire need for an income at this age (15 to 19 years), Ashipala noted.

The rest is here:
NSA explains youth unemployment statistics - New Era

As India resolvesto dissolve the Sikkim sector border standoff with Beijing through diplomatic channels, all eyes are on National Security Advisor Ajit Doval'slikely visit to Chinafor BRICS NSAs' meeting on 27 and 28 July.

If the NSA does end upvisitingBeijing, it will be a crucial trip and a probable step to resolve the almost-month-old border dispute. However, at a time when China remains unyielding in the face of the current crisis, Doval's traditional tough stance against Beijing raises doubts over whether any meaningful progress can be expected from his visit.

File image of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval with China's State Councillor, Yang Jiechi. PTI

Doval, who was famously characterised as 'the hawkish Doval' by former RAW chief AS Dulat, is known for his hardliner stance in negotiating border disputes with China.

His rare public interactions, since he assumed office of NSA, have revealed that Doval prefers depending on military solutions over ceding ground in compromises. When India's traditional policy in handling border disputes with its neighbours has propagated a defensive approach, it was Doval who pitched the concept of defensive-offensive and offensive foreign policy.

It was under Doval's leadership that India carried out surgical strikes against Pakistan, and it was the current NSA who remarked that 'India would not compromise on its territorial interests and sovereignty,' when asked about his views on negotiations with China.

An article inAsia Timesin 2016 commented on the said statement of Doval: "He (Doval) said at the Munich Security Conference in New Delhi in October 2014 that 'India would not compromise on its territorial interests', when the very purpose of the meetings of the Special Representatives of the two countries is to seek a compromise on the dispute."

The impact of Doval's policy views, which clearly pervades Modi government's foreign policy, has been markedly different from his predecessors so much that his ideas on China, Pakistan and India's territorial disputes are now commonly referred to as the Doval doctrine.Firstpost looked at his selective public remarks mostly made duringhis Nani Palkiwala Memorial Lecture, 2014 and the Lalit Doshi Memorial Lecture, 2015 to help decode his views on China in context of the current border row.

Answering a question about tackling China's growing might, Doval conceded that China's militaryis much more stronger than India, even as the former Intelligence Bureau directorhailedIndia's missile technology. He said that it was tough for India to match China's might in the next fifty years, but he advocated ramping up missile technology to target China's economic installations, which he said were the Dragon's only vulnerable spot.

These remarks were made during a public interaction on 27 August, 2010, as shown in this YouTube video, however,Firstpostcould not independently verify the source's veracity. Doval's past comments on China's 'bottomless territorial hunger' assumes importance in these times, as the NSA's visit to Beijing in the coming week could be a make-or-break situation on India-China border stalemate.

The NSA's past comments become crucialalso becauseChina is slowly increasing its naval presence in Indian Ocean region and has carried out military exercises in Tibet, even as the border standoff in Sikkim is going on.

Another report inThe Times of India,quoted Doval's remarks at theMunich Security Conference in 2014. Doval had said that even though relationship with China are "very important", India must not compromise on issues of sovereignty. "I would like to develop our relations to such an extent till the time our territorial and integral sovereignty ... we would not able to compromise on it," Doval said.

Doval's remarks gain significance at atimeChina isramping up the anti-India rhetoric,in what it views as an unprecedented dispute with New Delhi. India and China are locked in a standoff in the Doklam area in Sikkim sector near the Bhutan tri-junction for over three weeks after the Chinese army attempted to build a road in the disputed narrow stretch of land. China has made it clear that back channel negotiations will only bear fruit after India withdraws its troop.

It will be interesting to see whether Doval sticks to his hardliner approach towards Beijing at a time when China too shows no inclination to compromise. TheAsian Timesarticle had compared Doval's approach to his predecessors. The article stated, that while Narendra Modi under Doval's influence has stuck to requesting China to'reconsider' its received positions on existing disputes with India, Doval's predecessorBrajesh Mishra had clocked considerable progress in Sino-India ties and had been hopeful of reaching positive results.

Continue reading here:
Ajit Doval likely to visit China: NSA's famed 'Doval doctrine' and deconstructing India's stand on Beijing - Firstpost

Dear Sheikh Talal bin Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa,

I understand you are President of Bahrains National Security Agency (NSA), appointed by your relative the King of Bahrain last August under 2016s royal decree 66.

I write out of concern for human Rights defender Ebtisam Al Saegh, who I understand has been in NSA custody since July 3 when men wearing masks and carrying weapons seized her from her home.

According to reports I have received she has undergone a series of long and abusive interrogations over the last 10 days, some lasting more than 12 hours. For instance, I understand that she was removed from Isa Town Womens Detention Centre at 9am yesterday morning and not returned until 3 am this morning, and was again taken at noon today.

Those who have seen her are seriously alarmed about her health, and fear that she might be left with a permanent disability.

Two days after she was taken, her family lodged complaints with the Ministry of Interior Ombudsman Office and the National Institute for Human Rights. The following day - July 6 - masked men again raided her home, took all the mobile phones in the house, and said "your mother didn't cooperate with us.

As you know, she was previously summoned for interrogation by the NSA on May 26 and held for seven hours. On her release she was hospitalized, injured and traumatized. She said during those hours she was forced to stand throughout the interrogation, blindfolded, and sexually assaulted. She also says she was threatened with rape. She told me she was severely beaten and punched on the head and different parts of the body when she used human rights terms to describe her work, and that her interrogators threatened to harm her children.

I have known Ebtisam al Saegh for six years and I know she is not a liar. She told me that during the torture she was questioned about other Bahraini activists, about myself and about Human Rights First.

Im sure you are aware of the international outcry there was over what happened in May, and about her latest arrest, and the increased scrutiny the NSA now faces. Her case has been raised at the U.S. State Department and in the British parliament.

Since the NSAs powers of arrest were restored earlier this year, following devastating criticism of the agency and the stripping of some of its authority in 2011, a series of reports have emerged of detainees being tortured in NSA custody. We fear the abuse of Al Saegh is not an isolated incident.

Sheikh Al Khalifa, as president of the NSA you have some serious questions to answer about the conduct of those under your supervision.

Can you tell us how you have investigated the allegations of torture made in May, what your findings were and what action you have taken?

Can you also explain why Ebtisam Al Saegh has not been allowed access to a lawyer in the last 10 days, or why her family have not been permitted to see her?

Will you commit to investigating all allegations of mistreatment or torture committed by the NSA and hold those responsible to account?

Sheikh Al Khalifa, I am one of many worried about what is happening to Ebstisam al Saegh. Your speedy answers to these questions would be appreciated by us all.

The Morning Email

Wake up to the day's most important news.

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Questions for Head of Bahrain's NSA 10 Days After Ebtisam al Saegh's Arrest - HuffPost

A high-ranking official of the National Security Agency said in a talk here Wednesday that the electronic surveillance agency is working to improve its public relations in the wake of Edward Snowdens damaging leaks.

Jonathan Darby, the NSAs deputy chief of cybersecurity operations, said the agency realized it had to get out and talk more about what we do after Snowden in 2013 revealed ways in which U.S. spy agencies collect phone, email and other communications.

Darby contended that most of the Snowden-related stories in 2013 were twisted or dead-out wrong, and he pushed back on a movie glorifying the former NSA contractors actions, saying the leaks put peoples lives at risk.

Snowden fled to Moscow in June 2013 after he was identified as the source of information several newspapers printed about previously undisclosed NSA surveillance programs. Snowden remains in Russia, where he was granted asylum until 2020.

Before an audience of 180 at a Lancaster Rotary Club luncheon, Darby portrayed the NSA as scrupulously law-abiding and completely accountable to Congress and the courts.

If the law does not affirmatively give us the authority to take an action, we can not and we will not do it, said Darby, a Montana native who joined the NSA in 1983 as a foreign language analyst. We do not independently decide what to collect.

He said the $11-billion NSA is a joint military-civilian spy agency with the dual mission of intercepting foreign communications and protecting U.S. government communications.

This spy agency spies. Thats what we do, legally and within policy guidelines, he said.

Darby stressed that the NSA does not spy on Americans at home or abroad unless a federal judge approves it.

Also, if the communications of an American are intercepted incidentally through the valid targeting of a foreigner, the Americans communication is masked, he said. The procedures, in place for decades, have government and court approval, he said.

Darby defended a program, up for Congressional renewal this year, that allows the NSA to compel a U.S. communications company to turn over communications of noncitizens outside of the United States.

Saying the program prevents terrorist attacks, Darby pointed to the 2009 arrest of a man who planned a bombing on a New York City subway.

Darby pushed back against the perception that the NSA indiscriminately vacuums up all communications around the world.

He said the quantity of data the NSA collects is analogous to a dime on the floor of a basketball court.

Darby said NSA employees take an oath to defend the Constitution, including its guarantees of civil liberties.

Some will say that (strict oversight and legal restrictions) ties one arm behind our back, Darby said. As an NSAer, I say, Damn straight. Thats fine. Thats who we are as a country.

Asked about allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Darby said the NSA joined with the FBI and CIA in coming to that assessment.

It goes back to, Heres the facts, Darby said. We laid out the facts.

On cybersecurity, Darby said the country increasingly understands the threats to the nations computer networks and that existing security measures arent adequate for the long term.

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Edward Snowden's leaks has NSA in damage-control mode, spy agency official tells Lancaster audience - LancasterOnline