Another FISA Document Dump from ODNI

20 orders and opinions of the Foreign Surveillance Court, 11 pleadings and other documents submitted to the Court, 24 documents provided to Congress, and 20 reports, training slides, and other internal documents describing the legal basis for the programs and how they operate.  The information released today includes a number of internal NSA documents, training slides and internal guidance, which demonstrate the care with which NSA’s foreign intelligence collection pursuant to Section 501 is run, managed, and overseen. Also included is the United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 which details policies and procedures to ensure NSA’s missions and functions are conducted in a manner that safeguards the constitutional rights of U.S persons, and two opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court concerning a now-discontinued NSA bulk electronic communications metadata program.  These documents were properly classified and their declassification was not done lightly.

Reports to Congress

The Attorney General’s Annual Reports on Requests for Access to Business Records under FISA for Years 2006-2012

• 2006
• 2007
• 2008
• 2009
• 2010
• 2011
• 2012

April 10, 2009 NSA notification memorandum to SSCI on the status of the on-going NSA-initiated end-to-end review of its bulk telephony metadata programs conducted pursuant to Section 501 of FISA, and bulk electronic communications metadata program conducted pursuant to Section 402 of FISA. June 29, 2009 NSA notification memorandum to SSCI on the status of the on-going NSA-initiated end-to-end review of its bulk telephony metadata program conducted pursuant to Section 501 of FISA, and bulk electronic communications metadata program conducted pursuant to Section 402 of FISA. December 1, 2010 NSA memorandum to SSCI explaining that NSA does not acquire cell site location information pursuant to the bulk electronic communications metadata program, and with the exception of a limited sampling for testing purposes, does not acquire such information pursuant to the bulk telephony metadata program. Production to Congress of a May 23, 2006 Government Memorandum of Law in support of its Application to the FISC for authorization to conduct bulk telephony metadata collection under Section501 of FISA.  Included with the Memorandum of Law is a copy of United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18), which prescribes policies and procedures, and assigns responsibilities, to ensure that NSA’s signals intelligence activities are conducted in a manner that is appropriate under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. April 27, 2005 Prepared Testimony from Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States, and Robert S. Mueller, III, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice Before the Select Committee on Intelligence discussing the government’s use of USA PATRIOT Act authorities in combating international terrorism.

FISC Submissions,  Opinions and Orders

Opinion of the FISC granting the Government’s application seeking the collection of bulk electronic communications metadata pursuant to Section 402 of FISA, the Pen Register and Trap and Trace (PR/TT) provision. Opinion of the FISC granting the Government’s application seeking to re-instate NSA’s bulk electronic communications metadata program following the Government’s suspension of the program for several months to address compliance issues identified by the Government and brought to the Court’s attention. Order and Supplemental Order of the FISC in response to the Government’s reporting of a compliance incident related to NSA’s dissemination of certain query results discovered during NSA’s end-to-end review of its bulk telephony metadata program, and ordering the Government to report on a weekly basis, any disseminations of information from that program outside of NSA and provide further explanation of the incident in its final report upon completion of the end-to-end review. July 17, 2006 Court-ordered NSA Inspector General and General Counsel report on the adequacy of the management controls for the processing and dissemination of U.S. person information collected under NSA’s bulk telephony metadata program.  The report finds that although the NSA-designed management controls governing the processing, dissemination, security, and oversight of telephony metadata and U.S. person information are adequate, several aspects exceed the terms of the Court’s Order, and proposes additional controls to enhance the protection of US person information. August 17, 2006 NSA Presentation for the FISC regarding NSA’s bulk telephony metadata program pursuant to Section 501 of FISA, and notification of two compliance issues concerning the collection. September 1, 2009 NSA Presentation for the FISC regarding NSA’s bulk telephony metadata program pursuant to Section 501 of FISA for the purpose of demonstrating NSA’s compliance with the Court’s Orders, and NSA’s operational use of the bulk telephony metadata program in its counterterrorism missions while appropriately protecting privacy. September 5, 2006 Cover filing submission to the FISC of the standard minimization procedures governing the retention and dissemination by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of information received by FBI pursuant to Section 501 of FISA. May 8, 2009 Government Memorandum to the FISC providing preliminary notice of a compliance incident identified during the ongoing NSA-initiated end-to-end review of NSA’s bulk telephony metadata program under Section 501 of FISA. July 20, 2009 Order of the FISC approving the Government’s request for authorization to provide the application and orders in docket number BR 06-05 to congressional committees consistent with the Government’s congressional reporting requirements.

NSA Internal Procedures, Guidance, and Training Materials

United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) dated July 27, 1993, which prescribes policies and procedures designed to ensure that NSA’s missions and functions are conducted as authorized by law in a manner that is consistent with the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.  The directive sets forth the minimization policies and procedures regarding NSA’s SIGINT activities, including the rules for the collection, retention, and dissemination of information about U.S. persons. United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) dated January 25, 2011, which prescribes policies and procedures designed to ensure that NSA’s missions and functions are conducted as authorized by law in a manner that is consistent with the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.  The directive sets forth the minimization policies and procedures regarding NSA’s SIGINT activities, including the rules for the collection, retention, and dissemination of information about U.S. persons. Undated PowerPoint slide describing the requirements for verifying that only metadata, and not content, is collected consistent with Court order. Undated NSA summary of requirements for the collection of bulk telephony metadata under Section 501 of FISA January 8, 2007 NSA web—based training slides on NSA’s bulk telephony metadata program pursuant to Section 501 of FISA.  Topics include: 1) Court-ordered requirements; 2) the reasonable articulable suspicion (RAS) standard; 3) First Amendment considerations; and 4) Minimization procedures governing the accessing, sharing, retention, and dissemination of information. January 8, 2007 Interim Competency Test for NSA analysts on legal and compliance issues concerning queries of bulk telephony metadata acquired by NSA pursuant to Section 501 of FISA. January 8, 2007 NSA PowerPoint presentation, designed for use by NSA personnel with access to the bulk telephony metadata acquired by NSA pursuant to Section 501 of FISA, for purposes of performing analytical functions, including:

(1)  Court-ordered requirements; (2)  The reasonable articulable suspicion (RAS) standard; (3)  First Amendment considerations; and (4)  Minimization procedures governing the accessing, sharing, retention, and dissemination of information.

August 2009 NSA Cryptological School Course on Legal, Compliance, and Minimization Procedures.  These course materials, designed for NSA personnel provided access to bulk telephony and electronic communications metadata acquired pursuant to Section 501 of FISA and Section 402 of FISA respectively, include:

(1)   Background on constitutional constraints under the Fourth Amendment for NSA collection activities; (2)   Legal framework and applicable standards for collection, retention, dissemination of information under FISA and Executive Order 12333; (3)   Guidance on collection, processing, retention, and dissemination of information under United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18); and (4)   Oversight and compliance issues relating to access and use of SIGINT databases and information.

August 29, 2008 NSA memorandum providing guidance on NSA policy as to the applicable legal standards for querying bulk telephony metadata acquired pursuant to Section 501 of FISA, and bulk electronic communications metadata acquired pursuant to Section 402 of FISA. September 2008 Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations, which establishes the framework for the use of authorities and investigative methods to protect the United States from terrorism and other threats to the national security, and to further United States foreign intelligence objectives, in a manner consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States. NSA Core Intelligence Oversight Training materials relating to NSA signals intelligence collection activities, including:

(1) Executive Order 12333; (2) December 1982 DOD Procedures Governing the Activities of DOD Intelligence Components That Affect United States Persons (DoD 5240 1-R); (3) NSA/Central Security Service (CSS) Policy 1-23, Procedures Governing NSA/CSS Activities that Affect U.S. Persons, which establishes procedures and assigns responsibilities to ensure that the signals intelligence and information assurance missions of NSA and the Central Security Service are conducted in a manner consistent with the privacy rights of U.S. persons as required by law, executive orders, DOD policies and instructions, and internal policy; and (4) DoD Guidance for Reporting Questionable Intelligence Activities and Significant or Highly Sensitive Matters (DTM 08-052).

2011 NSA Course Materials regarding NSA’s bulk telephony metadata program pursuant to Section 501 of FISA, and NSA’s bulk electronic communications metadata program pursuant to Section 402 of FISA.  These materials contrast the differences between the authorities granted for the two programs, detail the limitations on accuse, use, and retention of information collected under these two programs, and explain the role of the two programs in the context of the broader set of NSA’s SIGINT authorities.

• Introduction
• Module 1
• Module 2
• Module 3
• Module 4
• Module 5
• Module 6 (for Analytic Personnel)
• Module 6 (for Technical Personnel)