NSA Did Mass Survellance Durring 2002 Utah Olympics - Former Top NSA official
EX-SPY SAYS NSA DID MASS SURVEILLANCE DURING UTAH
OLYMPICS
BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST ASSOCIATED PRESS Jun 2, 8:04 PM EDT
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A former top spy agency official
who was the target of a government leak investigation says the National
Security Agency conducted blanket surveillance in Salt Lake City during the
2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, according to court documents.
Ex-NSA official Thomas Drake wrote in a declaration released
Friday that the NSA collected and stored virtually all electronic
communications going into or out of the Salt Lake City area, including the
contents of emails and text messages.
"Officials in the NSA and FBI viewed the Salt Lake
Olympics Field Op as a golden opportunity to bring together resources from both
agencies to experiment with and fine tune a new scale of mass
surveillance," Drake wrote.
It comes as part of a lawsuit filed by attorney Rocky
Anderson, who was the mayor of Salt Lake City during the games held a few
months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Anderson said the document was
disclosed to the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday.
Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael
Hayden has denied in court documents that such a program existed. Hayden was
NSA director from 1999 to 2005.
Current NSA operations director Wayne Murphy said in
court documents that NSA surveillance in Salt Lake City was limited to
international communications in which at least one participant was reasonably
believed to be associated with foreign terrorist groups.
Drake disputed that statement, writing that he spoke with
colleagues who worked on the operation and were concerned about its legality.
He said he also saw documents showing surveillance equipment being directed to
the Utah program.
His declaration was written in support of the former
mayor's lawsuit. Anderson said the lawsuit is designed to get more information
about what he calls covert, illegal operations.
The NSA has argued the lawsuit's claims are far-fetched
speculation about a program that may never have existed. A judge, though,
refused a Justice Department push to dismiss the lawsuit in January.
Drake started working for the NSA in 2001 and blew the
whistle on what he saw as a wasteful and invasive program. He was later
prosecuted for keeping classified information. Most of the charges were dropped
before trial in 2011, and he was sentenced to one year of probation.
© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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