NSA employees spied on their lovers using eavesdropping programme

[dkf]

WASHINGTON—National Security Agency officers on several occasions have channeled their agency’s enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests, U.S. officials said.

The practice isn’t frequent — one official estimated a handful of cases in the last decade — but it’s common enough to garner its own spycraft label: LOVEINT.

Spy agencies often refer to their various types of intelligence collection with the suffix of “INT,” such as “SIGINT” for collecting signals intelligence, or communications; and “HUMINT” for human intelligence, or spying.

The “LOVEINT” examples constitute most episodes of willful misconduct by NSA employees, officials said.

NSA said in a statement Friday that there have been “very rare” instances of willful violations of any kind in the past decade, and none have violated key surveillance laws. “NSA has zero tolerance for willful violations of the agency’s authorities” and responds “as appropriate.”

The LOVEINT violations involved overseas communications, officials said, such as spying on a partner or spouse. In each instance, the employee was punished either with an administrative action or termination.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/08/23/nsa-officers-sometimes-spy-on-love-interests/

Staff working at America's National Security Agency – the eavesdropping unit that was revealed to have spied on millions of people – have used the technology to spy on their lovers.

The employees even had a code name for the practice – "Love-int" – meaning the gathering of intelligence on their partners.

Dianne Feinstein, a senator who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, said the NSA told her committee about a set of "isolated cases" that have occurred about once a year for the last 10 years. The spying was not within the US, and was carried out when one of the lovers was abroad.

One employee was disciplined for using the NSA's resources to track a former spouse, the Associated Press said.

Last week it was disclosed that the NSA had broken privacy rules on nearly 3,000 occasions over a one-year period.

John DeLong, NSA chief compliance officer, said that those errors were mainly unintentional, but that there have been "a couple" of wilful violations in the past decade.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10263880/NSA-employees-spied-on-their-lovers-using-eavesdropping-programme.html

[MotherPetrie]

1. And I'm willing to bet they spied on people they DIDN'T love, too.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

15. EXIT QUESTION --

Did the technology create the control freaks or did the control freaks create the technology?

[Catherina]

2. "Most of the incidents, officials said, were self-reported." Iow, no safeguards.

The LOVEINT violations involved overseas communications, officials said, such as spying on a partner or spouse. In each instance, the employee was punished either with an administrative action or termination.

Most of the incidents, officials said, were self-reported. Such admissions can arise, for example, when an employee takes a polygraph tests as part of a renewal of a security clearance

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/08/23/nsa-officers-sometimes-spy-on-love-interests/

[dkf]

4. Couldn't pass the polygraph? How often do they polygraph?

[Catherina]

7. I think it's every 5 years. n/t

[dawg]

9. It's not a lie ...

if you *believe* it.

[Helen Borg]

14. LOL, self-reporting.

And why would anyone self-report anyway unless they were cornered?

[winter is coming]

3. 3,000 occasions in a single year?

Either working for the NSA is lousy for your love life or it makes you paranoid about everything.

[dkf]

5. No... 3000 violations but a handful of willful uses including these "loveint" violations.

Supposedly and based on self reporting.

[mick063]

8. Self reported violations are a small subset of all violations

Self reporting is the worst form of compliance.

If most violations are found due to self reporting, than the oversight is very poor or non existent.

[Supersedeas]

10. Exactly

[mick063]

6. Tear down the Utah facility

This program is being used to extort and coerce elected representatives.

You know it is happening.

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. No one would ever abuse such power under any circumstances. n/t

[gulliver]

12. Was one of them Snowden?

That would be kind of a twist.

[NightWatcher]

13. Hey we all check Facebook for our exes, NSA employees have better ways to check

Who can really blame em? If they really wanted I'm sure they could even bug their homes, track them via the GPS on their phones, send a goon squad after their current loves....

I guess the point is, never break up with someone who works for a spy agency.

(Hi J if you're reading this, you still have a place in my pants, er I mean heart)

[gopiscrap]

16. This shit has gotta stop

[99th_Monkey]

17. Which only goes to show how BIG the NSA LIES have been

Beyond these cases of spying on partners, this clearly illustrates
how easily any one of us can be spied-on at the drop of a hat with
a simple phone number, or name, and one person at NSA with a
reason to do it.

[dkf]

18. After the NSA lies I can't swallow the Syria push. I no longer believe anything they say.

[blkmusclmachine]

19. !