Decades of unlawful spying on US citizens | World News |Axisoflogic.com

The NSA has been under close scrutiny since whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked damning classified NSA documents in June of 2013. | Photo: Reuters

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) released dozens of reports previously classified top-secret on Christmas Eve, revealing numerous instances when the agency unlawfully spied on U.S. citizens.

The NSA has been under harsh scrutiny since its former employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked classified NSA documents in June 2013, revealing the agency's spying tactics against U.S. citizens and foreign governments.

The NSA released 48 reports in total Wednesday – 44 quarterly reports between 2001-2013, and four annual reports from 2007 to 2010 – in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that required the agency hand over the information to the Intelligence Oversight Board. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the group that filed the lawsuit, also compelled the agency to make the reports public.

However, the documents are all highly redacted, with some pages showing half the text blanked out by white bars.

The organization has also been criticized for releasing the report on December 24, during one of the year's biggest holidays and just as the government was about to close for two days. This demonstrates “limits to the agency’s attempts to demonstrate transparency,” reported The Intercept.

The reports document possible abuses by NSA agents, including employees emailing classified information to unauthorized recipients, agents issuing “overly broad” data queries that would also target U.S. citizens, and military personnel gaining unauthorized access to raw traffic databases collected under the Foreign Intelligence Services Act.

According to the NSA, these violations were primarily human or technological error, not direct abuse of NSA resources.

However, civil liberties groups say these disclosures prove NSA misdealings.

Patrick Toomey, staff attorney from the ACLU National Security Project, told The Hill the documents show “how the NSA has misused the information it collects over the past decade.” Toomey added, “They show an urgent need for greater oversight by all three branches of government.”

Other cases of abuse of power by NSA staff include a 2012 incident where an NSA analyst “searched her spouse's personal telephone directory without his knowledge to obtain names and telephone numbers for targeting.” A report from 2009 documents a case where a U.S. army sergeant used an NSA system “to target his wife,” but was later punished by a reduction in rank.

Another case from 2012 stated that information about a U.S. citizen was “disseminated to a foreign partner” before being recalled and deleted.

According to the NSA, in the “very few cases that involve the intentional misuse” of the intelligence system, a “thorough investigation is completed,” and “appropriate disciplinary or administrative action is taken.”

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