(JTA) — The National Security Agency provides raw data to Israeli intelligence services, according to a secret document leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
A memorandum of understanding between the NSA and the Israeli Signals Intelligence Unit (ISNU), leaked by Edward Snowden to the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, states that the NSA will provide data to the ISNU without first reviewing the documents to remove sensitive information.
The process of removing U.S. residents’ personal information is called “minimization.” According to the Guardian’s Wednesday report, the information provided to Israeli intelligence could include phone and email records of U.S. citizens.
The leaked document states that the information “includes, but is not limited to, unevaluated and unminimized transcripts, gists, facsimiles, telex, voice and Digital Network Intelligence (DNI) metadata and content.”
The document also states that Israel should handle the data in a manner “consistent with the requirements placed upon NSA by U.S. law.” According to the Guardian, though, there are no clauses in the document enforcing that requirement, beyond an annual NSA review of a sample of data to ensure that U.S. citizens’ identities are missing.
