‘Sweden partnering US in snooping on Russia’
6 Dec 2013 6:04 AM IST
Sweden has been a key partner for the United States in spying on Russia and its leadership, Swedish television said on Thursday, citing leaked documents from the US National Security Agency (NSA).
Earlier this year, former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden passed to media details of a global spying programme by the NSA, stirring international criticism. The US has said much of the information was a result of cooperation with other intelligence services. Swedish television cited a document dated 18 April this year saying Sweden’s National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA), which conducts electronic communications surveillance, had helped in providing the United States with information on Russia.
‘The FRA provided NSA... a unique collection on high-priority Russian targets, such as leadership, internal politics,’ it quoted the document saying. The FRA declined to comment on the matter.
‘We do in general have international cooperation with a number of countries, which is supported in Swedish legislation, but we do not comment on which ones we cooperate with,’ Anni Bolenius, head of communications at the FRA said. Previously, Sweden’s FRA has said only that it cooperates with foreign intelligence services, but that all activities are strictly controlled by Swedish law. Swedish television said it had obtained the documents from Glenn Greenwald.
Report says NSA collects 5 billion cell phone records globally
Washington: America’s secretive National Security Agency is collecting nearly five billion cell phone records a day about the precise locations of individuals, including non-US citizens, a media report said on Thursday. The startling revelations by The Washington Post are based on the classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden, a former CIA contractor who is currently on an asylum in Russia. According to the daily, the NSA does not target Americans’ location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones ‘incidentally’, a legal term that connotes a foreseeable but not deliberate result. One senior collection manager, speaking on the condition of anonymity but with permission from the NSA, told The Post ‘we are getting vast volumes’ of location data from around the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve US cellphones as well as foreign ones. Additionally, data are often collected from the tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad with their cellphones every year, the official said.
Earlier this year, former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden passed to media details of a global spying programme by the NSA, stirring international criticism. The US has said much of the information was a result of cooperation with other intelligence services. Swedish television cited a document dated 18 April this year saying Sweden’s National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA), which conducts electronic communications surveillance, had helped in providing the United States with information on Russia.
‘The FRA provided NSA... a unique collection on high-priority Russian targets, such as leadership, internal politics,’ it quoted the document saying. The FRA declined to comment on the matter.
‘We do in general have international cooperation with a number of countries, which is supported in Swedish legislation, but we do not comment on which ones we cooperate with,’ Anni Bolenius, head of communications at the FRA said. Previously, Sweden’s FRA has said only that it cooperates with foreign intelligence services, but that all activities are strictly controlled by Swedish law. Swedish television said it had obtained the documents from Glenn Greenwald.
Report says NSA collects 5 billion cell phone records globally
Washington: America’s secretive National Security Agency is collecting nearly five billion cell phone records a day about the precise locations of individuals, including non-US citizens, a media report said on Thursday. The startling revelations by The Washington Post are based on the classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden, a former CIA contractor who is currently on an asylum in Russia. According to the daily, the NSA does not target Americans’ location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones ‘incidentally’, a legal term that connotes a foreseeable but not deliberate result. One senior collection manager, speaking on the condition of anonymity but with permission from the NSA, told The Post ‘we are getting vast volumes’ of location data from around the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve US cellphones as well as foreign ones. Additionally, data are often collected from the tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad with their cellphones every year, the official said.
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