NSA in Germany: Why We Are Posting Secret Documents

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/why-spiegel-is-posting-leaked-nsa-documents-about-germany-a-975431.html



Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show that Germany is home to the NSA's most important activities on the Continent. It's time the German public knew what they are -- and about their own government's involvement.

NSA in Germany: Why We Are Posting Secret Documents
A DER SPIEGEL Editorial
June 18, 2014 – 04:21 PM

In the wake of the NSA scandal, the relationship between Germany and the United States has been rocky. When the first Snowden leaks emerged last summer, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government declared the affair over before it even got going. But when Berlin learned last autumn that Merkel's private cell phone had been monitored, the trans-Atlantic relationship hit a new low. There were discussions of possible consequences and of changes being necessary in the way Germany approached its North American ally.

Then the chancellor travelled to Washington and peace returned. Ever since, trans-Atlantic policy-makers and intelligence agencies have been yearning to return to normalcy, to a world in which the division of labor is clear: the NSA as omnipotent global intelligence service, and the Germans as their willing helpers. In the pre-Edward Snowden era, this division of labor was wrong. Now, it is downright negligent.

SPIEGEL has now released dozens of crucial documents that show how the NSA operates in Germany and how tightly it works together with the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency. The material in Snowden's cache shows that Germany is the NSA's most important location in continental Europe.


--

http://www.spiegel.de/international/the-germany-file-of-edward-snowden-documents-available-for-download-a-975917.html

In Edward Snowden's archive on NSA spying activities around the world, there are numerous documents pertaining to the agency's operations in Germany and its cooperation with German agencies. SPIEGEL is publishing 53 of them, available as PDF files.

The NSA in Germany: Snowden's Documents Available for Download
June 18, 2014 – 04:21 PM

America's National Security Agency has been active in Germany for decades. During the Cold War, much of its focus was on targets beyond West Germany's eastern border. But even then, the NSA continued to monitor communications within, and originating in, West Germany. Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the NSA has increased its ability to monitor global communications -- and documents from the archive of whistleblower Edward Snowden show that Germany is the agency's most important base of operations in continental Europe.

The documents show that the NSA, while focusing on counter-terrorism and other areas of importance to national security, has also established systems that allow it to monitor vast amounts of digital and other forms of communications in Germany and elsewhere. The agency can intercept huge amounts of emails, text messages and phone conversations. The NSA even monitored the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

When revelations of NSA spying in Germany first broke last year, German officials indicated they were unaware of the breadth of US intelligence activity in the country. For this week's cover story, SPIEGEL once again examined all of the documents from Snowden's archive pertaining to NSA activity in Germany. The story can be read here.

But Snowden documents also indicate that Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, and its domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, work closely together with the NSA in sites around Germany. For SPIEGEL's story on that cooperation, click here.

--
What's available at the link:



Nostalgic recollections out of the NSA intranet from NSA workers formerly stationed in Bad Aibling
Document excerpt on the sharing of the NSA spy tool XKeyscore with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency
Secret document on the cooperation between the NSA, BND and BfV in the fight against terrorism
Preliminary agenda of a meeting between high-ranking NSA and BND officials
Briefing on the visit to the NSA of a high-ranking BND official
Final agenda of a meeting between high-ranking NSA and BND officials
Internal NSA presentation on the BND's organization
Internal NSA discussion guidelines relating to cooperation with the BND and BfV
Internal NSA discussion guidelines in preparation for a meeting with high-ranking BND officials
Comprehensive internal summary of the history and current state of cooperation between the NSA and BND
FAQs on the Boundless Informant program
Boundless Informant statistics on Germany
Boundless Informant overview (global)
Boundless Informant statistics for so-called Third Parties, which includes Germany
Boundless Informant statistics on data from "Foreign Partners"
Overview of the use of Boundless Informant (world map)
World map from the Boundless Informant program
Zoom of a Boundless Informant document, with project names
Agenda for the visit of BSI Vice President Andreas Könen to the NSA
Report on the beginnings of the European Security Center (ESC) in the Dagger Complex
Report on the changing of the ESC’s name to European Security Operations Center (ESOC)
ESOC: Report on the experiences of one NSA worker
Report on the changing of the ESOC’s name to European Cryptologic Center (ECC) including details on missions launched from there
Report on an XKeyscore training session at the ECC / Dagger Complex
Presentation on the spying program PRISM and ECC's participation
NSA/CSS presentation on technical surveillance in Europe and Africa
Report on an unexploded ordnance alarm at the European Technical Center in the Mainz-Kastel neighborhood of Wiesbaden
Report on an NSA SIGDEV training course for allied countries
Report on the technical expansion of the European Technical Center in the Mainz-Kastel neighborhood of Wiesbaden
Report on the NSA-BND cooperation known as Joint SIGINT Activity (JSA)
Report on the surveillance of African countries by JSA
Restrictions on the technical surveillance performed by JSA
Report on data exchange between the NSA and BND within the JSA framework
Merkel in the database: Presentation from the Center for Content Extraction
Report on the NSA’s access to TEMPORA
Report on the work of NSA/CSS Europe, including the capture or killing of 40 terror suspects
Guidelines for the classification of NSA SIGINT details (1945-1967)
Slide: Worldwide locations of the Cryptologic Services Groups
Slide: Worldwide locations of NSA/CSS satellite surveillance
US sites with NSA personnel in Germany
Logo of NSA-BND cooperation
Explanation of Nymrod, a system for searching for people and places in databases and documents
NSA presentation on the work of Nymrod
Report on an NSA visit to the BND site in Schöningen and on data transfer from the BND to the NSA
Presentation on the NSA/CIA unit Special Collection Service (SCS), active in US embassies around the world
Report on the one-year anniversary of the NSA liaison unit SUSLAG at the new site in the Mangfall Kaserne in Bad Aibling
Guidelines for the classification of SUSLAG details and the NSA-BND cooperation
GCHQ report on the technical abilities of the powerful spying program TEMPORA, which allows for a "full take"
Report on a WHARPDRIVE incident in an SSO presentation
Details on XKeyscore from an internal GCHQ website
Boundless Informant statistics on Great Britain
European Technical Center: Report on the experiences of one NSA
NSA/CSS Europe: Report on the experiences of one NSA worker