Canada Temporarily Drops Out Of Five Eyes Spying Coalition, After Realizing It Wasn't Properly Protecting Information

from the an-eye-for-an-eye dept

Of course, by now you know about the "Five Eyes" coalition of the signals intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all sharing certain intelligence information between them. Some of the Snowden docs have made clear that this collaboration helps the various countries get around restrictions on "domestic" surveillance by effectively offshoring it to other "friendly" electronic spy agencies. Well, at least for now, it appears that that the Five Eyes effort has lost an Eye.

Canada's signals intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), has stopped sharing data with the other Four Eyes after realizing that it hadn't done a particularly good job of protecting the metadata it collected on Canadians.

"While I was conducting this current comprehensive review, CSE discovered on its own that certain metadata was not being minimized properly," Plouffe explained in the report.

"Minimization is the process by which Canadian identity information contained in metadata is rendered unidentifiable prior to being shared …."

"The fact that CSE did not properly minimize Canadian identity information contained in certain metadata prior to being shared was contrary to the ministerial directive, and to CSE's operational policy."

I guess it's nice that the CSE figured out that it had screwed up on its own, but really, it makes you wonder just how much information the Canadian gov't was sending abroad on its own citizens.

Of course, the sharing will start back up again at some point in the future, once they've decided that they've properly "minimized" the data. And while Canadian politicians seem to be accepting the very Canadian apology of the CSE and saying that this was all an accident, shouldn't this kind of "mistake" lead to a bit more than a "sorry" and "we'll make sure it's better next time"? Shouldn't we be examining why such mass surveillance and data sharing are happening in the first place?

Filed Under: canada, five eyes, mass surveillance, metadata, minimization, nsa, sigint, surveillance

Entirely Coincidentally, NSA Signals Intelligence Director Moved To New Position After Conflicts Of Interest Were Exposed By Buzzfeed

from the that-thing-we-were-doing-anyway-but-just-not-until-right-now dept

The NSA's newly-developed concern for "optics" is being tested by employees both former and current. Keith Alexander, the NSA's longtime leading man, took his snooping show on the road, offering his expertise to banks for $1 million/month. But he couldn't leave it all behind, attempting to drag the current NSA CTO along with him by offering him an interesting -- but conflicting -- part-time position with IronNet Security. The NSA said, "That's fine." Then it said, "We're looking into it." Then it said nothing while Keith Alexander pulled the plug on the deal while simultaneously denying any sort of impropriety.

The story of Teresa Shea, SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) director for the NSA is even more convoluted and shady. Buzzfeed's Aram Roston has been digging into Shea and her husband's private ventures -- the latter of which at least appear to be direct beneficiaries of Teresa Shea's position.

The NSA has refused to comment on Shea's position and her husband's various SIGINT-related businesses, other than to point out how serious the agency is about ethics and possible conflicts of interest. So serious, in fact, that it refuses to discuss the issue beyond issuing boilerplate.

Now, Buzzfeed reports that Teresa Shea is no longer head of SIGINT, a decision surely entirely unrelated to Roston's investigatory efforts.

One of the nation’s top spies is leaving her position at the National Security Agency (NSA), a spokesman confirmed Friday, amid growing disclosures of possible conflicts of interest at the secretive agency…

The NSA provided a statement Friday that said Teresa Shea’s “transition” from the SIGINT director job was routine and “planned well before recent news articles.” The agency indicated she would remain employed, but did not provide specifics.

While this could mean that an ongoing internal ethics probe reached the same conclusions Roston's work did, it seems altogether too coincidental to have been "planned well before recent news articles." Then again, no one expects a federal spy agency to announce that "due to recent acts of journalism, Teresa Shea has been busted down to Entry Level Bulk Data Processor, pending further disciplinary action." But the agency doth seemingly protest too much, especially when its standard MO has been to brusquely shove aside every accusation with practiced ease.

In a statement Friday, NSA spokesman Michael Halbig said that “NSA considers regular rotations of senior leaders as a catalyst for achieving diverse, fresh perspectives on the nation’s critical national security challenges.” He added that “We value her leadership as a senior leader and look forward to her continued contribution to the mission to help defend the nation.”

Give it up, various NSA mouthpieces. This was a clean bust. I'm sure Shea was hoping to continue her run as head of SIGINT, something she probably finds more "invigorating" than whatever position she's been hastily shoved into while the agency waits for the ethically-troubling furor to die down.

This is a positive step, both for the agency and for the general public, which has been unofficially tasked with watching the watchers (including the watchers' watchers in the halls of Congress) over the past several years. Playing to the edges of ethical confines is no longer acceptable behavior. If the agency expects to be entrusted with the data and communications of the world, it needs to be above reproach on every observable level. This much has always been obvious to the agency's critics. That it's now readily apparent to the agency itself is a welcome change.

Filed Under: conflicts of interest, james shea, nsa, sigint, teresa shea

High-Level NSA Official Tied To Husband's Private Signals Intelligence Business, Has A Second Business That Owns A Plane

from the where's-your-Moses-data-now? dept

Buzzfeed's Aram Roston has uncovered more evidence linking the NSA's SIGINT (signals intelligence) director to a number of private contractors known to do business with the US government -- perhaps even the agency itself.

Roston previously exposed the close ties between Teresa Shea's position and her husband James' employer, DRS Signal Solutions, a company focused on "SIGINT systems." Not only that, but business records indicated that James Shea apparently runs Telic Networks, another SIGINT-focused business operating out of their hometown (Ellicott City, Maryland).

Needless to say, neither Teresa Shea, her husband, her husband's employer, nor the NSA itself have offered anything in the way of comments on this suspicious-looking arrangement. The NSA did offer some boilerplate about "robust internal controls," but simultaneously stiff-armed Buzzfeed's request for Teresa Shea's financial disclosure statements, citing the National Security Act of 1959. (This citation is also agency boilerplate, or at least was until Jason Leopold challenged it with a lawsuit. This move forced former NSA head Keith Alexander's financial disclosure statements out of its hands. In light of this recent decision, it appears Shea's statements will be released as well.)

This all looked conflicted enough, but Roston has uncovered more suspicious-looking information.

Yet another company, apparently focused on the office and electronics business, is based at the Shea residence on that well-tended lot.

This company is called Oplnet LLC.

Teresa Shea, who has been at the NSA since 1984, is the company’s resident agent.

The company’s articles of organization, signed by Teresa Shea, show that the firm was established in 1999 primarily “to buy, sell, rent and lease office and electronic equipment and related goods and services.” An attorney who also signed the document, Alan Engel, said he couldn’t comment on client matters.

Roston and Buzzfeed were unable to come up with any hard evidence linking Teresa Shea's home business with federal contracts, but it did uncover a very interesting purchase.

Records show Oplnet does own a six-seat airplane, as well a condominium property with an assessed value of $275,000 in the resort town of Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Flight records for this aircraft show it has made a majority of its landings at three airports -- one of them being Ft. Meade, Maryland, home of the NSA. It is not uncommon for people who own their own planes to actually set up a company to own that plane for a variety of legal and tax reasons -- and it's possible that's what's happened here -- though it is notable that James Shea has a pilot's license, while Teresa does not.

Perhaps it's indicative of nothing at all, other than the overwhelming gravitational pull of the Beltway. But then, there's this timeline.

1984 - Teresa Shea joins the NSA as an engineer working in SIGINT issues.

1990 - James Shea sets up Sigtek, Inc., which goes on to receive "hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts with the federal government, according to a federal contracting database."

1999 - Teresa Shea registers Oplnet, using their home address.

2000 - James Shea sells Sigtek, Inc. for $20 million to a British firm, while remaining listed as President of the company.

2007 - James Shea sets up Telic Networks, his newest SIGINT-focused company. This too is "based" at the Sheas' shared home address.

2010 - Teresa Shea is promoted to Director of SIGINT. Nearly simultaneously, James Shea is named vice president of major SIGINT contractor DRS Signal Solutions.

Much of the Sheas' shared success hinges on SIGINT -- both the government's expansion of dragnet surveillance and simultaneous growth of SIGINT-focused contractors. Maybe there's nothing to this, but the silence from everyone involved seems to indicate there's at least the "appearance of impropriety," if not flat-out misconduct and abuse of power.

More will be known when (and always appended when dealing with the NSA, if) Shea's financial disclosure documents are released. At the very least, they'll at least confirm the information Buzzfeed has dug up and prevent the NSA from boilerplating this whole situation into non-existence. The NSA is taking a second look at Keith Alexander's post-NSA activities. If it's willing to go that far, it's willing to dig up dirt on lower-level officials. You can't be too careful in the intelligence business these days, not with the eyes of legislators, activists and a whole bunch of pissed-off Americans watching your every move.

Filed Under: conflict of interest, failures, james shea, nsa, sigint, theresa shea
Companies: drs signal solutions, opinet, sigtek, telic networks

NSA Official Handing Off Contracts To Government Contractor Spouse?

from the the-fix-is-ALWAYS-in dept

Aram Roston at Buzzfeed has seemingly uncovered a very cozy link between an NSA official and a government contracting firm.

The NSA official, Teresa H. Shea, is director of the Signals Intelligence Directorate, which means she oversees electronic eavesdropping for intelligence purposes. She's held that crucial position since 2010. SIGINT, as it is called, is the bread and butter of NSA espionage operations, and it includes intercepting and decoding phone calls, whether cellular or landline; radio communications; and internet traffic. Shea's directorate was involved in the controversial domestic surveillance program, much of which was revealed by Edward Snowden.

As for Shea’s husband, James, he is currently a vice president at DRS Signal Solutions, part of DRS Technologies, a major American defense contracting company owned by the Italian defense giant Finmeccanica. On his LinkedIn page, he boasts of his “core focus” in “SIGINT systems,” and cites his employer, DRS, for its work in “signals intelligence, cyber, and commercial test and measurement applications.”

Shea's husband is also a resident agent for Telic Networks (Roston calls the company's website "rudimentary," which is a compliment) -- another SIGINT-focused business located in the Sheas' hometown of Ellicott City, Maryland. James Shea declined to comment on this story, somewhat inadvertently.

Telic Networks has a telephone number listed on its website, and on Monday, James Shea answered the phone. "Jim Shea!" he said. But after he was told what the call was about, he said, "I'm in the middle of a meeting right now. I'll try giving you a call later." He didn't answer subsequent calls.

Teresa Shea and her agency have declined to comment beyond some emailed boilerplate about the agency's "robust financial disclosure program" and the NSA's (unproven) track record of heading off conflicts of interest before they become a problem.

Meanwhile, James Shea's DRS Signal Solutions is hiring for a SIGINT-related contract located in Fort Meade, Maryland. The NSA's "robust financial disclosure program" is internal only, so there's no way to tell how this was awarded or the total cost of the contract.

This may seem like a small issue, but there are larger ramifications. The NSA is charged with protecting a nation against threats, but any sort of favoritism that intrudes on bidding processes undermines the quality of the contractor appointed. Handing a contract out to an official's husband doesn't ensure the agency is getting the best company for the job. And if this is commonplace enough, certain bidders will just stop submitting estimates.

Even if what appears to be happening is actually happening, it's only part of much larger incestuous relationship between the government and its contractors. Pure nepotism may be rare, but there's lots of similarly shady tactics being deployed that never trigger ethics probes or recusals.

First off, there's the vested interest in keeping the whole scheme -- national security -- running. This depends on legislators, administration representatives and official spokespeople constantly maintaining a climate of fear. Government agencies -- the NSA included -- put a lot of effort into staying viable year after year with little discernible dropoff in budget. Being truly essential flies under the government radar. Appearing to be completely essential seems to be more important.

Even as research appears that suggests Snowden's leaks didn't have much impact on terrorist behavior, the ODNI's (James Clapper's) office is complaining that ~$53 billion a year isn't enough money to keep the counterterroism apparatus afloat.

The nation's capitol is surrounded by government contractors, most of them setting up shop in Maryland and Virginia. It makes sense to move closer to the money and those who control it. From there, money flows to contractors and some the money flows back -- financial contributions to legislators -- offered in hope of receiving advantageous legislation or budget increases for the agencies they work with. Not only does the money flow back and forth, but so does the personnel. Legislators exit to become board members, lobbyists or figureheads of heavily government-invested companies... and vice versa.

Nothing illegal. Nothing immoral. Nothing but the same gamesmanship and cliqueishness that make the government a closed circuit where money races circles around itself ensuring the longevity of those who manage to make their way inside.

The Sheas' potential ethics conflict is only a marriage certificate away from complete legitimacy. Government agencies will run open bidding and still hand off the project to an inside favorite. Or they'll find loopholes to avoid opening bids at all. There's no way to tell how common this is in the NSA or other agencies covered by the classified "Black Budget," but the cloak of secrecy does a whole lot more than just protect means and methods. It also prevents the American public from uncovering conflicts of interest or questionable bidding processes.

Scott Amey, the general counsel of the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, objected to such blanket secrecy: “We don’t know how many contracts DRS has, whether they have contracts, what they are for. We’re kind of in the dark, and that’s not how we want our government to operate.”

But yet it does, and it appears to be unlikely to change at any point in the near future. Everyone on the "inside" would like to keep it that way. It keeps companies from having to explain their domestic surveillance offerings and it keeps the ODNI from having to explain why the current secret budget just isn't enough to keep America safe.

Filed Under: contractors, jim shea, nepotism, nsa, sigint, teresa shea
Companies: drs signal solutions, telic