July 01, 2014

US secret court gave NSA permission to spy on 193 countries and major organizations

editor:	Murat Suner

The Washington Post reports, US-Secret Service NSA has been authorized to spy almost each government and the most important international organizations except Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which belong to the so-called "Five Eyes" group.

According to documents revealed by Edward Snowden the secret court FISC authorized the NSA to spy on 193 countries including organizations such as the European Union, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Even if the NSA does not necessarily spy on the entire list of countries and organizations, the list depicts the potential reach of the NSA says Jameel Jaffer from civil rights organization ACLU.

On June 30th the Washington Post published the list of foreign governments and organizations authorized for surveillance. According to their research this "exhibit lists the 193 foreign governments as well as foreign factions, political organizations and other entities that were part of a 2010 certification approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. These are the entities about which the NSA may conduct surveillance, for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence. Each year a new certification must be approved by the court to permit such surveillance under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act."