NSA Partnering with Saudi Regime: Snowden Leak

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sent a top secret memorandum to The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald that describes the secretive US agency’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. The NSA primarily works with the Saudi Ministry of Interior (MOI) and Ministry of Defense (MOD).

After the first Gulf War in 1991, the document says, the NSA had “a very limited [signals intelligence (SIGINT)] relationship” with the Saudi government, but is now “experiencing a period of rejuvenation.” The increased cooperation came after Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper approved an expansion of the SIGINT relationship in December 2012, RT reported.

Even before that authorization, however, the NSA was collaborating with the Saudi Defense Ministry on a “sensitive access initiative” that began in 2011, and focused on “internal security and terrorist activity on the Arabian Peninsula.” It was conducted “under the auspices of CIA’s relationship with the MOI’s Mabahith (General Directorate for Investigations, equivalent to FBI).”

Now the NSA offers “technical advice on SIGINT topics such as data exploitation and target development” to the MOI’s Technical Affairs Directorate, “as well as a sensitive source collection capability,” and analytical and technical support. The US agency also provides “a sensitive decryption service to the Ministry of Interior against terrorist targets of mutual interest.”

The NSA shares threat warning and terrorist lead information ‒ generated in conjunction with the CIA station in the Saudi capital of Riyadh ‒ with Mabahith. It also provides the Interior Ministry with highly advanced surveillance technology.

The collaboration is a two-way street, the memo says, with the MOD giving the NSA access to remote geography in the gulf region, and providing information about Iran’s military and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

This secretive spy partnership between the two US intelligence agencies and their Saudi counterparts may come at the expense of human rights. Organizations around the world, including the US State Department and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the kingdom’s escalating crackdown on activists, dissidents and government critics over the past year.