New Interpretations Of Nsa Monitoring The German Chancellor

(UPDATED: March 30, 2014)

One of the biggest scandals amid the revelations nearly NSA spying activities, was that NSA was monitoring a mobile telephone used past times the electrical flow German linguistic communication chancellor secure regime prison theatre Galvanic cell phone, but the unsecured ane provided past times her political party).

But on Feb 4th, the German linguistic communication paper Süddeutsche Zeitung in addition to the regional boob tube channel NDR came amongst a somewhat dissimilar interpretation of this story.

Both media presented the document which proofs the monitoring to NSA insiders, who explained that it shows that since 2002 NSA was targeting the German linguistic communication chancellor, in addition to non specifically Angela Merkel, who became chancellor simply past times the halt of 2005.

In 2002, this component subdivision was held past times her predecessor Gerhard Schröder, who was chancellor from Oct 1998 to Nov 2005, leading an unprecedented coalition amongst the Green Party for 2 terms.

Citing a issue of US regime sources in addition to NSA insiders, both media say that Schröder's opposition to the American invasion of Republic of Iraq - in addition to fears of a split upwardly within NATO every bit a effect - was the primary argue to start monitoring his communications (in those days, NSA in addition to GCHQ likewise eavesdropped on United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in addition to members of the Security Council).

The NSA document mentioning the surveillance of the German linguistic communication chancellor was published inwards the impress editions of several German linguistic communication newspapers:

NSA tape mentioning the telephone issue of the German linguistic communication chancellor
(Source: FAZ paper website)

Apparently this document comes from an NSA database inwards which the means records its targets. This could travel a tasking database codenamed OCTAVE, which is used for starting telephony interceptions. An explanation of the diverse entries tin travel institute inwards my before article How NSA targeted chancellor Merkel's mobile phone.

There, I already noticed that it's somewhat foreign to run into Merkel mentioned every bit 'GE CHANCELLOR', every bit she was nevertheless the opposition leader when the surveillance started inwards 2002. Therefore, either this exceptional entry or the whole tape must bring been updated somewhere after she became chancellor inwards Nov 2005.

That activeness has straight off been confirmed past times Süddeutsche Zeitung in addition to NDR, maxim that NSA started monitoring the 'German chancellor' inwards 2002 - which past times in addition to thus was Gerhard Schröder. When he was succeeded past times Angela Merkel inwards 2005, in addition to she became the incumbent of the chancellor's office, her call was entered inwards the subscriber business of the targeting record.

The initial even out past times Der Spiegel from Oct 23, 2013, evidently ignored this discrepancy in addition to concluded that "the NSA would bring targeted Merkel's mobile telephone for to a greater extent than than a decade, kickoff when she was simply political party chair, every bit good every bit after when she'd operate chancellor".

In the novel interpretation, NSA was non specifically looking for Angel Merkel, every bit the Spiegel even out suggests, but rather trying to monitor the mortal belongings the component subdivision of German linguistic communication chancellor.

H5N1 3rd interpretation was brought frontward past times 'hacktivist' Jacob Appelbaum, who contributes to the Snowden-stories inwards Der Spiegel, saying that the NSRL (National SIGINT Requirements List) code 2002-388 stands for "a laid of people - nether which Merkel has been monitored".

This could explicate the asterisk inwards 2002-388* - every bit a placeholder for a 4th digit after 388, designating multiple sub-targets nether that number. If that's the case, in addition to thus in all likelihood likewise other high-ranking German linguistic communication cabinet members in addition to regime officials could bring been monitored past times NSA, perchance fifty-fifty including Angela Merkel when she was nevertheless opposition leader.

Another inquiry is nearly the rootage of the NSA tasking-record which appeared inwards German linguistic communication newspapers. It clearly looks similar scanned or photographed from a slice of paper (showing dust or ink spots, wavy lines) in addition to the text is inwards the rather odd Ayuthaya font, which unremarkably comes amongst Macintosh OS X, primarily to display Thai script. The telephone issue likewise seems to travel blacked out past times a marker, rather than digitally.

Could it travel that Snowden printed this database tape inwards social club to smuggle it out of his NSA component subdivision in addition to and thus digitalized it past times making a motion painting of it? Another inquiry is whether in that location are to a greater extent than such (hard copy) tasking records amid the Snowden-documents, or how else could Appelbaum know that in that location were multiple people targeted nether that exceptional NSRL number?

German linguistic communication chancellor Gerhard Schröder
using a mobile prison theatre Galvanic cell phone

Although in that location are pictures of chancellor Schröder using a mobile phone, it was said inwards German linguistic communication media that he genuinely hadn't ane for himself, but used a prison theatre Galvanic cell telephone from people inwards his entourage whenever that was necessary.

Other sources say that Schröder's communications appeared to bring been hacked or intercepted inwards the belatedly 1990s, after which he ordered a secure (mobile) telephone arrangement to travel developed.

One of the really kickoff highly secure mobile phones, called TopSec GSM, was made past times Siemens (later Rohde & Schwarz) in addition to became available inwards 2001. Another solution, the Enigma encryption arrangement for GSM phones, was evidently developed past times Deutsche Telekom in addition to sold since 2002 past times the Beaucom Group.

It's non clear whether Gerhard Schröder genuinely used ane of these phones, but it's an interesting coincidence that they became available closed to the same fourth dimension NSA started its monitoring of the German linguistic communication chancellor.

UPDATE:

On March 29, 2014, Der Spiegel provided some additional details nearly NSA's monitoring of chancellor Merkel based upon a presentation from NSA's Center for Content Extraction (CCE, unit of measurement designator T1221), whose tasks evidently include the automated analysis of all types of text data. The journal published simply ane slide from this presentation, which shows twelve names, including Merkel's, from a listing of 122 heads of terra firma in addition to heads of regime which are or were monitored past times NSA:

The document indicates that Angela Merkel has been placed inwards the Target Knowledge Base (TKB), a primal database of private targets. According to an internal NSA description this database tin travel used analyze "complete profiles" of target persons. The responsible NSA unit of measurement praises the automated machine-driven direction of collected information nearly high-value targets.

The searchable sources cited inwards the document include, amid others, the signals intelligence database MARINA, which contains metadata ingested from sources closed to the world. The unit of measurement likewise gives special attending to promoting a arrangement for automated call recognition called "Nymrod". The document states that some 300 automatically generated "cites," or citations, are provided for Angela Merkel alone.

The citations inwards NYMROD are derived from intelligence agencies, transcripts of intercepted fax, vocalization in addition to computer-to-computer communication. According to internal NSA documents, it is used to "find information relating to targets that would otherwise travel tough to rail down." Each of the names contained inwards NYMROD is considered a SIGINT target.

The manual maintenance of the database amongst high-ranking targets is a tedious in addition to painstaking process, the document notes, in addition to fewer than 200,000 targets are managed through the system. Automated capture, past times contrast, simplifies the saving of the information in addition to makes it possible to deal to a greater extent than than three 1000000 entries, including names in addition to the citations connected to them.

The tabular array included inwards the document indicates the capture in addition to maintenance of records pertaining to chancellor Merkel already appears to bring been automated. In whatsoever case, the document indicates that a manual update was non available inwards May 2009.