USA: NSA Paper on its Missions, Authorities, Oversight and Partnerships

On 9 August 2013, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has published a Paper called "The National Security Agency: Missions, Authorities, Oversight and Partnerships" aimed at providing a succinct description of the NSA's mission, authorities, oversight and partnerships.

The Paper is seven pages long and contains explanatory statements grouped under the following headlines:

• NSA Mission
    
• NSA Collection Authorities
    
• Executive Order 1233
    
• FISA Collection
    
• FISA Section 702
    
• FISA (Title 1)
    
• Collection of U.S. Person Data:

• Business Records FISA, Section 215
    
• FISA Sections 704 and 705(b)

• Scope and Scale of NSA Collection:
  "(...) Put another way, if a standard basketball court represented the global communications environment, NSA's total collection would be represented by an area smaller than a dime on a basketball court."  (Paper, p. 6)
    
• The Essential Role of Corporate Communications Providers
    
• The Essential Role of Foreign Partners
  "NSA partners with well over 30 different nations in order to conduct its foreign intelligence mission. In every case, NSA does not and will not use a relationship with a foreign intelligence service to ask that service to do what NSA is itself prohibited by law from doing. These partnerships are an important part of the U.S. and allied defense against terrorists, cyber threat actors, and others who threaten our individual and collective security. Both parties to these relationships benefit. (...)"  (Paper, p. 6)
    
• The Oversight and Compliance Framwork

"The National Security Agency: Missions, Authorities, Oversight and Partnerships", NSA, 9 August 2013