La NSA après la CIA

Une excellente analyse de Knight Ridder (TIS), du 23 décembre, présente un tableau complet sur l’impact du scandale des “écoutes illégales” sur la NSA (National Security Agency). Il s’agit de l’effet sur le moral du personnel de l’Agence, sur son statut, sur la légalité de son action. Cet impact est comparé à celui que subit la CIA avec l’affaire des vols secrets de détenus forcés vers des lieux d’“interrogatoire contraignant” (torture).

Connaissant l’esprit procédurier et juridique de la bureaucratie de sécurité nationale US, les précisions données ci-après nous paraissent très plausibles, et nous font effectivement mesurer l’ampleur des effets du scandale sur l’Agence. Qu’en plus, ce scandale porte sur une violation du statut de la citoyenneté américaine rajoute une dimension éthique non négligeable, qui renforce encore ces effets. « In the public — and Hollywood's — mind, the agency is often seen as an ominous Big Brother, an image best epitomized by the 1998 Will Smith movie “Enemy of the State.” The reality, former officials and NSA experts said, is far different. Under a 1978 law called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA], elaborate procedures were put in place to ensure that the agency doesn't routinely spy on Americans. (...)

» After the 1978 law was passed, the NSA issued an internal directive known as U.S. Signals Intelligence Directive 18, barring agency employees from eavesdropping on Americans in the United States, with few exceptions. NSA employees are required to re-read the document every six months and sign a form stating that they've done so. “As a Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) officer, it is continually drilled into us that the very first law chiseled in the SIGINT equivalent of the Ten Commandments is that ‘Thou shall not spy on American persons without a court order from FISA,’” said former NSA analyst Russell Tice.

» If the NSA inadvertently intercepts the communications of a U.S. citizen or communications that mention a U.S. citizen, they are supposed to be destroyed. There are a handful of exceptions. Intercepts of U.S. citizens that aren't destroyed go into a special database — code-named ‘Body Surf’ — and the real names are masked, available only to a handful of people. »

Parmi d’autres témoins interrogés, souvent de façon anonyme, on rapporte ici les avis de deux des meilleurs spécialistes de la NSA, identifiés dans l’article. Ils font une évaluation extrêmement pessimiste des effets du scandale pour l’Agence. On retrouve notamment la mise en cause de l’indifférence complète et de l’ignorance des réalités du renseignement de la part des hommes politiques qui donnent des ordres aux organismes de renseignement. « Former NSA Director Bobby Ray Inman, who helped push through the 1978 FISA law, said he worried that the agency is being unfairly tarred, with a “huge” impact on morale. “They only act in accordance with law, and an executive order is law,” Inman said, referring to the order Bush signed permitting warrant-less domestic surveillance. But he added: “Frankly, my experience over the years is that politicians don't worry about” the impact of their actions on intelligence agencies' morale.

» “I've talked to a number of people over there since this came out ... and there is none of them that are happy about this and many who are upset,” said author James Bamford, whose book ‘Puzzle Palace’ was the first in-depth look at the NSA. The revelations have hurt the NSA's morale because “this is an extremely deceptive program,” Bamford said. “Only a few people were told about it,” he said. “Everyone else in the agency went around telling people that they don't spy on Americans. Around their back, they find out that the director has authorized that.” »

Mis en ligne le 25 décembre 2005 à 09H07