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The Guardian has just published another bombshell NSA story sourced from an Edward Snowden leak: "NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel". The NSA, we learn, shares our emails and metadata with Israeli intelligence services before they are 'minimized' internally. The agreement enables the foreign nation to retain "any files containing the identities of US persons," with one major caveat.

Describing the memorandum of agreement signed between the USG and Israel, the Guardian writes:

Notably, a much stricter rule was set for US government communications found in the raw intelligence. The Israelis were required to "destroy upon recognition" any communication "that is either to or from an official of the US government". Such communications included those of "officials of the executive branch (including the White House, cabinet departments, and independent agencies), the US House of Representatives and Senate (member and staff) and the US federal court system (including, but not limited to, the supreme court)".

 

It is not clear whether any communications involving members of US Congress or the federal courts have been included in the raw data provided by the NSA, nor is it clear how or why the NSA would be in possession of such communications. In 2009, however, the New York Times reported on "the agency's attempt to wiretap a member of Congress, without court approval, on an overseas trip".