NSA can record, replay 100% of calls in a country

WASHINGTON The National Se curity Agency faces new scrutiny after a published report that it has the capability of recording and retrieving 100% of phone calls in foreign countries.

The program, called MYSTIC, “reached full capacity against the first target nation in 2011. Planning documents two years later anticipated similar operations elsewhere,” The Washington Post reported. The Post learned of the program through documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

MYSTIC was launched in 2009. The surveillance tool features “retrospective retrieval” capability, which allows the agency to rewind and review calls up to a month after they’ve taken place.

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines did not confirm or deny the existence of the program, but she said the NSA “does not conduct signals intelligence collection in any country, or anywhere in the world, unless it is necessary to advance U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.”

Snowden has offered a treasure trove of revelations about NSA spying techniques; the MYSTIC program is the first one that suggests U.S. intelligence has the ability to conduct mass monitoring of the voice content of calls.

In a speech in January to announce changes to NSA surveillance operations, President Obama suggested that the agency does not spy on foreign citizens unless national security merits it.

Some privacy advocates say the news about MYSTIC raises questions about whether Obama’s promised changes ever had any teeth. “This program further exposes the real limits of the president’s proposed government surveillance reforms, which still allow for mass surveillance,” said Greg Nojeim, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s freedom, security and technology program.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the White House would not comment on specific intelligence activities.