Blarney (code name)

BLARNEY is a communications surveillance program, started in 1978 and operated under FISA. The collection takes place at top-level telecommunications facilities within the United States, choke points through which most traffic will flow, including wireless. This type of surveillance is referred to as "Upstream Collection." It was first brought to public view in a PRISM slide revealed by Edward Snowden. Among the facilities associated with BLARNEY are AT&T's Room 641A in San Francisco, California, revealed in 2006 by Mark Klein, and another in New Jersey. Like its counterparts, BLARNEY was expanded after the September 11 attacks.

Information collected from BLARNEY is shared with many agencies in the United States, including the CIA, NSA, FBI and DOJ, it is also shared with the Five Eyes and NATO. A number of private companies also have access.

To gather intelligence, algorithms are used to sift through the communications, and forward on, for storage and possible analysis, those which are believed likely to contain foreign intelligence. The first stage of filtering is done by the telecoms themselves, at the request of the NSA. The filters are not always perfect, and sometimes purely domestic communications are caught. In the event that domestic communications are swept up, the minimization procedures are applied. The procedures require that most "incidental" communications between U.S. persons be destroyed, with a few exceptions. The exceptions include: the content is encrypted, it contains foreign intelligence, or is evidence of a crime. This last exception allows the NSA to pass to the DEA's Special Operations Division (SOD) information relating to drug trafficking. The program has been likened to Project SHAMROCK, in which the NSA, and its predecessor organization were given daily microfilm copies of all telegrams entering and exiting the United States.

According to Thomas Drake, BLARNEY is part of a larger umbrella program called FAIRVIEW. Other programs in the same family as BLARNEY include but are not limited to OAKSTAR and STORMBREW about 75% of all U.S. internet traffic is collected and sifted for foreign intelligence. The said programs are very similar, but associated with different companies, and may have slightly different legal arrangements with the NSA. Arrangements with corporations are associated with the NSA's Special Source Operations division (SSO). BLARNEY is known to be associated with two SIGADs of the same name. The designation for PRISM (US-984XN) is very similar to the designations of the BLARNEY SIGADs, (US-984 and US-984X). Given this, it is possible, though not proven that PRISM falls under the larger umbrella of BLARNEY. The FY 2013 budget for BLARNEY $65.96 million.

SIGADs
Note: SIGADs not otherwise designated are presumed to operate under the legal authority of Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA)

Glossary

 * DNI: Digital Network Intelligence.
 * DNR: Dial Number Recognition.
 * Transit Authority: A legal authority that states communications that transit the United States are collectible, provided that both endpoints are foreign.