This NSA presentation from March 2009 explains how agency analysts can exploit HTTP data through XKeyScore: see the Intercept article XKEYSCORE: NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications, 1 July 2015.

This NSA classification guide, dated 21 November 2011, covers signals intelligence material that as to be kept secret for more than the standard 60 years: see the Der Spiegel article The NSA in Germany: Snowden’s Documents Available for Download, 18 June 2014.

This undated internal NSA document illustrates the degrees of cooperation in the agency’s relationships with different foreign powers. “Tier A” and “Tier B” are elsewhere referred to as Second and Third Parties: see the book No Place To Hide, 13 May 2014.

SIDtoday would like submissions of quirky Thanksgiving experiences that NSA’ers have had while deployed. 

More Thanksgiving meals overseas are remembered, with special reference to the Leyte albatrosses (called gooney birds) on Midway Island. No, the gooney birds were not on the menu. 

This October 2005 article, taken from the internal NSA newsletter Foreign Affairs Digest, provides a brief history of the agency’s past and current relationship with its Turkish counterparts, which includes a staff of 40 NSA employees stationed in Ankara: see the Intercept article How the NSA Helped Turkey Kill Kurdish Rebels, 31 August 2014. Download […]

A brief description of a working group focused on monitoring and helping to exploit virtual private networks, or VPNs. Established in 2004, the working group publishes regular "VPN Target Activity Reports" on dozens of countries and organizations around the world. "These reports may help you exploit targets' VPNs more successfully," the chair of the working group writes.

The United States’s signals intelligence relationship with Turkey started with a 1949 verbal agreement between the CIA and Turkey’s intelligence organization. As of 2005, 40 NSA staffers in Ankara provide technical assistance, training, and support to Turkey’s military and civilian intelligence agencies. Although the NSA’s overt operations in Turkey ceased in 1993, covert SIGINT collection by NSA/CIA Special Collection Service continues from sites in Istanbul and Ankara.

The seminar will discuss the threat environment of an upcoming NATO Summit in Turkey and the SIGINT support that will be provided.

Description of the Partnership Dissemination Cell, the office responsible for sharing SIGINT with third-party partners, including Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and Jordan.

Announcement of a seminar on negative fallout from the Iraq War for Turkey and Turkey-U.S. relations.

This 13 September 2010 presentation from the NSA’s OTP VPN Exploitation Team explains the work of the division: see the Der Spiegel story Prying Eyes: Inside the NSA’s War on Internet Security, 28 December 2014.

This post dated 20 December 2005, taken from the NSA’s internal newslatter Foreign Affairs Digest, describes the assistance rendered to Turkey against Kurdish nationalists, particularly the PKK, and describes the difficulties of reconciling this with US strategic interests in Iraq: see the Intercept article How the NSA Helped Turkey Kill Kurdish Rebels, 31 August 2014. […]

This document lists the 193 governments, intragovernmental organisations and other entities which the NSA was granted the legal authority to intercept communications “about” for foreign intelligence purposes in August 2010: see the Washington Post article Court gave NSA broad leeway in surveillance, 30 June 2014.

Staffers remember Thanksgiving meals they had while deployed in Kenya, Somalia, Philippines, and Germany. 

Turkey may not be the NSA’s oldest third-party partner, the writer says. Earlier signals intelligence foreign relationships are described. 

This August 2010 post from the internal NSA newsletter SIDtoday shows how the agency aided US diplomacy on the issue of Iran sanctions – by surveilling the communications of other members of the UN Security Council: see the Época article Spies of the digital age, 2 August 2013.

"WAGTAIL," a new system for collecting PCM (pulse code modulation) signals, has been established in Turkey as a collaboration between the NSA's Technical Liaison Office and the Turkish military. From its location on a Turkish base, the NSA hopes to intercept fax and call signals from Syrian intelligence, several mujahideen and terrorist organizations, and the Syrian presidential palace that will lead to new sources of intelligence, which it will share with its Turkish counterpart.

In September 2004, satellite terminals for internet cafes in Iraq switched to a new communications hub in the UAE, cutting off NSA monitoring of internet in the cafes. Within 40 days, Signals Intelligence Directorate teams outfitted a Special Collection Service site in Ankara, Turkey, to intercept signals from the new hub, immediately resulting in a “successful raid in Kirkuk.”

This GCHQ document from 2009 sets out surveillance priorities from a meeting of the G20’s Finance Ministers, which include the personal surveillance of the then Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, who also holds UK and Turkish dual citizenship: see the Intercept article How the NSA Helped Turkey Kill Kurdish Rebels, 31 August 2014.

This internal GCHQ document from early 2009 describes ongoing operations to surveil the Turkish energy industry and its corresponding government department: see the Intercept article How the NSA Helped Turkey Kill Kurdish Rebels, 31 August 2014.

This update from the NSANet intranet shows that the International Security Issues section of the agency shows a growing emphasis on gathering economic and financial information on the 13 countries under its remit: see the Fantástico article Veja os documentos ultrassecretos que comprovam espionagem a Dilma, 2 December 2013.

Three redacted slides from an NSA presentation name several states as subjects of ongoing interest: see the Fantástico article Veja os documentos ultrassecretos que comprovam espionagem a Dilma, 2 December 2013.

A seminar will address the prospect of Turkey’s membership in the European Union. 

This slide, taken from the NSA’s annual report on the state of its cooperation with foreign powers, details the countries that have received payments from the agency: see the book No Place To Hide, 13 May 2014.

This slide, taken from the NSA’s annual review of its cooperation with foreign partners, shows an expansion in the agency’s international relationships: see the book No Place To Hide, 13 May 2014.

This NSA presentation from 2011 gives an overview of anonymising technologies, including Tor: see the Der Spiegel story Prying Eyes: Inside the NSA’s War on Internet Security, 28 December 2014.

This undated presentation from NSA’s Network Analysis Center describes agency techniques for overcoming Virtual Private Networks (VPNs): see the Der Spiegel story Prying Eyes: Inside the NSA’s War on Internet Security, 28 December 2014.

The U.S. must strike a delicate balance in its support of Turkey: It aids Turkey’s internal struggle against the PKK, or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, while trying to dissuade Turkey from attacking the PKK’s presence across the Turkish border in Iraq. NSA signals intelligence support to Turkey includes tracking PKK members’ handsets while in Turkey and helping to track PKK financiers. 

Some more wacky jobs agency employees held prior to joining the NSA include dancing waitress and mosquito bite test count subject.