NSA to Share Sanitized US Traffic With Select Third Party Nations

DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL (S//SI) NSA to Share Sanitized US Traffic With Select Third Party Nations FROM: Michael Clifford FAD's Europe Office (DP11) Run Date: 02/06/2006 (S//SI) On 19 December, SID Director MG Quirk concurred on the AGILE COURAGE initiative to share sanitized intercept from US sources with selected Third Party partners. Since May 2004, an AGILE COURAGE working group, comprising members from the SIGINT and Foreign Affairs Directorates, has brainstormed a recommendation to share US collection with Third Party partners akin to the TICKETWINDOW* sharing initiative. (S//SI) AGILE COURAGE will benefit the US Government by allowing NSA to increase SIGINT access reach through the leveraging of partner assets, thereby saving NSA the cost of developing and operating collection accesses which would be duplicative to select Third Party partner coverage. Additionally, as the initiative matures, AGILE COURAGE will provide the foundation for capitalizing on other partner strengths, such as unique language capabilities and advanced regional target knowledge. (S//SI) SID and FAD (NSA's Foreign Affairs Directorate) will jointly manage AGILE COURAGE with primary responsibility for collection management being a SID function, program oversight a FAD function, and risk management a corporate function. Oversight is a major aspect of the initiative and will not be taken lightly. FAD will require that Third Parties recognize an agreement that extends US-person protection to their handling of collection provided by NSA. Guidance will also be provided to assist foreign partners in submitting information to meet their oversight reporting obligations. (S//SI) Additionally, FAD and SID will integrate risk management into AGILE COURAGE operations. Through proper SID selector management and FAD oversight, FAD will ensure that risks are properly and sufficiently mitigated. Basically, NSA will manage risk by reviewing Third Party selectors in advance of tasking, accepting only those selectors that fall within the parameters of our approved intelligence topics for the relationships, conducting periodic reviews for validity, and ensuring our AGILE COURAGE participants are only the most trusted partners, who share our values and have signed the aforementioned agreement on handling US-person information. As new partners are systematically identified for this initiative, NSA will gain a higher confidence level and assurance that risks are addressed and mutual benefits of the partnership are identified. (S) FAD will incorporate AGILE COURAGE into its strategy to continually identify and develop foreign partners with the technical, linguistic, and analytic skills and political will to assist the US in our cryptologic tasks. (U//FOUO) The Outlook for AGILE COURAGE (S//SI) The plan is to start small and expand judiciously. AGILE COURAGE will initially include only a small number of partners and targets as we build confidence in procedures and oversight mechanisms. As AGILE COURAGE matures to the point where it can enable divisions of effort with our Third Party partners, the working group will need to determine which mission is appropriate to push to a particular partner, when it gets shared, and who the proper partner is. FAD recognizes that mission blending is crucial and will help centers develop efforts to benefit from foreign affairs opportunities. FAD routinely and periodically reviews the partnerships to evaluate the benefit and value to NSA and will look to AGILE COURAGE in the same context. *(U) Notes: (S) TICKETWINDOW (TW) is the vehicle used for sharing sanitized Voice/Fax/DNI sensitivesource traffic among the Five-Eyes community. TW is a mutual exchange where collection requirements from Second Parties are funneled to our sensitive sources, and our information

needs are forwarded to Second Parties for tasking to their sensitive sources. Requirements are handled by the Partner Desk Officers (PDOs) in the Office of Partnerships and Strategic Issues (PSI/S3C1) in the Collection Strategies and Requirements Center (CSRC). For more information see the TICKETWINDOW homepage . See also an earlier SIDtoday article on the subject. (S//SI) This article is reprinted from the Foreign Affairs Digest , January edition (originally titled "SID Approves AGILE COURAGE -- a TICKETWINDOW for Third Parties and a New Tool to Realize the Foreign Affairs Strategy"). "(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)." DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108