Washington, United States (July 01, 2014): According to a report published by Washington Post newspaper with the reference of a classified document provided by former NSA contractor and privacy whistleblower Edward Snowden, a US court had authorized America’s top spy agency in 2010 to carry out surveillance on the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) along with five other political organizations in the world, including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Pakistan Peoples Party.
BJP figures in the list of foreign political parties along with Lebanon’s Amal, the Bolivarian Continental Coordinator of Venezuela, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian National Salvation Front and the Pakistan Peoples Party for whom the National Security Agency (NSA) had sought permission to carry out surveillance, says the document made public by The Washington Post on Monday.
BJP figures in the list of political parties for whom the NSA had sought permission to carry out surveillance
It reflect BJP’s image as “communal” with the figuring of its name among other top communal political parties of the world.
The document lists the 193 foreign governments as well as foreign factions and other entities that were part of a 2010 certification approved by the foreign intelligence surveillance court. The list includes India, the report added.
“These are the entities about which the NSA may conduct surveillance, for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence,” the paper said, citing documents.
It said each year a new certification must be approved by the court to permit such surveillance under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act.
“Virtually no foreign government is off-limits for the National Security Agency, which has been authorized to intercept information ‘concerning’ all but four countries including Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand”, said the report.
The certification of surveillance also includes other international organisations like World Bank, IMF, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“The NSA is not necessarily targeting all the countries or organizations identified in the certification, the affidavits and an accompanying exhibit; it has only been given authority to do so,” The Post said.
Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents to media uncovering the existence of numerous global surveillance programmes, many of them run by the NSA, triggering an outrage worldwide.