Page 15 - Intelligence Value News Today

Theres intelligence value and were going to report on it, it is normally disseminated in a masked form. well use a rirchs u.s. person one, u.s. person two. if you look at the highlight of our total breadth of our reporting, involving u.s. persons at all is an incredibly small subset. >> who normally in the n.l.a. would make the decision to unmask? >> there are 20 authorities includes myself. >> and does the level of approve chan change. >> if it was someone very important, would that -- requests...

You spoke about masking, and trying to keep a u.s. persons identity concealed. and when it is disseminated, we often talk about in the intelligence community about the exceptions to, if somebody is masked, how you unmask them. what would the exceptions to that masking be before its disseminated? >> so again, we use two criteria. the need to know on the person requesting us and the execution, and the second part was, is the identification necessary to truly understand the context of the intellige...

Trying to keep a u.s. persons identity concealed. when it is disseminated we often talk about in the intelligence community about the exceptions to if some of the masks -- how you unmask them. what are the exceptions to the masking be before its disseminated? >> again two criteria the need- need-to-know and the execution of official duties and is itry for the intelligence value the report is designed to generate. those are the two criteria we use. >> and is the identity of a person is that disse...

The way it works, if the nsa accidentally hears the name or voice of an american while spying on a foreign national, they retkabgt the name and replace it with u.s. citizen number one or u.s. citizen number two. but if somebody sees that report and wants to know who u.s. citizen number one is, then the nsa makes a decision like this. >> criteria need to know on the person requesting us and the execution of official duties and the second part was, is the identification necessary to truly understa...

Has nothing do with our valid collection authority. in some cases we will just personal it has no intelligence value and it wasnt the purpose of what we were doing. in some cases then if we believe that there is intelligence value, for example, whether its a difference to a and in our rorgt we will mask the identity of the person, well use a phrase like u.s. person 1 or u.s. person 2. for our purposes, u.s. person is defined very broadly. that is not just a u.s. citizen, that is a shipper/air so...

Trying to keep a u.s. persons identity concealed and when it is disseminated, you -- we often talk about in the intelligence community about the exception to how -- if somebodys masked, how you unmask them. what would the exception to that masking be before its disseminated. >> we use two criteria, the need to know on requesting us and execution of their responsibility and is it necessary in the context in a that an the intelligence value that is designed to intelligence. >> is that identify of ...

Intelligence value? thats what i remain concerned about and thats why the letter that you see today were asking for all of those names by friday. [ inaudible question ] >> well you know i think it is certainly an appropriate part of our oversight to make sure that the agencies are following the correct procedures when it comes to unmasking any names of americans that may be gathered through incidental collection. this is a separate matter from whether the presidents allegations have any truth. w...

Purposes that wouldnt have had intelligence value. and thats what i remain concerned about. thats why the letter that you see today, were asking for all of those names by friday. >> reporter: is that also your -- >> i think its certainly an appropriate part of our oversight to make sure that the agencies are following the correct procedures when it comes to unmasking any names of americans that may be gathered through incidental collection. i do want to underscore that this is a separate matter ...

That information for other purposes that wouldnt have had intelligence value. and thats what i remain concerned about, and thats why the letter that you see today were asking for all of those names by friday. >> [ inaudible ]. >> well, you know, i think its certainly an appropriate part of our oversight to make sure that the agencies are following the correct procedures when it comes to unmasking any names of americans that may be gathered through incidental collection. but i do want to undersco...

In the intercepts, thats actually a good step. thats an a political step. thats allowing the professionals to make the choice without the white house pulling the levers. brian: end of this quote says we didnt say do it. a senior u.s. official said. we didnt say dont do it. steve: plus. didnt. >> in one sense it is. at the political level its smart. all right. but at the level of intelligence, let the professionals decide what constitutes the intelligence value of the report. remember i said the ...