NSA tapped all phone calls in Bahamas

The NSA records all telephone conversations in the Bahamas and can listen back to them for up to a month. That reports The Intercept, the website of Glenn Greenwald. All telephone conversations in another country are also recorded, but that country is not mentioned.

The Washington Post previously revealed that the NSA tapped all telephone conversations in a certain country and could listen back to them for up to a month. The newspaper did not write down which country it was: the White House asked the newspaper to omit the name of the country.

However, the website of Glenn Greenwald, who is behind the NSA revelations, has published the name: it turns out to be the Bahamas. Also in one other country, the NSA would record all telephone conversations and listen back, but that country is not mentioned, because mentioning the name could cause “an increase in violence”.

The NSA is said to be collecting phone calls in the Bahamas without the knowledge of that country’s government. The website writes that it appears that the NSA is using the access of the US anti-drug police, the Drugs Enforcement Administration, to the telephone network of the Bahamas. The DEA often works closely with foreign governments, notes The Intercept, because the organization is not seen as an intelligence agency.

Furthermore, according to The Intercept, the NSA collects metadata from all telephone calls in Mexico, Kenya and the Philippines. For example, metadata is information about the callers who made the call and their location.