13 November 2013

NSA SIGINT Strategic Mission Chart 2007

Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 20:14:28 -0800 (PST)
From: xxxxx[at]efn.org
To: cryptome[at]earthlink.net
Subject: Chart derived from 2007 SIGINT Strategic Mission List

I've spent a bit of time assembling a chart based on this document released by the NY Times. I have integrated information from both sections.

Having it in this format allows one to look up countries or entities and see what the US was interested in, it ought to closely reflect the 2007 version of the National Intelligence Priorities Framework (NIPF), though it is not a true stand-in for it, as the Strategic Mission List was not derived exclusively from the NIPF. One other thing to bear in mind, this is a snapshot of the US view of the world in 2007; countries that were relatively unimportant then are no longer. Tunisia does not appear at all, Egypt and Libya barely got a mention; the Arab Spring didn't start until late 2010. Afghanistan did not appear as an "Enduring Target", despite being at war with them since 2001, and continuing to the present.

Key:

Yellow= Focus Area
Green= Accepted Risk

Notes:

I have mapped some regions to their associated countries:

Golden Triangle = Afghanistan, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar
African Great Lakes Region= Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda; I have chosen a conservative definition of this region and did not include Malawi and others.

"Latin American Bolivaran Developments", Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe I have left as is.

Korea has sometimes appeared simply as Korea without distinguishing North from South, as such there is an entry for "Korea" as well as entries for "North Korea" and "South Korea".

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/11/03/world/documents-show-nsa-
efforts-to-spy-on-both-enemies-and-allies.html?ref=world#doc2