Stellar Wind

"Stellar Wind" (or "Stellarwind") was the code name of a

warrantless surveillance program begun under the George W. Bush
administration's President's Surveillance Program (PSP).[1] The
National Security Agency (NSA) program was approved by
President Bush shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks and
was revealed by Thomas Tamm to The New York Times in
2004.[2][3] Stellar Wind was a prelude to new legal structures that
allowed President Bush and President Barack Obama to reproduce
each of those programs and expand their reach.[4]

Program scope
The program's activities involved data mining of a large database of
the communications of American citizens, including e-mail
communications, telephone conversations, financial transactions,
2009 OIG Draft Report on Stellar
and Internet activity.[3] William Binney, a retired technical leader
Wind
with the NSA, discussed some of the architectural and operational
elements of the program at the 2012 Chaos Communication
Congress.[5]

The intelligence community also was able to obtain from the U.S. Treasury Department suspicious activity
reports, or "SARS", which are reports of activities such as large cash transactions that are submitted by
financial institutions under anti-money laundering rules.[3]

There were internal disputes within the U.S. Justice Department about the legality of the program, because
data is collected for large numbers of people, not just the subjects of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) warrants.[6][7] During the Bush administration, the Stellar Wind cases were referred to by FBI
agents as "pizza cases" because many seemingly suspicious cases turned out to be food takeout orders.
According to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, approximately 99% of the cases led nowhere, but "it's that
other 1% that we've got to be concerned about".[2]

2004 conflict
From a report by the inspectors general of six US intelligence agencies that was declassified in September
2015, it became clear that President Bush had originally authorized the collection of telephone and e-mail
metadata only if one end of the communications was foreign or when there was a link to terrorism. But in
2004, the Justice Department discovered that the NSA was apparently also collecting the metadata of
purely domestic communications, after which President Bush declared that NSA had always been allowed
to do so, but that analysts were only allowed to look at metadata related to terrorism. With this revised
formulation, Bush reauthorized the program on March 11, 2004.[8]

In 2004, the head of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), Jack Landman Goldsmith, wrote at least two legal
memos authorizing the program, "We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed
conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in
chief ... that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the wiretapping capabilities of
the National Security Agency within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority" to order
warrantless wiretapping—"an authority that Congress cannot curtail", Goldsmith wrote in a 108-page
memo dated May 6, 2004. In March 2004, the OLC concluded the e-mail program was not legal, and then-
Acting Attorney General James Comey refused to reauthorize it.[9]

Revelations
In March 2012, Wired magazine published "The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch
What You Say)" talking about a vast new NSA facility in Utah and said, "For the first time, a former NSA
official has gone on the record to describe the program, codenamed Stellarwind, in detail", naming the
official William Binney, a former NSA code breaker. Binney went on to say that the NSA had highly
secured rooms that tap into major switches, and satellite communications at both AT&T and Verizon.[10]
The article suggested that the supposedly-terminated Stellar Wind continues as an active program. This
conclusion was supported by the exposure of Room 641A in AT&T's operations center in San Francisco in
2006.[11]

In June 2013, the Washington Post and the Guardian published an Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
draft report, dated March 2009, leaked by Edward Snowden detailing the Stellar Wind program.[1][12] No
doubt remained about the continuing nature of the surveillance program.

In September 2014, The New York Times asserted, "Questions persist after the release of a newly
declassified version of a legal memo approving the National Security Agency's Stellarwind program, a set
of warrantless surveillance and data collection activities secretly authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001." as an introductory headline summary with a link. The accompanying article addressed the
release of a newly declassified version of the May 2004 memo.[13][14][15] Note was made that the bulk of
the program—the telephone, Internet, and e-mail surveillance of American citizens—remained secret until
the revelations by Edward Snowden, that to date, significant portions of the memo remain redacted in the
newly released version, and that doubts and questions about its legality persist.[14][15]

See also
United States
portal
Politics portal

2013 mass surveillance disclosures

Hepting v. AT&T (warrantless wiretapping case)
USA Freedom Act
MUSCULAR
NSA call database
NSA electronic surveillance program
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
President's Surveillance Program: Ashcroft hospital bedside meeting
PRISM

References
1. NSA Inspector General report on the President's Surveillance Program (https://www.theguar
 dian.com/world/interactive/2013/jun/27/nsa-inspector-general-report-document-data-collecti
on), March 24, 2009, page 10, note 3.
2. "Is the FBI Up to the Job 10 Years After 9/11?" (https://web.archive.org/web/2011050301261
8/http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2067995-2,00.html) April 28, 2011
3. Isikoff, Michael (December 13, 2008). "The Fed Who Blew the Whistle: Is he a hero or a
criminal?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20081215105850/http://www.newsweek.com/id/1746
01). Newsweek. Archived from the original (http://www.newsweek.com/id/174601) on
December 15, 2008.
4. Gellman, Barton (June 16, 2013). "U.S. surveillance architecture includes collection of
revealing Internet, phone metadata" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-surv
eillance-architecture-includes-collection-of-revealing-internet-phone-metadata/2013/06/15/e
9bf004a-d511-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html). The Washington Post.
5. Binney, William. 29C3 Panel: Jesselyn Radack, Thomas Drake, William Binney on
whistleblowing and surveillance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDM3MqHln8U)
(Flash) (YouTube Video). Hamburg, Germany: Chaos Communication Congress. Event
occurs at 1:03:00. Archived (https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/XDM3MqH
ln8U) from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
6. Klaidman, Daniel (December 13, 2008). "Now We Know What the Battle Was About" (https://
web.archive.org/web/20100110001317/http://www.newsweek.com/id/174602). Newsweek.
Archived from the original (http://www.newsweek.com/id/174602) on January 10, 2010. Alt
URL (http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/12/13/now-we-know-what-the-battle-wa
s-about.html)
7. Sanchez, Julian (July 29, 2013). "What the Ashcroft 'Hospital Showdown' on NSA spying
was all about" (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/what-the-ashcroft-hospital-show
down-on-nsa-spying-was-all-about/). Retrieved July 29, 2013.
8. Charlie Savage (September 20, 2015). "George W. Bush Made Retroactive N.S.A. 'Fix' After
Hospital Room Showdown" (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/us/politics/george-w-bush
-made-retroactive-nsa-fix-after-hospital-room-showdown.html?_r=1). New York Times.
9. Nakashima, Ellen (September 6, 2014). "Legal memos released on Bush-era justification for
warrantless wiretapping" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/legal-me
mos-released-on-bush-era-justification-for-warrantless-wiretapping/2014/09/05/91b86c52-3
56d-11e4-9e92-0899b306bbea_story.html). Washington Post.
10. Bamford, James (March 15, 2012). "The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center
(Watch What You Say)" (https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1).
Wired. Retrieved March 15, 2012.
11. "AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence" (https://www.wired.com/2006/05/att-whistle-blowers-evid
ence/). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1059-1028). Retrieved May 4,
2021.
12. "NSA inspector general report on email and internet data collection under Stellar Wind" (http
s://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/national-security-agency-inspector-general-draft-
report/277/). March 9, 2009. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
13. Savage, Charlie, "Redactions in U.S. Memo Leave Doubts on Data Surveillance Program"
(https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/redactions-in-us-memo-leave-doubts-on-data-surve
illance-program.html?emc=edit_th_20140907&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=68634180&_r=0),
The New York Times, Sunday, September 7, 2014, p. A17
14. "Sen. Rand Paul Floor Speech Against Patriot Act Reauthorization" (https://irp.fas.org/congr
ess/2015_cr/paul-patriot.html). irp.fas.org. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
15. "Senator Rand Paul's FULL Filibuster Of The Patriot Act Reauthorization - YouTube" (https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZLYwSPbNXo). www.youtube.com. Retrieved December 29,
2021.
External links
NSA inspector general report on email and internet data collection under Stellar Wind – full
document (https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jun/27/nsa-inspector-general
-report-document-data-collection), The Guardian, June 27, 2013.
Poitras, Laura. The Program (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-secu
rity-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html?_r=2&ref=opinion). Nytimes.com, Op-Docs,
August 22, 2012.

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