Hopeless Romantic NSA Employees Spied On Love Interests

Ready for the sweetest story you’ll hear all day? There are some NSA employees who are so incredibly lovesick, they abused the controversial group’s more-controversial spying power to keep tabs on their love interests.

This report comes to you from the also-controversial NSA watchdog group.

The National Security Agency report reveals that over the past decade, employees intentionally misused the agency’s surveillance power to spy on their love interests, among other things. This happened at least a dozen times, with another two incidents currently under investigation.

Six of the incidents were sent up the chain to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. None of the violations have resulted in charges at this time, and the report does not reveal the names of the employees who abused the NSA’s power.

In many cases, the employees who abused the NSA’s systems had already resigned before they could be punished. Others were demoted or sanctioned.

On a case by case basis, these abuses are even more horrifying. In a 2004 case, a civilian employee confessed to spying on a foreign number she found on her husband’s cell phone, suspecting an affair. She resigned before she could be fired.

Another employee pulled up six e-mail addresses belonging to a former girlfriend. He told investigators he was merely practicing on the system.

A third employee abused the system for no apparent reason for years (between 1998 and 2003), listening in on the conversations of nine phone numbers belonging to foreign women. This case was brought to the attention of investigators when a foreign national working for the U.S. government told a co-worker that she believed she was being spied on by a man she’d had a sexual relationship with.

The NSA abuses report was included as a response to a request made by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

“I appreciate the transparency that the Inspector General has provided to the American people,” Grassley said in a statement after receiving the report. “We shouldn’t tolerate even one instance of misuse of this program. Robust oversight of the program must be completed to ensure that both national security and the Constitution are protected.”

Still not getting it, are we government?

Oh, and just in case you’re thinking “hey, wasn’t there some romantic comedy about this?” Yes, yes there was:

Do you think that the NSA can maintain this level of power without egregious abuses continuing to happen?

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