Surveillance2008 drone killing of al Shabab leader used phone info collected by NSA

The May 2008 killing of al-Shabab leader Aden Hashen Ayrow by a U.S. missile strike is being looked at again for a reason which is in the news right now: intelligence collection. How did the U.S. military know Ayrow’s whereabouts?

NBC News reports that that a newly disclosed FBI e-mail suggests the NSA’s surveillance program may have played a role in Ayrow’s killing. The e-mail was part of court papers filed by lawyers for Basaaly Moalin, a San Diego cab driver convicted in February 2013 of providing “material support” to al-Shabab.

Moalin was identified as a suspect through the NSA’ s collection of American’s phone metarecords, and his lawyers are appealing the conviction on grounds that Moalin was unconstitutionally targeted by the NSA’s surveillance program.

The e-mail revealed an unidentified FBI agent discussing the role of “another agency” in intercepting a phone call that Moalin received from Ayrow in Somalia. “We just heard from another agency that Ayrow tried to make a call to Basaaly today, but the call didn’t go through,” the FBI agent wrote to a colleague on 27 January 2008. “If you see anything today, can you give us a shout? We’re extremely interested in getting real time info (location/new #s) on Ayrow.”

U.S officials confirmed Ayrow’s death three months after the e-mail was sent; the NSA is thought to be the agency referenced in the e-mail.  “It’s clear from the e-mail that they were trying to find Ayrow for the purpose of targeted assassination,” said Joshua Dratel, a lawyer for Moalin.

The NSA has repeatedly noted that the surveillance program does not involve actual eavesdropping on phone calls – unless such eavesdropping is permitted by a court — and that the program has played an important role in preventing terror attacks. Deputy NSA director John Ingliss acknowledged that the only case in which the surveillance program was essential to identifying a terrorist was Moalin’s case.

NBC Newsnotes that a former U.S. counterterrorism official directly involved in planning lethal operations abroad, said the NSA plays a crucial role in identifying and locating targets. “Without them, JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) and the CIA would be out of business, said the former official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They would scoop up all these phone numbers and then zero in on them, get you a ‘pattern of life’ (of the targets) using all this high-speed stuff, and help you triangulate.”

The Washington Post reports, based on  documents leaked by Edward Snowden, that the NSA operates a special unit called CounterTerrorism Mission Aligned Cell, or CT Mac, to use phone interceptions to pinpoint coordinates for CIA and U.S. military drone strikes. A successful operation for CT MAC referenced in the leaked documents was a CIA drone strike that killed al Qaeda terrorist Hassan Ghul in Pakistan in 2012.

In response to questions about the NSA’s role in locating targets for drone strikes, an NSA spokeswoman said. “The National Security Agency is a foreign intelligence agency. We’re focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets, such as terrorists, human traffickers and drug smugglers. Our activities are directed against valid foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements from U.S. leaders in order to protect the nation and its interests from threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”