Reading Between the Lines of Redacted NSA Documents

[Reefa]

These are the telecommunication companies that, by order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, must provide to the NSA telephone metadata for all calls originating or terminating in the United States, as described in a Jan. 3, 2014 FISA court order.

Sometimes the most interesting part of a classified document is what is blacked out. That’s where you can tell, by context, what kind of information is still considered too secret for public consumption.

Responding to the revelations from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the U.S. government has provided unprecedented transparency about the nation’s spying apparatus—all in a bid to quell public dissent—by releasing thousands of pages of once-classified documents.

The government even has released formerly secret documents criticizing itself for breaching Americans’ privacy rights while also divulging the once-secret legal basis for its bulk telephone metadata collection program. But many documents contain redactions—or black marks—in key places.

As of January, the government said it has released 2,700 pages of once-classified documents, including 44 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions and orders, 11 government filings to that court, 24 once-classified documents provided to Congress, and 20 other reports that include training slides and other materials. Clearly, the documents shed light on the NSA, although plenty of secrets remain secret.

But even when the government divulges its secrets, it rarely provides the full picture.

In that vein, WIRED is publishing a gallery highlighting the redaction of important information about NSA snooping.

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