UKUSA Agreement

The United Kingdom – United States of America Agreement (UKUSA, ) is a multilateral agreement for cooperation in between, , , the , and the. The alliance of intelligence operations is also known as the. In classification markings this is abbreviated as FVEY, with the individual countries being abbreviated as AUS, CAN, NZL, GBR, and USA, respectively.

Emerging from an informal agreement related to the 1941, the was renewed with the passage of the , before being officially enacted on 5 March 1946 by the United Kingdom and the United States. In the following years, it was extended to encompass Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Other countries, known as "third parties", such as, the Philippines, and several also joined the UKUSA community in associate capacities, although they are not part of mechanism for automatic sharing of intelligence that exists between the Five Eyes.

Much of the sharing of information is performed via the ultra-sensitive network, which has been claimed to contain "some of the Western world's most closely guarded secrets". Besides laying down rules for intelligence sharing, the agreement formalized and cemented the "" between the UK and the US.

Due to its status as a secret treaty, its existence was not known to the until 1973, and it was not disclosed to the public until 2005. On 25 June 2010, for the first time in history, the full text of the agreement was publicly released by the United Kingdom and the United States, and can now be viewed online. Shortly after its release, the seven-page UKUSA Agreement was recognized by  magazine as one of the 's most important documents, with immense historical significance.

The by  has shown that the intelligence-sharing activities between the  allies of the Cold War are rapidly shifting into the digital realm of the.

Origins (1940s–1950s)
The agreement originated from a ten-page 1943 British–U.S. Communication Intelligence Agreement,, that connected the signal intercept networks of the U.K. (GCHQ) and the U.S.  (NSA) at the beginning of the. The document was signed on 5 March 1946 by Colonel Patrick Marr-Johnson for the U.K.'s London Signals Intelligence Board and Lieutenant General for the U.S. State–Army–Navy Communication Intelligence Board. Although the original agreement states that the exchange would not be "prejudicial to national interests", the United States often blocked information sharing from countries. The full text of the agreement was released to the public on 25 June 2010.

The "" term has its origins as a shorthand for a "AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US EYES ONLY" classification level.

Onset of the Cold War (1950s–1960s)
Under the agreement, the GCHQ and the NSA shared intelligence on the, the People's Republic of China, and several eastern European countries (known as Exotics). The network was expanded in the 1960s into the collection and analysis network.

The treaty was extended to include Canada (1948), Australia (1956) and New Zealand (1956). In 1955, the agreement was updated to designate Canada, Australia and New Zealand as "UKUSA-collaborating countries". Other countries that joined as "third parties" were Norway (1952), Denmark (1954) and (1955).

Investigations (1970–90s)
In the aftermath of the on the headquarters of the  (ASIO), the existence of the UKUSA Agreement was revealed to Australia's Prime Minister. After learning about the agreement, Whitlam discovered that, a secret surveillance station close to Alice Springs, Australia, had been operated by the U.S. (CIA).

At the height of the, the use and control of Pine Gap by the CIA was strongly opposed by Whitlam, who fired the chief of the ASIO before being dismissed as prime minister.

The existence of several intelligence agencies of the was not revealed until the following years:
 * 1970s: In Canada, an investigative television report revealed the existence of the (CSEC).
 * 1975: In the United States, the of the Senate revealed the existence of the  (NSA).
 * 1976: In Britain, an investigative article in  magazine revealed the existence of the (GCHQ).
 * 1977: In Australia, the revealed the existence of  (ASIS) and the  (DSD).
 * 1980: In New Zealand, the existence of the (GCSB) was officially disclosed on a "limited basis".

In 1999, the Australian government acknowledged that it "does co-operate with counterpart signals intelligence organisations overseas under the UKUSA relationship."

The existence of the UKUSA Agreement, however, was not publicly revealed until 2005. The contents of the agreement were officially disclosed to the public on 25 June 2010. Four days later, the agreement was described by  magazine as one of the "most important documents in the history of the ."

Recent media leaks
In July 2013, as part of the, it emerged that the NSA is paying GCHQ for its services, with at least £100 million of payments made between 2010 and 2013.

On 11 September 2013,  released a which reveals a similar agreement between the NSA and Israel's.

According to , Australia operates clandestine surveillance facilities at its embassies "without the knowledge of most Australian diplomats". These facilities are part of an international espionage program known as .

Security and intelligence agencies
Although the UKUSA alliance is often associated with the system, processed intelligence is reliant on multiple sources of information and the intelligence shared is not restricted to. The following table provides an overview of the government agencies involved and their respective responsibilities within the "Five Eyes" community:

Global coverage
Although precise assignments are classified, it is generally known that each member of the UKUSA alliance takes lead responsibility for intelligence collection and analysis in different parts of the globe.

Five Eyes
The "Five Eyes", often abbreviated as "FVEY", refer to an alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are bound by the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in.

Australia
Australia monitors South Asia and East Asia.

Canada
Canada's geographical proximity to the provided considerable eavesdropping advantages during the. Canada continues to monitor the Russian and Chinese interior while managing intelligence assets in Latin America.

New Zealand
In addition to Southeast Asia, New Zealand is responsible for the western and maintains listening posts in the  at  just south-west of, and on the  at.

United Kingdom
Europe,, Middle East, and Hong Kong.

United States
The U.S. is focused on the Middle East, China, and Russia, in addition to the and Africa.

9 Eyes, 14 Eyes, and other "third parties"
The "Five Eyes" community is part of an extensive alliance of sharing  with each other. These allied countries include members, other European countries such as Sweden, and allies in the Pacific, in particular Singapore and South Korea.

In the 1950s several Nordic countries joined the community as "third party" participants. They were soon followed by Denmark (1954) and (1955).

According to, the NSA has a "massive body" called the Foreign Affairs Directorate that is responsible for partnering with other such as Israel.

Unlike the "second party" members (that is, the Five Eyes themselves), "third party" partners are not automatically exempt from intelligence targeting. According to an internal NSA document leaked by Snowden, "We (the NSA) can, and often do, target the signals of most 3rd party foreign partners."

The Five Eyes are cooperating with various 3rd Party countries in at least two groups:
 * The "Nine Eyes", consisting of the Five Eyes plus Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Norway.
 * The "Fourteen Eyes", consisting of the same countries as the Nine Eyes plus Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. The actual name of this group is SIGINT Seniors Europe (SSEUR) and its purpose is coordinating the exchange of military signals intelligence among its members.

Germany is reportedly interested in moving closer to the inner circle: an internal GCHQ document from 2009 said that the "Germans were a little grumpy at not being invited to join the 9-Eyes group." Germany may even wish to join Five Eyes. Referring to Five Eyes, French President has said that his country is "not within that framework and we don't intend to join." According to a former top U.S. official, "Germany joining would be a possibility, but not France – France itself spies on the US far too aggressively for that."

Controversy
During the Internet spying scandal, the surveillance agencies of the "Five Eyes" have been accused of intentionally spying on one another's citizens and willingly sharing the collected information with each other, allegedly circumventing laws preventing each agency from spying on its own citizens.

The 2013 NSA leaks are not entirely new, but rather, they are a confirmation of earlier disclosures about the UK-US espionage alliance. For example, the British newspaper  reported back in 1996 that the U.S. "taps UK phones" at the request of the British intelligence agency, thus allowing British agents to evade restrictive limitations on domestic telephone tapping.

The mutual surveillance and sharing of information between allies of the UK and US resurfaced again during the. As described by the news magazine , this was done to circumvent domestic surveillance regulations:

Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency can spy on anyone but British nationals, the NSA can conduct surveillance on anyone but Americans, and Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency can spy on anyone but Germans. That's how a matrix is created of boundless surveillance in which each partner aids in a division of roles.

They exchanged information. And they worked together extensively. That applies to the British and the Americans, but also to the BND, which assists the NSA in its Internet surveillance.

According to , the "Five Eyes" community is an exclusive club where new members "do not seem to be welcome":

"It does not matter how senior you are, and how close a friend you think you are to or London, your communications could easily be being shared among the handful of, nations with membership privileges."

In 2013, Canadian federal judge strongly rebuked the  (CSIS) for outsourcing its surveillance of Canadians to overseas partner agencies. A 51-page ruling says that the CSIS and other Canadian federal agencies are illegally enlisting U.S. and British allies in dragnets, while keeping domestic federal courts in the dark.

Officially released
The following documents were jointly released by the NSA and the GCHQ in 2010:

Disclosed by Edward Snowden
The following documents were leaked by during the course of the :