For the Record.
Tucker Carlson’s ‘unmasking’ claim confirmed by NSA investigators
By Mary Kay Linge
The National Security Agency has quietly admitted that the identity of Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson was “unmasked” and leaked as he alleged earlier this month, according to a report.
“For the NSA to unmask Tucker Carlson or any journalist attempting to secure a newsworthy interview is entirely unacceptable and raises serious questions about their activities as well as their original denial, which was wildly misleading,” a Fox News spokesperson told The Record, a cybersecurity news site.
Two sources told The Record Friday that, according to an internal NSA investigation, Carlson’s name was revealed after it was mentioned in “communications between two parties” that were under surveillance.
But the host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was neither a direct nor an incidental target of the agency, the sources said.
In June, Carlson accused the NSA of monitoring his emails in an effort to find damaging material that would force him off the air.
The claim led to a rare public denial from the agency, which stated that Carlson “has never been an intelligence target.”
“The NSA has found no evidence to support Tucker Carlson’s accusations that the agency had been spying on him in an effort to knock his show off the air, two people familiar with the matter told The Record.
An examination by the spy agency, prompted by congressional inquiries, found that the Fox News host’s communications were not targeted — as the NSA has previously stated publicly — nor intercepted through so-called “incidental collection,” where the U.S. government sometimes obtains the emails or phone calls of Americans in contact with a foreign target under surveillance, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Correspondence between intelligence agencies and oversight authorities are conducted through classified means.
Instead, the nation’s top electronic spy agency found that Carlson was mentioned in communications between third parties and his name was subsequently revealed through “unmasking,” a process in which relevant government officials can request the identities of American citizens in intelligence reports to be divulged provided there is an official reason, such as helping them make sense of the intelligence documents they are reviewing.
The NSA obscures the names of Americans mentioned in its finished products in an effort to protect their privacy.
The sources declined to comment on who mentioned Carlson in their communications.
“For the NSA to unmask Tucker Carlson or any journalist attempting to secure a newsworthy interview is entirely unacceptable and raises serious questions about their activities as well as their original denial, which was wildly misleading,” a Fox News spokesperson told The Record.
The NSA declined to comment.”
https://therecord.media/nsa-review-finds-that-tucker-carlsons-communications-were-not-targeted/
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