• The spying has been given the codename  ‘LOVEINT’
• LOVEINT has been going on for at least  the past decade
• This revelation is the latest in a summer  of disclosures about how far the US government spy program  reaches

By  Ryan Gorman

PUBLISHED: 23:13 EST, 23  August 2013 |  UPDATED: 23:14 EST, 23 August 2013

National Security Agency officers have been  spying on people they’ve been eying.

NSA officers have been using agency tools to  keep tabs on their partner or spouse for at least the past decade, according to  a Wall Street Journal report Friday. The spying isn’t often, but is has been  given its own code name, according to the Journal, ‘LOVEINT.’

Instances of spying have averaged roughly one  a year, a mere drop in the 3,000 violations of privacy rules a year bucket the  spy agency recently disclosed.

 

Spy central: The National Security Agency headquarters  in Fort Meade, Maryland

Among the thousands of violations each year,  there have only been a handful of wilful  abuses of agency resources in the past decade, according to an NSA statement  quoted by the Journal  report.

‘NSA has zero tolerance for willful  violations of the agency’s authorities [and responds] as appropriate,’ the  statement said.

Each known instance of LOVEINT surveillance  was against a spouse or partner, the Journal reported, adding that each act was  met with ‘administrative action of discipline.’

The incidents are often self-reported and are  revealed during polygraph tests administered during the renewal of a security  clearance, according to the Journal.

 

Still not the end: Media reports indicate further  disclosures about NSA spying will be made in the coming weeks by both The  Guardian and the New York Times

Senate intelligence committee chairwoman  Senator Dianne Feinstein (D – CA) told the Journal that the agency has made  Congress aware of the ‘isolated cases’ of LOVEINT and did not involve  surveillance of Americans, rather people overseas.

Clearly, any case of noncompliance is  unacceptable, but these small numbers of cases do not change my view that NSA  takes significant care to prevent any abuses… when errors are identified, they  are reported and corrected,’ Feinstein added.

This revelation comes amid a summer of  shocking reports about the amount of surveillance carried about by the federal  government and may lead to further disillusionment with the  agency.

Additional surveillance disclosures from  former security contractor Edward Snowden are expected to be published by both  the British newspaper The Guardian and the New York Times in the coming weeks,  according to media reports.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401294/NSA-officers-spy-love-interests.html#ixzz2cwojetXS Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Categories: Cyber Security, Intelligence Gathering, M.I.C.E.

Tags: Dianne Feinstein, LOVEINT, MailOnline, National Security Agency, NSA, United States, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Wall Street Journal