The most privacy-invasive technology that NSA is using to conduct vacuum cleaning of phone calls, e-mail, faxes, and Voice of IP calls is the use of downstream switches that disassemble and reassemble packets after they pass through commercial packet assemblers-disassemblers (PADs). By doing this, NSA can choose what transmissions are reassembled and sent on to their destination. Suspicious packets are held for storage and analysis. Internet users who are experiencing lost emails can thank this technology, which throws a virtual digital checkpoint on major Internet backbones. NSA is using downstream PADs provided by Narus, NICE, and Verisign.
WMR has also been informed that unconfirmed US ambassador to the UN continues to use NSA intercepts to target the delegations of nations who are not supporting various Bush administration efforts to reorganize the UN and have it fall into line with US foreign policy goals. Bolton, Michael Hayden, and then-US ambassador to the UN John Negroponte, engaged in a surge surveillance of UN Security Council and other delegations prior to the Iraq war. That surveillance has now reportedly been extended to journalists, including American citizens, who are accredited to cover the UN. Cell phone and other calls to and from UN offices in New York are considered international since UN headquarters is recognized as international territory.