--- title: WikiLeaks Names Afghanistan Mystery Country Under NSA Surveillance description: The National Security Agency records every cell phone call in Afghanistan, according to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. canonical: https://time.com/109853/wikileaks-afghanistan-under-nsa-surveillance/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-23T11:15:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:00:41.586Z article:section: Politics og:title: WikiLeaks Names Afghanistan Mystery Country Under NSA Surveillance og:description: The National Security Agency records every cell phone call in Afghanistan, according to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. og:url: https://time.com/109853/wikileaks-afghanistan-under-nsa-surveillance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: WikiLeaks Names Afghanistan Mystery Country Under NSA Surveillance twitter:description: The National Security Agency records every cell phone call in Afghanistan, according to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # WikiLeaks Claims Afghanistan Under NSA Surveillance > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks May 23, 2014 11:15 AM UTC  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks May 23, 2014 11:15 AM UTC The National Security Agency records every cell phone call in Afghanistan, claims the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which named the country despite the fact that other news organizations did not out of concern that doing so could lead to violence. > [](https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/469728627894939648) The Intercept, a media organization founded by journalists with access to classified documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, [reported](http://time.com/105977/wikileaks-threatens-to-reveal-unnamed-country-from-snowden-documents/) Monday that the NSA records all cell phone calls in the Bahamas and one unnamed country. The Intercept chose not to release the name of the country, the outlet said in its report, due to “credible concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence.” WikiLeaks responded to The Intercept’s report by criticizing the decision to redact the country’s name and said it would do so itself 72 hours later. That threat led many to wonder if it meant WikiLeaks has obtained access to documents leaked by Snowden or if someone with access to the documents gave someone at WikiLeaks the name of the country in question. As the leak site [Cryptome](http://cryptome.org/2014/05/nsa-mystic-identity.pdf) noted earlier, it may be that WikiLeaks simply believes that the mystery country is Afghanistan given the already-public information available. An earlier report on the documents from The Washington _Post_ did not name any of the countries involved. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/109853/wikileaks-afghanistan-under-nsa-surveillance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/109853/wikileaks-afghanistan-under-nsa-surveillance/"},"headline":"WikiLeaks Claims Afghanistan Under NSA Surveillance","datePublished":"2014-05-23T11:15:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:00:41.586Z","description":"The secret-spilling group says Afghanistan is the country The Intercept declined to name out of concern that doing so could stoke violence","url":"https://time.com/109853/wikileaks-afghanistan-under-nsa-surveillance/","keywords":["intelligence","NSA","Afghanistan","Edward Snowden","WikiLeaks"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/intelligence/","name":"intelligence"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/109853/wikileaks-afghanistan-under-nsa-surveillance/","name":"WikiLeaks Claims Afghanistan Under NSA Surveillance"}}]}] ```