In Iraq, the NSA is able to sweep up all emails, text messages and phone location signals in real time. This revelation doesn't come from documents leaked by Edward Snowden, but from the spy agency's own former second-in-command.

Former NSA deputy director John Inglis revealed these capabilities in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Before outgoing NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander arrived, Inglis said, the agency was only able to intercept "half of enemy signals" in Iraq.

This seems to be the first time such capabilities have ever been revealed, even though the Washington Post reported in July that Alexander had major aspirations for Iraq in 2005. The newspaper wrote that Alexander "wanted everything: Every Iraqi text message, phone call and e-mail that could be vacuumed up by the agency’s powerful computers."

Inglis's words seem to confirm Alexander actually got what he wanted. Naturally, the NSA isn't saying. Reached by Mashable on Monday, an NSA spokesperson declined to comment on Inglis's remarks.

Inglis' casual revelation is especially bizarre given that the NSA has asked The Washington Post to withhold the name of a country where a surveillance program that allows the NSA to record "100 percent" of phone calls is deployed.

"At the request of U.S. officials, The Washington Post is withholding details that could be used to identify the country where the system is being employed," read the article.

For Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists entrusted with Snowden's top secret trove of documents, the whole affair show how the NSA "manipulates" the media.

"They’ll claim with no evidence that a story they don’t want published will 'endanger lives,' but then go and disclose something even more sensitive if they think doing so scores them a propaganda coup," Greenwald wrote in a post at The Intercept.

The Los Angeles Times story also quoted Alexander, who retired from the NSA on Friday. Alexander defended his work and that of his former colleagues.

"I think our nation has drifted into the wrong place," he said. "We need to recognize that those who are working to protect our nation are not the bad people."

Alexander went on to say that the American public is outraged at the NSA because of sensational and misleading reporting. He believes it unfair to compare the scrutiny currently leveled at the agency to the Church and Pike committees of the 1970s, which investigated widespread illegal surveillance by the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI.

"That's not happening here," Alexander said.

A quote from an anonymous former senior intelligence official who worked under Alexander explains how the NSA viewed its role and its boundaries under Alexander's lead. "Keith's an engineer," the source said. "With Keith, it was always, 'If we can do it, we ought to do it.'"