PROJECT MYSTIC Cotton Tote Bag

Project MYSTIC: A classified surveillance program run by the National Security Agency (NSA) during the 2000s–2010s. Its purpose was to collect and store massive amounts of foreign telephone communications—particularly metadata (who called whom, when, and for how long), and in some cases, full audio recordings. What made MYSTIC notable was a subprogram called SOMALGET, which reportedly allowed the NSA to record and temporarily store 100% of a country’s phone calls (revealed in countries like the Bahamas and Afghanistan). Analysts could then go back and retrieve conversations from this rolling archive for intelligence purposes.

The program became public through disclosures by Edward Snowden in 2013, raising significant concerns about mass surveillance, privacy rights, and the scope of government intelligence collection—even when targeted at foreign populations. If capabilities like this existed over a decade ago, it naturally raises questions about how much more advanced similar technologies may be today.

**All items are print-on-demand and refunds will ONLY be issued for factory misprints.