Pakistan, Jordan, Ethiopia and, surprisingly, Canada these are the top four beneficiaries of a U.S. National Security Agency research-funding program that helps other countries develop their electronic eavesdropping capabilities.

The nature of the research is not clear, but at least $300,000 was sent to Canada under the auspices of the program in 2012, according to an NSA chart reproduced in the new book No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald.

The NSA courts close relations with allies by paying its partner to develop certain technologies and engage in surveillance, and can thus direct how the spying is carried out, writes Mr. Greenwald, the Brazil-based U.S. journalist who has written extensively about surveillance issues. His new book, released Tuesday, highlights the litany of leaks he has published about the NSA since meeting former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel room one year ago.

The new book revisits the Snowden leak about Canadas Olympia program an operation that analyzed phone and Internet traffic associated with Brazils energy sector in apparent hopes of zeroing in on specific devices that could be attacked.

Mr. Greenwald contends that the U.S. and allied countries have leveraged counterterrorism rhetoric to develop vast foreign intelligence programs that have less to do with national security than in creating the foundations for sweeping surveillance states. Already, his new book is refocusing attention on NSA espionage programs that run out of American embassies and within the United Nations.

In Ottawa, federal officials do not generally acknowledge receiving NSA funding though the research money in question has been highlighted as funds from foreign partners security in budgetary documents.

A spokeswoman for Communications Security Establishment Canada previously told The Globe such funding was part of an allotment received from the Five Eyes collective of closely allied spying countries (the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.)

The research allotment is small by comparison with the overall operations of the CSEC, a rapidly growing signals intelligence agency in Ottawa with a budget that has reached $500-million a year. CSEC employees will move into a new $1-billion headquarters this summer.

No Place to Hide also publishes a previously leaked U.S. government memo about the relationship between CSEC and the NSA.

NSA and CSEC cooperate in targeting approximately 20 high-priority countries, the document says. It adds: NSA shares technological development, cryptologic capabilities, software and resources for state of the art collection processing, and analytic efforts. NSA at times pays R&D and technology costs on shared projects with CSEC.

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NSA gave Canada at least $300,000 to develop spy program