A new Snowden leak reveals that the NSA targeted "radicalizers" of Muslim faith,
mining their Internet connections for pornography usage.
They compiled lists of targets who could be blackmailed, discredited
and compromised by targeted leaks of this information, and circulated
the lists to officials in the Departments of Justice and Commerce and
the Drug Enforcement Administration. Only one percent of the targets of
this program are alleged to have any connection to terrorists; the rest
were targeted because of their political beliefs.
Instead, the NSA believes the targeted individuals radicalize people
through the expression of controversial ideas via YouTube, Facebook and
other social media websites. Their audience, both English and Arabic
speakers, "includes individuals who do not yet hold extremist views but
who are susceptible to the extremist message,” the document states. The
NSA says the speeches and writings of the six individuals resonate most
in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Kenya,
Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia.
The NSA possesses embarrassing sexually explicit information about at
least two of the targets by virtue of electronic surveillance of their
online activity. The report states that some of the data was gleaned
through FBI surveillance programs carried out under the Foreign
Intelligence and Surveillance Act. The document adds, "Information
herein is based largely on Sunni extremist communications." It further
states that "the SIGINT information is from primary sources with direct
access and is generally considered reliable."
According to the document, the NSA believes that exploiting electronic
surveillance to publicly reveal online sexual activities can make it
harder for these “radicalizers” to maintain their credibility. "Focusing
on access reveals potential vulnerabilities that could be even more
effectively exploited when used in combination with vulnerabilities of
character or credibility, or both, of the message in order to shape the
perception of the messenger as well as that of his followers," the
document argues.
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