The newest leak by Edward Snowden indicated that the National Security Agency monitored the internet habits of six Muslim targets, specifically traffic to pornographic website, in an attempt to discredit them, reported The Huffington Post.
The NSA viewed these targets as threats because the agency was afraid that the targets were “radicalizing others through incendiary speeches.” The document indicated that the information gathered was intended to present the targets as hypocrites, that they are not dedicated to their cause because of their private online habits.
“A previous SIGNIT assessment report on radicalization indicated that radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent,” the document said.
Other than the viewing of “sexually explicit material,” the other “personal vulnerability,” as the NSA has labeled them, includes “using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.”
Again, security and intelligence officials defend the gratuitous, mass gathering of online information by insisting it’s for the benefit of the nation’s security. Director of public affairs for National Intelligence Shawn Turner said in an email that the government “uses all of the lawful tools at our disposal to impede the efforts of valid terrorist targets who seek to harm the nation and radicalize others to violence.”
According to The Huffington Post, none of the NSA’s six targets have ever been accused of any terrorist involvements. Five of them are internationals with the other being described by the NSA as a “U.S. person,” meaning citizen or permanent resident.
Since the beginning of the NSA leaks this summer, many privacy advocates have come forth and spoken out against the agency. This tactic in specific has been used in government spying programs for decades, especially against civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“The NSA’s operation is eerily similar to the FBI’s operations under J. Edgar Hoover in the 1960s where the bureau used wiretapping to discover vulnerabilities, such as sexual activity, to ‘neutralize their targets,” said longtime NSA beat journalist James Bradford.
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.
