The National Security Agency monitored the pornography habits of six people the agency determined are ‘radicalizers’ in order to hurt their credibility, according to the latest documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden.
Snowden leaked the Oct. 3, 2012 document to The Huffington Post. It revealed that the agency had picked six targets who are Muslims as “exemplars” to show that “personal vulnerabilities” can be discovered through online surveillance. The document specifically notes that the data the NSA collected could be used to undermine the efforts of these people and discredit them.
USA Today notes that the vulnerabilities listed included “viewing sexually explicit material online” and “using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.”
The documents do not show the names of the six people and the NSA currently believes that they do not live in the U.S. and not involved in known terror plots. However, one of them was marked as a “U.S. Person,” which means that the target was a U.S. citizen.
Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for National Intelligence, sent a statement to the HuffPo, noting, “Without discussing specific individuals, it should not be surprising that the US 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.”
The ACLU blasted these latest revelations, noting that the NSA is clearly not refining its intelligence gathering.
“Wherever you are, the NSA's databases store information about your political views, your medical history, your intimate relationships and your activities online,” deputy director Jameel Jaffer told the HuffPo. “The NSA says this personal information won't be abused, but these documents show that the NSA probably defines 'abuse' very narrowly.”
image: Wikimedia Commons
