Wednesday, July 09, 2014

'Mohammed Raghead' – The Name the FBI Were Giving to Muslim-American 'Joe Bloggs'

THE INDEPENDENT: Newly-published documents leaked by Edward Snowden provide the first proof of individual citizens being monitored by US spy agency

The US government spied on thousands of law-abiding Muslim-Americans including top US lawyers and academics according to newly-published documents provided by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

The monitoring was authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law intended to target individuals involved in international terrorism, espionage or sabotage.

The leaked documents published by The Intercept include a list of 7,485 email addresses monitored between 2002 and 2008. Five of the emails identified by journalists have been described as leading “highly public, outwardly exemplary lives”.

A document dating from 2006 from the same cache of files instructed intelligence agency staff how to properly record the identity of those under surveillance and used the fake name of “Mohammed Raghead” as an example. » | James Vincent | Wednesday, July 09, 2014