Report reveals that 7,485 email addresses were monitored from 2002 to 2008 – Many emails were sent by foreigners suspected of being part of the Al Qaeda network
The FBI and the NSA monitored the electronic communications of five prominent Muslims in the United States for at least six months, including a George W. Bush administration official and the head of the largest Muslim rights organization, according to a report released today.
Among the editors of the report, published on the news website The Intercept, is American journalist Glenn Greenwald, known for publishing in the British newspaper The Guardian Edward Snowden's revelations about the massive US National Security Agency spying program.
Citing new documents provided to them by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the authors of the report reveal the names of five Muslim officials, all of them American citizens, who were included in the list of individuals spied on with the permission of a special court, the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
The 5 individuals are: Faisal Gill, an active member and former Republican candidate who worked at the Department of Homeland Security in the George W. Bush administration; Asir Ghafoor, a lawyer specializing in terrorism cases; Houshang Amiramadi, an Iranian-American professor at Rutgers University; Agha Saeed, a human rights activist and former professor at the University of California; and Nihad Awad, director of the powerful organization CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).
The report reveals that 7,485 email addresses were monitored from 2002 to 2008. Many of the emails were sent by foreigners suspected by the US government of involvement in the al-Qaeda network, such as Anwar al-Awlaki, the American imam who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
In a press release, the Obama administration responded that these communications were only monitored in the context of a "legally sound foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purpose.".
"It is completely untrue to suggest that U.S. intelligence agencies electronically spied on political, religious, or activist figures solely because they disagreed with government policies or criticized the government or exercised their constitutional rights," the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) wrote.
"Unlike other countries, the United States does not monitor anyone's communications in order to eliminate criticism or punish individuals based on their ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion," the statement added, clarifying that Washington can only conduct surveillance with the permission of the FISC.
Source: protothema.gr
