US spy agency set porn trap for Muslim radicals, document leaked by Snowden reveals
NSA wanted to discredit Muslim activists by exposing their habitual use of sex websites, according to document leaked by Snowden
The US National Security Agency planned to discredit Islamist "radicals" by spying on their online pornography habits, it was reported yesterday.
The agency wanted to undermine the propagandists by highlighting their "hypocrisy" when it came to their private lives.
The report cited a document leaked by surveillance whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
One associates these kinds of tactics with the secret police of authoritarian governments
The NSA paper referred to six individuals as examples, said the report in The Huffington Post.
It said "radicalisers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviours are not consistent".
It continued: "Some of the vulnerabilities, if exposed, would likely call into question the radicaliser's devotion to the jihadist cause, leading to the degradation or loss of his authority."
A potentially damaging piece of evidence would show a militant "viewing sexually explicit material online or using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls," it said.
The leaked document is the latest in a cascade of revelations from Snowden revealing the NSA's large-scale online spying.