MOSCOW, May 13 (RIA Novosti) – The US and British surveillance agencies routinely spy on political opponents of their governments and employ controversial techniques to discredit them, according to an extract from a new book published in The Guardian Tuesday by journalist Glenn Greenwald, an associate of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“’Doing something wrong’ in the eyes of institutions [of authority] encompasses far more than illegal acts, violent behavior and terrorist plots. It typically extends to meaningful dissent and any genuine challenge. It is the nature of authority to equate dissent with wrongdoing, or at least with a threat,” Greenwald said.
The US National Security Agency (NSA), for example, has been tracking the online activities of people because they were believed to express “radical” points of view, according to a memo from the Snowden files. The document, dated October 2012, discusses six Muslims in particular, described as mere “exemplars.”
The NSA collected information about their online sex activities and planned to use this data to damage their reputation, the memo said. The individuals did not belong to any terrorist organization, according to the spy agency.
Meanwhile, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK equivalent of the NSA, has been attacking hacker activist group Anonymous with viruses, “honeytraps” and information operations aimed at damaging the reputation of the hacktivists, according to a PowerPoint presentation by the agency officials cited by Greenwald.
Such discrediting tactics include changing photos on social network websites, writing blogs under the names of invented victims and luring Anonymous members to compromising sites. Deleting online presence of the target and using denial of service attacks are also among the GCHQ’s tactics.
The British surveillance agency has also deployed a team of social scientists to develop techniques of online human intelligence, according to a document cited by Greenwald entitled “Cyber Offensive Session: Pushing the Boundaries and Action Against Hacktivism.”
American investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald was the first to publish Snowden’s revelations about the global surveillance last year. Greenwald’s book “No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State” is being released on Tuesday.
Snowden, 30, has been living in Russia since last summer after fleeing the US and has been granted asylum for at least one year. He faces espionage charges in the United States for leaking data about government surveillance practices.
