NSA reportedly spied on Muslim Americans, used racial slur in docs

Fresh revelations based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden suggest that NSA and FBI agents monitored emails of at least five prominent Muslim Americans, using a program intended only to monitor communications of suspected terrorists and foreign spies.

The documents, first reported on by journalist Glenn Greenwald on The Intercept, list numerous email addresses for surveillance targets. While most of the thousands of email addresses appear to belong to foreign nationals, 202 are listed as belonging to “U.S. persons,” including five that belong to Muslim Americans who are well known for their advocacy work in the United States. In a further embarrassment to the U.S. government, the training material leaked to the website reportedly uses the racial slur “Mohammed Raghead” to refer to Muslims. The White House said Wednesday that it does not tolerate racist language and as such was looking into the allegation.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice said it was “entirely false” that U.S. agencies would monitor individuals on the sole basis that they criticize the government.

The prominent targeted Muslim Americans identified by The Intercept are: Asim Ghafoor, an attorney who has represented clients in terrorism-related cases; Hooshang Amirahmadi, a professor at Rutgers University; Faisal Gill, a Republican Party operative who was employed by the Department of Homeland Security during the George W. Bush administration; Nihad Awad, the executive director of the most prominent Muslim American rights organization in the U.S., the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); and Agha Saeed, an activist for Muslim and Palestinian civil rights and a former professor.

All five vehemently deny being connected to any terrorist or spy organizations. It raises questions over the legal justification under which the NSA and FBI could have obtained warrants to spy on the individuals.

The email addresses of the five are listed on a document called “FISA recap.” FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is a law requiring that the government obtain a warrant from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before spying on any American citizen. To get a warrant, the NSA or FBI is supposed to show probable cause that the target has connections to a terrorist or spy organization.

But some have suggested that the court — which does not release any information about warrants to the public — gives the NSA and FBI warrants regardless of any given case’s merit.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice released a statement saying the U.S. does not intercept communications of citizens unless there is reason to believe they are in some way linked with a foreign power.

"It is entirely false that U.S. intelligence agencies conduct electronic surveillance of political, religious or activist figures solely because they disagree with public policies or criticize the government, or for exercising constitutional rights," the departments said. "No U.S. person can be the subject of surveillance based solely on First Amendment activities, such as staging public rallies, organizing campaigns, writing critical essays, or expressing personal beliefs. On the other hand, a person who the court finds is an agent of a foreign power under this rigorous standard is not exempted just because of his or her occupation."

The documents obtained by The Intercept also include racist language used to describe Muslims. The “Mohammed Raghead” line is used in a 2005 memo, to be used as a kind of “John Doe” placeholder on forms.

The White House responded to the racist language in the documents by saying it would undertake a review of policy at the NSA.

"As the NSA has said, the use of racial or ethnic stereotypes, slurs, or other similar language by employees is both unacceptable and inconsistent with the country’s core values," spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. "The Administration takes all such allegations extremely seriously, and upon learning of this matter the White House immediately requested that the Director of National Intelligence undertake an assessment of Intelligence Community policies, training standards or directives that promote diversity and tolerance, and as necessary, make any recommendations, changes or additional reforms."

The five Muslim Americans speculated that their ethnic backgrounds had something to do with the NSA spying on them, and some were taken aback by the revelations.

“I just don’t know why,” Gill told The Intercept. “I’ve done everything in my life to be patriotic. I served in the Navy, served in the government, was active in my community — I’ve done everything that a good citizen, in my opinion, should do.”

Al Jazeera