LEAKED: NSA Spied on Muslim Americans

Documents newly released by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden reveals the United States spied on Muslims in the country, not suspected in crimes. The agency spent years spying on prominent Islamic leaders. For six years, emails sent and received by over 200 Islamic leaders were intercepted and recorded.

Six of the people targeted by the NSA are among the most-influential Muslim leaders in the country. These include Nihad Awad, the head of the nation’s largest civil rights groups for Muslims. Faisal Gill, a former employee of the Department of Homeland Security, was also among the targets. Victims of spying also included professors Hooshang Amirahmadi and Agha Saeed, as well as defense attorney Asim Ghafoor.

Gill said, “There is absolutely no question in my mind that the reason I was being surveilled is because I am a Muslim. There is nothing in my background. I have always carried a security clearance.”

None of the five Islamic leaders that were targeted by the program have any record of being involved in terrorism.

Greenwald told the press he is uncertain why the religious leaders were targeted, or under what legal authority. Federal officials state that the national intelligence and FBI directors would have been aware of such a program taking place.

Greenwald also brought attention to a government training document from 2005. In it, the statement advices agents to file paper so that a warrant from the secret FISA court will be issued.

The former NSA contractor stated, “In the place where the target’s real name would go, the memo offers a fake name as a placeholder: ‘Mohammad Raghead.’”

Up to 1.8 million additional documents obtained by Snowden could soon be released to the American public.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/feds-spied-prominent-muslim-americans-report-claims/story?id=24370482

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/09/nsa-glenn-greenwald_n_5545686.html

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/07/09/nsa-spied-on-muslim-american-leaders.html

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/07/09/under-surveillance

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/07/09/the-switchboard-report-claims-nsa-fbi-secretly-monitored-american-muslim-activists-and-academics