NSA Likes Watching Radicals Watching Porn

What do you have to hide? Why
would you want to keep your distance from the creepy
window-shade-peepers of the National Security Agency?
Maybe…Because the NSA is actively monitoring the Internet-usage
of people it doesn’t like so it can embarrass them by revealing all
at opportune moments. Specifically, the spooks watch radical
Muslims to see if they have a taste for Internet porn, so they can
then be portrayed as hypocrites.

Writes
Glenn Greenwald at the Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has been gathering
records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to
pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the
reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing
others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA
document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward
Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how
“personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic
surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target’s
credibility, reputation and authority.

The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the
power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger. “A
previous SIGINT” — or signals intelligence, the interception of
communications — “assessment report on radicalization indicated
that radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area
of authority when their private and public behaviors are not
consistent,” the document argues.

Among the vulnerabilities listed by the NSA that can be
effectively exploited are “viewing sexually explicit material
online” and “using sexually explicit persuasive language when
communicating with inexperienced young girls.”

Now, rumor has it, nobody loves a good donkey show as much
as James Clapper and his buddy, General Keith Alexander. Especially
the Clerks
II variety. But we don’t get to monitor their online
habits the way they monitor ours, and that creates a distinct
imbalance of power.

Because there are plenty of things that we might do, and view,
and read in our everyday lives that harm nobody else but might be
awkward if they became public knowledge. There are groups and
people with whom we might deal but with whom we prefer to not be
openly associated. This is really quite normal in life, since most
of us don’t parade around as if we live in glass boxes, but
maintain public appearances as well as private lives. And that
divide potentially provides a basis for blackmail. Your sexuality,
your associations, your politics, your religious activities, your
cultural tastes—these could get you fired, or ruin friendships, or
torpedo politial campaigns, if revealed in a calculated way by
people ill-disposed towards you.

We might not have any sympathy for radical religious fanatics
fomenting violence. I assume very few of us do. But the
surveillance and smear tactics used against them can be wielded
against anybody with a private life who displeases the wrong
people. And, in fact, the NSA has reportedly targeted some radical,
but non-violent Muslims, who just say offensive things
about Westerners and the U.S.

So long as the NSA is out trawling for embarrassing tidbits, you
don’t know who will be targeted next.

Although the people doing the snooping can probably safely
continue to watch their donkey shows.