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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"LATEST SNOWDEN DOCUMENTS" Reveal NSA’s Extensive Involvement in Targeted Killing Program"
By Greg Miller, Julie Tate and Barton Gellman, Published: October 16 E-mail the writers
It was an innocuous e-mail, one of millions sent every day by spouses with updates on the situation at home. But this one was of particular interest to the National Security Agency and contained clues that put the senders husband in the crosshairs of a CIA drone.
Days later, Hassan Ghul an associate of Osama bin Laden who provided a critical piece of intelligence that helped the CIA find the al-Qaeda leader was killed by a drone strike in Pakistans tribal belt.
The U.S. government has never publicly acknowledged killing Ghul. But documents provided to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden confirm his demise in October 2012 and reveal the agencys extensive involvement in the targeted killing program that has served as a centerpiece of President Obamas counterterrorism strategy.
An al-Qaeda operative who had a knack for surfacing at dramatic moments in the post-Sept. 11 story line, Ghul was an emissary to Iraq for the terrorist group at the height of that war. He was captured in 2004 and helped expose bin Ladens courier network before spending two years at a secret CIA prison. Then, in 2006, the United States delivered him to his native Pakistan, where he was released and returned to the al-Qaeda fold.
But beyond filling in gaps about Ghul, the documents provide the most detailed account of the intricate collaboration between the CIA and the NSA in the drone campaign.
The Post is withholding many details about those missions, at the request of U.S. intelligence officials who cited potential damage to ongoing operations and national security.
The NSA is focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets, an NSA spokeswoman said in a statement provided to The Post on Wednesday, adding that the agencys operations protect the nation and its interests from threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
In the search for targets, the NSA has draped a surveillance blanket over dozens of square miles of northwest Pakistan. In Ghuls case, the agency deployed an arsenal of cyber-espionage tools, secretly seizing control of laptops, siphoning audio files and other messages, and tracking radio transmissions to determine where Ghul might bed down.
LONG ARTICLE FROM WAPO and reads like a THRILLER of IMPENDING DEATH of the CAT STALKING THE MOUSE at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/documents-reveal-nsas-extensive-involvement-in-targeted-killing-program/2013/10/16/29775278-3674-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Since the end of the Carter administration and Reagan coup, I've believed that what we know is happening is just a slice of what is really going on.
I don't even think that administrations are privy to the details.
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)It's not like they are embarrassed at doing the real job of stopping terra.
That the NSA would be looking for bad guys is not news....
That the NSA would be looking at good guys is news.
randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]