Edward Snowden continues to expose the NSA's extensive spy programs. (Wikimedia Commons)

It should come as no surprise, then that documents were just leaked detailing a NSA operation designed to discredit Muslim ‘radicalizers’ by gathering records of their online sexual activity and evidence of their visits to pornographic websites. 

Using electronic surveillance to discredit someone is nothing new for the NSA, as one of the leaked documents indicates in stating, “Some vulnerabilities, if exposed, would likely call into question a radicalizer’s devotion to the jihadist cause, leading to the degradation or loss of his authority.”

The NSA defended it’s actions, saying that “Without discussing specific individuals, it should not be surprising that the U.S. government uses all of the lawful tools at our disposal to impede the efforts of valid terrorist targets who seek to harm the nation and radicalize others to violence, in a statement by Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for the Director of national Intelligence. 

The documents released specified the targets of this specific operation as six muslims, who were suspected of spreading radicalism. The NSA has spent a significant amount of time gathering embarrassing, sexually explicit information on the six individuals in an effort to exploit personal vulnerabilities of the six targets. 

This leak exposing NSA surveillance tactics is the latest from Snowden, who transited from Hawaii to Russia, via Hong Kong after he originally leaked a vast amount of classified information on the NSA on June 5th. 

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