Spies monitored WikiLeaks visitors in real time, Snowden docs show

Newly revealed documents leaked by former NSA analyst-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal that American and British spy agencies have targeted whistleblower publication WikiLeaks since 2008, not long after the controversial website was launched, reports The Intercept. As part of its surveillance efforts, the UKs Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) collected real-time data on visitors to WikiLeaks, which included country of origin, and search terms used to arrive at the website.

By exploiting its ability to tap into the fiber-optic cables that make up the backbone of the Internet, the agency confided to allies in 2012, it was able to collect the IP addresses of visitors in real time, as well as the search terms that visitors used to reach the site from search engines like Google, reports Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher.

The collection of IP addresses used to access WikiLeaks, which promised anonymity to whistleblowers, could have potentially been used to reveal their identities.

A document dated 2010 shows that the NSA added WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to its so-called Manhunting Timeline, which lists individuals that the US government considers risks. Assange was added to the Manhunting Timeline after WikiLeaks began publishing 70,000 classified documents about the war in Afghanistan. The document cites a 2010 report from the Daily Beast, which stated that the Obama administration is pressing Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allied Western governments to consider opening criminal investigations of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and to severely limit his nomadic travels across international borders.

The Manhunt Timeline also lists Iceland as one of the nations pressured to prosecute Assange, who remains secluded at the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning under allegations of sexual misconduct.

In a statement, Assanged condemned the surveillance of WikiLeaks by the NSA and GCHQ and its supporters, calling it criminal activity against the media.

News that the NSA planned these operations at the level of its Office of the General Counsel is especially troubling, said Assange. No less concerning are revelations that the US government deployed elements of state power to pressure European nations into abusing their own legal systems; and that the British spy agency GCHQ is engaged in extensive hostile monitoring of a popular publishers website and its readers.

Another program used by GCHQ to understand and shape the Human Terrain of the Web, dubbed Squeaky Dolphin, collected real-time data that included YouTube video views, URLs liked on Facebook, and Blogspot/Blogger visits, according to a page of the leaked documents.

Further documents show that the NSA used its resources to target file-sharing sites the Pirate Bay, which the agency cites as an example of a malicious website, as well as the hacktivist collective Anonymous.

DT

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Spies monitored WikiLeaks visitors in real time, Snowden docs show