NSA helps CIA assassination program with ‘unreliable’ tactic

The National Security Agency is using an “unreliable” method to locate targets for the US assassination program, resulting in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people, according to a report.

The NSA utilizes analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, to pinpoint the location of possible targets for drone attacks, said a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), cited in a revealing report in The First Look authored by Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald.

The surveillance agency locates the potential targets using controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies, the drone operate and NSA employee noted.

One of the tactics is for the NSA to “geolocate” the SIM card or handset of a suspected target’s phone, enabling the CIA and/or the US military to conduct raids and drone strikes.

In other words, the CIA or the US military orders an attack based on the location of the individual’s cellphone rather than confirming their identity through operatives or informants stationed on the ground, he stated.

Documents previously revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and another former drone sensor operator with the US Air Force, also bolstered the operator’s account.

The former operator said that while the tactic helped the US target militants, innocent people have “absolutely” been killed due to the NSA’s increasing reliance on the surveillance technology.

He added that another problem with the technique is that militants already know the NSA’s tactic and that they have tried to thwart it.

Many of them possess many different SIM cards, which are associated with their identity within the “High Value Target system”, while others, who are unaware of such technique, lend their cellphones to friends, children, spouses and family members, the report said.

US drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan have left thousands of civilians dead, though CIA officials claim their attacks target militant hideouts only.

AT/HJ