Twitter, Facebook CIA Tools
Some two-thirds of intelligence reports sent to Washington are made by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analysts who monitor millions of individual messages sent worldwide on a daily basis via social networks such as "Facebook" and "Twitter".
According to AFP quoting CIA Open Source Center (OSC) director Doug Naquin, "a team of vengeful librarians have the task of studying networks and media outlets that are open to contributions made by individuals across the world."
Social media such as "Facebook", "Twitter", TV news channels, internet chat rooms, local radio stations, and newspapers are closely monitored, in order to draw a semi-realistic picture of "the mood of a region" at a given time of importance for the US.
Revealing that "any tweet in any given language, regardless of its significance, is
closely looked at by analysts," Naquin explains that "they then cross-reference it with local newspapers or even a clandestinely interrupted phone conversation."
For example, such a process was carried out after the US military operation that killed former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan back in May, in order to let Washington in on the world public opinion.
Analysts also made efforts to predict the series of events which led to the uprisings in the Middle Eastern or North African nations.
Source: AFP, Edited by moqawama.org
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