Twitter, Facebook used as CIA spy tools

* Intelligence analysts make reports after monitoring millions of messages

* A team of ‘ vengeful

librarians’ carry out the task of studying networks

US: 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 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, the Associated Press reported.

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.

Naquin says that any tweet in any given language, regardless of its significance, is closely looked at by analysts. 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.

The facility was initially set up as a response to a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission, meant to focus on counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation. However, the center shifted its focus to social media during the unrest in the Islamic Republic of Iran following its 2009 presidential election.

Most of the center’s several-hundred analysts are based in the US state of Virginia, although many are scattered throughout the US embassies across the world.

Press TV