NSA spied on Al Jazeera's internal communications

The National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Arab news broadcaster Al Jazeera.

The United States intelligence agency hacked into Al Jazeera's internal communications system, according to documents from former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Documents seen by SPIEGEL revealed that the US intelligence agency hacked into protected communication of the news channel.

The Qatar-based channel has been broadcasting audio and video messages from al-Qaida leaders for more than a decade.

One such document, dated March 23, 2006, revealed that the NSA's Network Analysis Center managed to access and read communication by 'interesting targets' that was specially protected by the news organization, the report said.

The document shows that Al Jazeera broadcasting internal communication was listed as a notable success.

The NSA said these selected targets had high potential as sources of intelligence.

According to the report, the encrypted information was forwarded to the responsible NSA departments for further analysis, which did not reveal to what extent the intelligence agency spied on journalists or managers of the media company, or whether the surveillance is ongoing.

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