NSA Leak Spooks Terrorists: Al Qaeda Changes Way It Communicates.

NSA Leak Spooks Terrorists: Al Qaeda Changes Way It Communicates.HT: AP.

Members of al Qaeda and pretty much every other terrorist organization are now reportedly switching up their communication tactics in response to the leaked details of the National Security Agency’s surveillance program.

According to two anonymous U.S. intelligence officials, this poses a major problem for keeping an eye on operatives and staying ahead of potential plots.The officials would not explain what exactly the terrorists are doing-switching their email accounts or cellphone providers, for example-but did specify that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the organization’s Yemeni branch, was one of the first to change.

Terrorist groups had always taken care to avoid detection - from using anonymous email accounts, to multiple cellphones, to avoiding electronic communications at all, in the case of Osama bin Laden.

But there were some methods of communication, like the Skype video teleconferencing software that some militants still used, thinking they were safe, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials who follow the groups. They spoke anonymously as a condition of describing their surveillance of the groups.

Those militants now know to take care with Skype - one of the 9 U.S.-based Internet servers identified by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks to The Guardian and The Washington Post.

Two U.S. intelligence officials say members of virtually every terrorist group, including core al-Qaida members, are attempting to change how they communicate, based on what they are reading in the media, to hide from U.S. surveillance. 

It is the first time intelligence officials have described which groups are reacting to the leaks. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about the intelligence matters publicly. The officials wouldn't go into details on how they know this, whether it's terrorists switching email accounts or cellphone providers or adopting new encryption techniques, but a lawmaker briefed on the matter said al-Qaida's Yemeni offshoot, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has been among the first to alter how it reaches out to its operatives.Read the full story here.