Approximately one in five "flagged" job applicants to the US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had ties to either Hamas, Hezbollah or Al Qaeda, according to a Washington Times report.
The report is based off of documents leaked by former NSA agent Edward Snowden.
These latest revelations indicate the high motivation among Islamist terrorists of various stripes to infiltrate US intelligence agencies.
In response, according to the leaked documents, the NSA investigated 4,000 instances of suspected "abnormal staff activity," including tracking employee keystrokes on agency computers and recording document downloads.
Edward Snowden is wanted by the United States on espionage and other charges after he gave journalists classified documents detailing the NSA’s far-reaching electronic and telephone surveillance programs.
On August 1, Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia. He is free to stay in Russia until at least July 31, 2014, and his asylum status may be extended annually upon request.
Snowden leaked classified information to the Guardian and Washington Post pertaining to alleged NSA eavesdropping on telephone calls and emails of private citizens, then fled from his home in Hawaii, to a Moscow airport, via Hong Kong. After staying in the airport for more than a month, the Russian government decided to grant him political asylum.
Snowden's decision to leak the documents, and his subsequent flight to Russia, have significantly strained US-Russian relations and ignited a fierce debate over the limits of intelligence agency eavesdropping and free speech.