Al-Qaeda and other hostile groups have repeatedly sought to infiltrate US intelligence agencies, which are investigating thousands of their employees to counter the threat, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The CIA found that about a fifth of job applicants with suspect backgrounds had “significant terrorist and/or hostile intelligence connections,” the Post cited a classified budget document as saying.

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The document was provided to the paper by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, now a fugitive in Russia under temporary asylum.

Although the file did not describe the nature of the jobseekers’ extremist or hostile ties, it cited Hamas, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda and its affiliates most often.

The fear of infiltration is such that the NSA planned last year to investigate at least 4,000 staff who obtained security clearances.

The NSA detected potentially suspicious activity among staff members after trawling through trillions of employee keystrokes at work.

The suspicious behavior included staffers accessing classified databases they do not usually use for their work or downloading several documents, two people familiar with the software used to monitor staff told the Post.

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Al-Qaeda and other hostile groups have repeatedly sought to infiltrate US intelligence agencies, which are investigating thousands of their employees to counter the threat, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The CIA found that about a fifth of job applicants with suspect backgrounds had “significant terrorist and/or hostile intelligence connections,” the Post cited a classified budget document as saying.

The document was provided to the paper by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, now a fugitive in Russia under temporary asylum.

ADVERTISEMENT

Although the file did not describe the nature of the jobseekers’ extremist or hostile ties, it cited Hamas, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda and its affiliates most often.

The fear of infiltration is such that the NSA planned last year to investigate at least 4,000 staff who obtained security clearances.

ADVERTISEMENT

The NSA detected potentially suspicious activity among staff members after trawling through trillions of employee keystrokes at work.

The suspicious behavior included staffers accessing classified databases they do not usually use for their work or downloading several documents, two people familiar with the software used to monitor staff told the Post.