Greenwald: NSA and FBI spied on five Muslim-Americans

US spy agencies snooped on the emails of five high-profile Muslim Americans in an effort to identify security threats, documents leaked by fugitive ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden show, the BBC reported.

The targets include a lawyer, professor and a political operative, according to a report published in the Intercept.

The Intercept is an online news site overseen by Glenn Greenwald, who helped publish many of Mr Snowden's leaks.

The FBI and NSA said they only spied on Americans when they had probable cause.

"The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans... under secretive procedures intended to target terrorists and foreign spies," according to The Intercept report.

Those allegedly spied on include:

• Faisal Gill, a Republican Party operative and former Department of Homeland Security employee

• Asim Ghafoor, a lawyer who represented clients in terrorism-related cases

• Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor at Rutgers University

• Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University

• Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

According to the report - the result of a three-month investigation using classified documents obtained from Mr Snowden - all five individuals have denied involvement in terrorist activities.