FBI Surveillance Contractor Probed Anti-Vaccine Mandate Activists

Flashpoint, founded by a specialist focused on infiltrating Islamic terror groups, now monitors domestic political organizations.

Flashpoint, a surveillance contractor, started as a business that trawled message boards and chatrooms associated with al Qaeda and ISIS, collecting information that they sold to the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the height of the War on Terror.

These days, the firm, still under contract with the FBI and other clients, monitors the internet activity of domestic American activists protesting pipelines and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

In a presentation for clients last year, Flashpoint analyst Vlad Cuiujuclu demonstrated his company’s methods for identifying and entering Telegram chat groups. 

Cuiujuclu walked through previous efforts to join chatrooms associated with transportation workers opposed to coercive COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

"In this case, we're searching for a closed channel of U.S. Freedom Flyers," said Cuiujuclu. "It's basically a group that opposed vaccination and masks."

As he clicked through a database, Cuiujuclu showed a chat group on Telegram sponsored by Airline Professionals For Justice, another group formed by airline industry workers opposed to the mandate. The forum, he added, provided useful insights, including Zoom links for meetings of the grassroots organization.