Google sought to map defectors within the Syrian regime, and asked Hillary Clinton's office for advice, according to a Clinton email leak by Wikileaks, reports the
Independent.
"We believe this can have an important impact," said Jared Cohen in one of the leaked emails. Cohen was a Clinton adviser at the time. He is now the president of Jigsaw, a Google policy think thank.
Jake Sullivan, another Clinton adviser said, "This is a pretty cool idea."
In the email, Cohen said tracking the defections is "important in encouraging more to defect and giving confidence to the opposition."
The tool was published by Al Jazeera and on Jigsaw's site, but no information has been provided about whether it was successful in helping the opposition to the regime.
Al Jazeera would be primarily responsible for the tracker. The plan was to "track the data, verify it, and broadcast it back into Syria," said Cohen, reports the
Daily Mail.
The Jigsaw website said the tracker provides "increasing transparency to shifts in power dynamics and patterns of corruption."
In a statement,
Al Jazeera said the site is "proud of the journalism behind the project." However, "in no way was Al Jazeera directly or indirectly involved in the dialogue between Google and the U.S. State Department in relation to this project and the motives behind it."
Clinton's thoughts on the tracker are not revealed in the emails.