Inside the web campaign that aims to shine a spotlight on Israel boycotters

Because Canary Mission works beneath a complete shroud of secrecy, it has been called "shadowy".

The site relies on vetted, publicly available pictures, protest placards, open statements, and video clips that speak for themselves and are primarily drawn from previously well-publicised activities.

More than 120 individuals and six leading anti-Israel organisations have now been collected and added to an alphabetical gallery, with more added daily. The site's database is searchable by name, organisation or college.

Canary Mission does not hide its intent of ensuring that the virulently anti-Israel and antisemitic protest actions, disruptions, defamation campaigns, and intimidation tactics follow the perpetrators beyond the campus and into their professional careers.

A Canary Mission YouTube video invites prospective employers to consider the past record of demonstrative antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct.

One video shows a six-year-old clip of a protester in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, chanting at pro-Israel supporters "Go back to the ovens. You need a big oven, that's what you need."

It was not long before the project became the target of extreme obscenity-laced antisemitic comments as well as open threats of violence. The hacker group Anonymous publicly vowed to retaliate against the website.

Those behind Canary Mission quickly became even more reticent about revealing their identity or even any information about the group's geographic location.

"Many of our detractors just want to know who we are so they can physically harm us," Canary Mission wrote on its blog.

With threats of violence and intimidation, Canary Mission vastly restricted its communication with all journalists.

But after months of communication by email, Skype and other exchanges, I was able to verify Canary Mission's location, the size and shape of its operation, and its mindset.

The group of students, graduates, and others that comprise the movement work in a single, non-descript, medium-sized office located in an American city.

The entire operation is headed by one main individual, James, referred to as "the CEO", but under the co-ordination of Tom, the "general manager".

People visit the office from time to time as they review and add profiles of anti-Israel agitators and bullies, but remote participation is also common.

James explained: "We have a policy of keeping a low profile. We want to keep as many barriers as possible between us and Anonymous, and any of those who are against us.

"When we find out who the anti-Israel agitators are we just put out the facts. But when they find out who we are they literally want to kill us, because that is what they are like."

He added: "Everything has to be fact-checked. We are not into making false claims, the kind of stuff the other side does.

"They deal with lies and we deal with truth. If it was shown that we made a mistake, we would not be very happy. We would correct it as soon as possible. We let the truth speak for itself."

Another Canary Mission team member said: "People on this project genuinely believe there is a physical risk with doing this. You see home-grown terrorism in America and in Europe. It's a real thing."

Edwin Black is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of IBM and the Holocaust, The Transfer Agreement, and Financing the Flames