A US court has ruled that the NSA’s widespread wiretapping program, which was exposed by informant Edward Snowden in 2013, is illegal. Moreover, the intelligence officials who defended the program did not tell the truth, according to the appeals court.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the court stated that unauthorized wiretapping that collected contact data for millions of Americans violated US intelligence law and possibly the Constitution.
Snowden fled to Russia after the eavesdropping Washington Post On Watchman And he got asylum there. The charges of espionage against him are still pending in the United States.
Snowden said on Twitter that the ruling justified his decision to announce the wiretapping program. “I never imagined that I would see our courts condemning the NSA’s activities as illegal and praising their disclosure,” Snowden said.
Evidence that the NSA had secretly created a massive database of phone data was Snowden’s first and most controversial disclosure. Up until that point, senior US intelligence officials had consistently denied that the NSA was collecting private data from US citizens. After the revelations, they assumed that espionage activities had played a vital role in tracking down terrorists inside the United States.
Intelligence officials said the wiretapping allowed four San Diego residents to be convicted of supporting Islamic fundamentalists in Somalia. However, the appeals court argues that this claim conflicts with the classified file in that case. However, the four remain in prison because the illegal eavesdropping program does not diminish the evidence against them.
The ACLU civil rights group happily responded to the court’s decision. “Today’s ruling is a victory for our right to privacy,” the Civil Liberties Union said. She added that the ruling “makes clear that the NSA network is violating the constitution.”
Snowden also revealed in 2013 that the NSA had collected data from internet users around the world, including the Dutch. This led to a lawsuit being filed in the Netherlands, among other things, because many people and organizations, including the Dutch Association of Journalists and the Dutch Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, demanded that the use of information collected by the NSA by Dutch security be prohibited. Services. This ban has not been enforced.
Edward Snowden
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