US court: NSA mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal
A federal court has ruled that the US intelligence’s surveillance program exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden was unlawful, and possibly unconstitutional.
A US federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the controversial National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden was illegal. The ruling stopped short of calling the program unconstitutional.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said that the program, under which the NSA collected and analyzed bulk data provided by telecommunications companies, was in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and could have been unconstitutional.
"Seven years ago, as the news declared I was being charged as a criminal for speaking the truth, I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA's activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them," said Snowden, who fled to Russia after exposing the program, on Twitter. "And yet that day has arrived."
https://www.dw.com/en/nsa-snowden/a-54797779
