Edward Snowden, the brave whistleblower who exposed unconstitutional spying by the Obama Administration against the American people, “urged an end to mass surveillance” in a Christmas message broadcast on British television as reported by Stephen Castle for The New York Times:
“A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all,” Mr. Snowden said in a Christmas Day message shown by Channel 4. “They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves — an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought.”
Meanwhile, calls continue to mount for the criminal prosecution of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper “for untruthfully telling the Senate that the NSA was ‘not wittingly’ collecting data on Americans” at a hearing last March as reported by Spencer Ackerman for The Guardian: “seven Republican members of Congress called on attorney general Eric Holder . . . to open an investigation,” and explained that “congressional oversight depends on truthful testimony – witnesses cannot be allowed to lie to Congress.”
Earlier in the month Senator Rand Paul said that Clapper was a greater threat to national security than Snowden as reported by Jose Delreal for Politico:
“That Clapper is lying to Congress is probably more injurious to our intelligent capabilities than anything Snowden did,” Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Clapper has damaged the credibility of the entire intelligence apparatus and I’m not sure what to believe anymore when they come to Congress.”
Ironically, both the federal judge who ruled that the NSA spying was unconstitutional and a review panel which was critical of the surveillance programs found that the collected data was of doubtful value in thwarting terrorism.
Earlier coverage:
Federal Judge Rules NSA Spying Violates Fourth Amendment
Filed under: Government, Terrorism Tagged: Barack Obama, Edward Snowden, James Clapper, National Security Agency, Patriot Act
