Brussels, 01/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 30 September, the European Parliament's civil liberties committee welcomed a distinguished guest to another of its hearings on the investigation into the US NSA's activities.
On this occasion, the guest, Edward Snowden, made a virtual appearance. He has been at the origin of the leaks and a written message from him to MEPs was made through the intermediary of his lawyer, Jesselyn Radack. In his message he thanked the MEPs for the work they had undertaken in their investigation. Snowden, a former member of the CIA and NSA, provided a number of documents to the international media attesting to the telephone tapping practices carried out on a large scale by US intelligence, as well as mass surveillance and explained that, “the surveillance of whole populations, rather than individuals, threatens to be the greatest human rights challenge of our time”. According to his message, it will not be possible to have a public debate worthy of the name without genuine information available to the public at large.
The cost, however, of providing this knowledge was “persecution and exile”. He has received asylum in Russia and is currently a candidate for the Sakharov prize. Snowden explained that there has been a gradual increase in awareness that is taking place, and with it “the work of a generation” is unfolding.
Thomas Drake has also experienced persecution and denigration. This former NSA agent was invited to Brussels to debate this question and told MEPs that the US authorities had attempted to make his life hell after he had leaked documents illustrating the abuses and fraud committed by the agency between 2003 and 2006, as well as information about an electronic surveillance programme. He explained that the government had made him the target of a criminal investigation and he had been subjected to reprisals. He had to leave his job and was blacklisted and was practically unable to pay off his legal fees. Even under the Obama administration, he risks getting a 35-year prison sentence. This former senior NSA executive said that US intelligence services, similarly to the Stasi during the previous East German regime, “has a pathological need to know everything”. He denounced the fact that according to this system, everyone is a suspect or threat and that the authorities had exaggerated threats in order to have access to everybody. Drake explained that the practices that he revealed at the time are still in place and justified in a lamentable way. US officials had been invited to take part in these hearings but according to Sophie Int' Veld MEP (ALDE, Netherlands), they had all refused. The next hearing will take place on Thursday 3 October and will focus on espionage activities of which the Belgian telecoms operator, Belgacom, became a victim and which were carried out by the British secret services. (SP/transl.fl)