Brussels, 06/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 27 December, a New York judge took an opposite view to that expressed by one of his colleagues in Washington and said that the National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance of telephone calls is “lawful”. According to a report by AFP, Judge William Pauley, said that “there is no evidence that the government has used any of the bulk telephony metadata it collected for any purpose other than investigating and disrupting terrorist attacks” even if this surveillance involves virtually all information from telephone calls to and from the US.
However, the judge added, this programme is a vital tool for the US government against Al Qaeda. This decision is in response to a court action taken by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the Obama government and the NSA surveillance programme, which it argues is illegal.
Ten days earlier, a judge in Washington had ruled that the bulk data collection of thousands of personal data as carried out by the NSA was unlawful.
According to AFP, Barack Obama is expected to speak about these surveillance programmes later this January. The president is said to be examining around 40 recommendations from an expert group on possible amendments to these mechanisms.
EP expected to decide on Snowden hearing on 9 January
The European Parliament and particularly its investigation committee into NSA phone tapping is expected to reach a decision on Thursday 9 January on when the hearing of Edward Snowden's hearing, the NSA consultant and whistleblower behind the scandal, will take place. A meeting of coordinators from the civil liberties, justice and home affairs committees at the European Parliament are expected to firm up the timeframe and the format of the “discussion” that MEPs want to have with Snowden. (SP/transl.fl)