|
Edward Snowden |
He told council members: "The
NSA
has specifically targeted either leaders or staff members in a number
of civil and non-governmental organisations … including domestically
within the borders of the
United States." Snowden did not reveal which groups the had bugged.
The
assembly asked Snowden if the US spied on the "highly sensitive and
confidential communications" of major rights bodies such as Amnesty and
Human Rights Watch, as well as on similar smaller regional and national
groups. He replied: "The answer is, without question, yes. Absolutely."
In live testimony to the Council of Europe, Snowden also gave a forensic account of how the 's powerful
surveillance programs violate the EU's privacy laws. He said programs such as ,
revealed by the Guardian last July, use sophisticated data mining techniques to screen "trillions" of private communications.
"This technology represents the most significant new threat to civil liberties in modern times," he declared.
allows analysts to search with no prior authorisation through vast
databases containing emails, online chats, and the browsing histories of
millions of individuals.
Source: The Guardian, April 8, 2014