Edward Snowden: Obama's NSA Reforms Are A 'Turning Point' - BusinessInsider [View all]

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EDWARD SNOWDEN: Obama's NSA Reforms Are A 'Turning Point'
BRETT LOGIURATO - BusinessInsider
MAR. 25, 2014, 5:29 PM

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Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on Tuesday hailed President Barack Obama's plan to reform the NSA's bulk surveillance programs as a "turning point" in the debate over privacy and security. Snowden's statement was released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is coordinating his legal representation as he faces charges for leaking a massive cache of classified files that sparked a massive public debate about the NSA's activities.

"This is a turning point, and it marks the beginning of a new effort to reclaim our rights from the NSA and restore the public's seat at the table of government," Snowden said.

Late Monday night, the White House announced Obama intends to introduce legislation that would drastically reform the way the NSA collects "metadata" from Americans' phone calls. By doing this, Snowden said Obama admitted the NSA's bulk data collection programs are "in fact unnecessary."

"The very first open and adversarial court to ever judge these programs has now declared them 'Orwellian' and 'likely unconstitutional.' ... Congress is considering historic, albeit incomplete reforms. And President Obama has now confirmed that these mass surveillance programs, kept secret from the public and defended out of reflex rather than reason, are in fact unnecessary and should be ended," Snowden said.

Obama's coming legislative proposal would eliminate perhaps the most controversial aspect of the NSA's collection methods — the government's routine collection of Americans' call data, and it would serve as the biggest change to the agency since Snowden's documents became public last year.

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More: http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-statement-obama-nsa-reforms-bill-2014-3