US President Barack Obama 's proposal to end the collection of phone data by the NSA did not go unnoticed by Edward Snowden .
The whistleblower who leaked top-secret documents exposing the NSA’s surveillance programs released a statement Tuesday, shortly after Obama announced an end to the controversial data collection programs by the U.S. National Security Agency. Snowden called Obama’s plans a “turning point” that marks “the beginning of a new effort to reclaim our rights from the NSA, and to restore our rights collectively to the government table.”
“President Obama has now confirmed that these mass surveillance programs, which were a secret kept from the public, are in fact unnecessary and must be ended,” Snowden said in the statement he wrote and published by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents and advises him.
Here is Snowden's full statement:
I believed that if the NSA's unconstitutional mass surveillance of Americans became known, it would not be able to survive the scrutiny of the courts, Congress, and the people.
The first open court case to ever examine these programs will call them “Orwellian” and “possibly unconstitutional.” The USA FREEDOM Act, and Congress are reviewing the record, if only for incomplete reforms. President Obama has now confirmed that these mass surveillance programs, a secret kept from the public, are not actually necessary and should be ended.
This is a turning point, and it marks the beginning of a new effort to reclaim our rights from the NSA and restore them together at the same table with the government.
