Score one for the whistleblower.
Congress’ decision to abandon the federal government’s bulk collection of the phone records of American citizens represents vindication of the much-pilloried former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
While scrambling over expired elements of the Patriot Act continues in Washington this week, it’s clear that when the dust settles, the feds will no longer be in the bulk collection business. And that’s a good thing.
When Snowden leaked classified documents to journalists two years ago outlining the hitherto secret scooping up of the records of millions and millions of Americans with absolutely no connection to terrorism, he was vilified as a traitor by House Speaker John Boehner and former vice president Dick Cheney. Politico‘s Roger Simon dismissed him as “the slacker who came in from the cold” and for being “29 and possessing all the qualifications to become a grocery bagger” (who knew being 29 was a felony?). The Washington Post‘s Richard Cohen said incomprehensibly that Snowden would “go down as a cross-dressing Little Red Riding Hood.”
But what the slacker turned piñata did was stir a much-needed conversation about civil liberties in the United States, about whether the federal government could decide on its own to appropriate all that information about its citizens.
No, the feds weren’t listening in on everyone’s conversations. But they have been steadily gathering records that show when a call was made, how long it was and who was on the other end.
Source: USA Today | Rem Rieder
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