A debate in the U.S. about whether the National Security Agency should end its bulk collection of U.S. telephone and business records has come down to an argument over the meaning of the word bulk.

A year after the first leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were published, it appears that already scaled-back proposals to limit the NSAs bulk collection of U.S. telephone and business records may not even happen. And officials with President Barack Obamas administration, backing an NSA reform bill called the USA Freedom Act, have already begun to pick holes in its definitions.

An amended version of the USA Freedom Act that passed the House of Representatives in May would allow the NSA to continue to target wide groups of U.S. records, critics said, because of its expanded definition of the terms the NSA must use to define its searches.

President Barack Obama in January announced plans to end the bulk collection of U.S. phone and business records, and administration officials have said the amended version of the USA Freedom Act would accomplish that goal.

But whether Obamas plan or the bill ends bulk collection depends on the definition of bulk. Deputy Attorney General James Cole told the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday that the prohibition on bulk collection means the indiscriminate collection of U.S. records. The USA Freedom Act would allow the NSA to collect large numbers of records, if a surveillance court judge approves the request, he said.

Somewhat contradictory, Cole said the bill would prohibit the collection of all phone records in a ZIP code. That would be the type of indiscriminate bulk collection that this bill is designed to end, he said.

The language in the bill tells a different story, critics said.

Senators, let us not use the phrase, bulk collection, as coded jargon for existing programs or nationwide surveillance dragnets, Harley Geiger, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said during the Thursday hearing. Rather, bulk collection, as any normal person would understand it, means the large-scale collection of information about individuals with no connection to a crime or investigation.

The version of the bill that passed the House would allow the NSA to target wide groups of U.S. records, critics said, because it allows an expended definition of a specific selection term that the NSA must use to define its searches. The amended version of the bill allows the NSA to target things such as a person, entity, accounts, address, or device, language that would give the NSA few limits on what groups it can target, critics said.

The amended USA Freedom Act does not end bulk collection, Geiger added. The definition of specific selection term is deliberately ambiguous and open-ended. There is nothing in the bill that would prohibit, for example, the use of [search terms] Verizon, Gmail.com or the state of Georgia as a specific selection term.

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Snowden leaks after one year: Wrangling over the meaning of 'bulk'

In a letter to German lawmakers, Snowden's Berlin-based lawyer, Wolfgang Kaleck, dismissed their request for an informal meeting with the former intelligence official in Russia.

There was "no room or need for an oral, 'informal' meeting in Moscow," Kaleck wrote, adding that a hearing "in the desired form" is only possible in Germany.

The German parliamentary inquiry was set up to investigate alleged operations by the US National Security Agency (NSA), under which Snowden had worked as a contractor. Snowden's various revelations on NSA surveillance caused a worldwide public outcry about intrusions of privacy.

The allegations have prompted particular worry in Germany, a country with relatively fresh memories of oppressive secret services both during Adolf Hitler's reign and in former communist East Germany.

No testimony in Berlin

Opposition lawmakers have demanded that Snowden be allowed to come to Berlin and testify, but the German government has said doing so would hurt relations with the United States. It is also not known if such a move would jeopardize Snowden's immigration status in Russia, where his temporary asylum runs until the end of July.

Parliamentarians from the two main parties in Merkel's ruling coalition, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), had wanted to hold an "informal discussion" with Snowden in Moscow in preparation for a formal hearing.

The United States wishes to try Snowden on espionage charges and has issued an international warrant for his arrest.

Snowden has only testified live once before to legislators, speaking by video hookup from Moscow on April 8 to a committee of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.

Earlier this month, German's federal prosecutor general opened a formal investigation into claims that the NSA tapped the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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Edward Snowden rejects German plans for meeting in Moscow

BERLIN National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is rejecting calls to meet in Moscow with a German parliamentary inquiry into the extent of surveillance by the U.S. and its allies.

Lawmakers from the inquiry panel had hoped to travel to Moscow soon for an informal meeting with Snowden. The plan emerged after opposition parties demanded that Germany allow Snowden to come to Berlin to testify but the government said doing so would hurt relations with the U.S.

Snowden's German lawyer, Wolfgang Kaleck, wrote to the committee Friday that he discussed the matter with Snowden and there is "no room or need for an oral, 'informal' meeting in Moscow," where the American has temporary asylum, the news agency dpa reported. He argues substantial testimony is only possible in Germany.

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Snowden rejects call for meeting in Moscow with German parliament's NSA inquiry panel

Kuala Lumpur: Edward Snowden does not appear to have taken as much as originally thought from NSA files, The Washington Post reported late Thursday.

The damage is still "profound" from the former NSA contractor who blew the cover on vast US surveillance programs of everything from everyday people's phone calls to intrusions into high-tech companies' servers, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said, according to the Post.

Still, "it doesn't look like he took as much" as first thought, Clapper was quoted as saying in what the Post called a rare interview Tuesday.

"We're still investigating, but we think that a lot of what he looked at, he couldn't pull down," Clapper said.

"Some things we thought he got he apparently didn't," the director was quoted as saying.

The Post said this view contrasts with the initial worse-case scenario in which the US intelligence community assumed that Snowden, who faces espionage charges, "compromised the communications networks that make up the military's command and control system."

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Edward Snowden Damage Apparently Less than Feared: Report

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Paul Jay of The Real News Network interviews Michael Ratner on the revelations of Edward Snowden; the first Guardian story ran on June 5. Ratner is President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York and Chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin. Ratner is currently a legal adviser to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. Heres the video:

More at The Real News

June 5. Has it really been such a short time? Or so long a time? Ratner explains:

[W]ere recording this on June 5, which is Thursday, which is the day the first article based on Snowden documents appeared in The Guardian. .. And its also the second anniversary or coming on the second anniversary of two years of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy. Thatll be June 19. So the anniversaries in June are quite important.

Lets go back to the first story, the first story of June 5, the work of Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras. They had gotten to Hong Kong a few days before that. They met Edward Snowden. They met with him on June 3. And they do the first story, which I said is a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court order, secret court order, concerning Verizon in particular, but saying that Verizon had to turn over all of the metadata on our phone calls in the United States and elsewherebasically, how long, what cell towers theyre from, all kinds of information. And from that, of course, they make a tree of everybody, whos in contact with who, and they get a huge range of information about it. That was the first story, a big story, because it was a misinterpretation, in many of our views, by the secret court of the FISA powers, of the Foreign Intelligence Act powers. And it also showed just how pervasive the surveillance is.

Second day, June 6, which will be an anniversary of, on this Friday, the day after tomorrow, they expose the PRISM story. Thats the NSA has direct access, through our computers, through Google, Facebook, Apple, and other U.S. internet giants, to data held by those internet giants, our actual content of our datamy emails, etc., another huge story.

This year, Edward Snowden Day, June 5, was also #ResetTheNet Day, of which Edward Snowden wrote:

Today, we can begin the work of effectively shutting down the collection of our online communications, even if the US Congress fails to do the same. Thats why Im asking you to join me on June 5th for Reset the Net, when people and companies all over the world will come together to implement the technological solutions that can put an end to the mass surveillance programs of any government.

We have the technology, and adopting encryption is the first effective step that everyone can take to end mass surveillance. Thats why I am excited for Reset the Net it will mark the moment when we turn political expression into practical action, and protect ourselves on a large scale.

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June Fifth: “Edward Snowden Day” Except Not. Yet.

Al Gore Publicly Supports Edward Snowden
Al Gore came out publicly in support of Edward Snowden reminding everyone how the NSA #39;s unconstitutional program of Total Information Awareness came about wh...

By: TheLipTV

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Al Gore Publicly Supports Edward Snowden - Video

Glenn Greenwald on the Media Malignment of Edward Snowden
Glenn Greenwald speaks about Edward Snowden at the Nourse Theater, San Francisco on Wednesday, Jun 18, 2014.

By: Manatease

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Glenn Greenwald on the Media Malignment of Edward Snowden - Video

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State

by Glenn Greenwald

Metropolitan, 259 pp., $27.00

by Luke Harding

Vintage, 346 pp., $14.95 (paper)

a Frontline documentary directed by Michael Kirk

by the Presidents Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies: Richard A. Clarke, Michael J. Morell, Geoffrey R. Stone, Cass R. Sunstein, and Peter Swire

Princeton University Press, 239 pp., $16.95 (paper)

Within days of the publication of No Place to Hide by the journalist Glenn Greenwald, a photograph began circulating on the Internet that showed National Security Agency operatives surreptitiously implanting a surveillance device on an intercepted computer. After nearly a year of revelations about the reach of the NSA, spawned by Edward Snowdens theft of tens of thousands of classified documents, this photo nonetheless seemed to come as something of a surprise: here was the United States government appropriating and opening packages sent through the mail, secretly installing spyware, and then boxing up the goods, putting on new factory seals, and sending them on their way. It was immediate in a way that words were not.

That photo itself was part of the Snowden cache, and readers of Greenwalds book were treated to the NSAs own caption: Not all SIGINT tradecraft involves accessing signals and networks from thousands of miles away, it said.

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Partial Disclosure

New Zealanders believe Edward Snowden ahead of John Key when it comes to the US spying on us, the Green Party said today.

John Key has previously downplayed New Zealanders concerns that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been involved in spying on New Zealanders, but the results of a Stuff Ipsos poll released today shows 71.6 per cent of Kiwis believe United States spy agencies are gathering data on New Zealanders and 61.8 per cent of those people do not support the US being able to do so.

"New Zealanders know the NSA does not discriminate about who they spy on. The Governments active involvement in the 5 Eyes network means we are part of both a spying and spied on ring," said Green Party security intelligence spokesperson Steffan Browning.

"New Zealanders have looked at the facts and concluded that John Key isnt being totally upfront about the information being shared in 5 Eyes. They believe Snowden over the PM.

"Not only do New Zealanders not believe the Prime Minister about spying, they also think that the US spying on us is wrong.

"The evidence of spying on New Zealanders is stacking up against John Key. President Barack Obama has said the US doesnt have a "no spying" agreement with any country but Key continues to insist the NSA doesnt spy on us.

"Previous leaks from whistle-blower Edward Snowden have revealed that the personal data of citizens from the US, the UK and Australia is being shared amongst the 5-Eyes network. We also know from previous leaks that the NSA are willing and able to carry out mass surveillance on New Zealanders.

"John Keys credibility on spying has taken a further knock today with his ambiguity around New Zealands reintegration into the 5 Eyes information sharing network while he has been the Prime Minister.

"It looks like John Key has had another brain fade about changes made in 2009 that opened the flow of information that the 5 Eyes network shared with his Government. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence could remember New Zealands reintegration in 2009 but John Key couldnt.

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NZers don't believe John Key about US spying - Greens

HARI SREENIVASAN: Monday will mark one year since Edward Snowden made headlines by identifying himself as the source of classified information leaked from the National Security Agency. The U.S. government claimed the revelations would jeopardize national security, making valuable information available to the nations enemies.

In the past year, Snowden has spoken virtually at South by Southwest conferences and sat down a few weeks for an interview with NBC anchor Brian Williams from Russia, where he currently has asylum. For more now were joined from Washington by Shiobhan Gorman, intelligence correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. So whats Snowdens status now? Has position of the US government changed at all in this year?

SHIOBHAN GORMAN: The position of the U.S. government hasnt changed in terms of his status, although we have seen some pretty significant policy shifts, over the last year particularly as it has to do with the N.S.A. phone data program.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Right, and so in the last year, has the government changed the way it gathers its intelligence. Or how has the intelligence gathering apparatus changed as a result of these operations?

SHIOBHAN GORMAN: Well I think, it remains to be seen what will change in terms of actual intelligence collection. There was quite a bit of outcry about the monitoring of foreign leaders. There were some 35 foreign leaders that the National Security Agency was monitoring, eavesdropping on. And I think the most notable was German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And that has either you know been reevaluated, or in many cases ceased.

And the president in January did announce a set of changes, some which were to be implemented immediately, which had to do with some smaller alterations about the way the national security agency was collecting American phone data. As well as extending privacy protections to foreigners, in terms of the way the N.S.A. handles its surveillance data.

But the big question mark is still, what sort of reforms will see to the actual N.S.A. phone data program because there is now legislation pending on Capitol Hill that would implement some of the changes the president has recommended, which would primarily have phone companies conducting searches of American phone data, instead of the National Security Agency. Then it would provide the results to the National Security Agency.

HARI SREENIVASAN: And that made its way in sort of a bipartisan manner through the house. What are the chances of that actually passing through the senate and possibly getting signed into law?

SHIOBHAN GORMAN: Well its interesting there was a hearing last week that was sort of the first public vetting that the Senate Intelligence Committee did of the house proposal that passed. And we saw a lot of skepticism actually, both from democrats and republicans, generally for different reasons, but it suggests that the passage might not be instantaneous or smooth. Although I do think that people expect something to pass at some point. Especially because the law that authorizes that particular program does expire in about a year.

HARI SREENIVASAN: So how worried are U.S. officials that you speak with? I mean it seems that over the past year weve had a series of different shoes drop. Are they concerned about what else may come out in the next few weeks or months?

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What has the U.S. learned from the Snowden leaks?