Snowden: Obama’s NSA Reform Proposal Is a ‘Turning Point’

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks via videoconference at 'Why Didn't a Tech Journalist Break PRISM?' during the 2014 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival on March 10, 2014 in Austin, Texas.

Image: Tammy Perez/Getty Images

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2014-03-25 21:58:23 UTC

U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to end the NSA's bulk collection of telephone records has gathered one noteworthy endorser: Edward Snowden.

The whistleblower who leaked top-secret documents exposing NSA surveillance programs released a statement on Tuesday, just after Obama announced plans to end the controversial program that enables the agency to collect Americans' phone records and retain them for five years. For Snowden, Obama's plans are a "turning point" that mark "the beginning of a new effort to reclaim our rights from the NSA, and restore the public's seat at the table of government."

"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 wrote in a statement published through the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents and advises him.

Here's Snowden's full statement:

I believed that if the NSA's unconstitutional mass surveillance of Americans was known, it would not survive the scrutiny of the courts, the Congress, and the people.

The very first open and adversarial court to ever judge these programs has now declared them 'Orwellian' and 'likely unconstitutional.' In the USA FREEDOM Act, 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.

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.

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Snowden: Obama's NSA Reform Proposal Is a 'Turning Point'