Snowden slams UK emergency surveillance legislation

Whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has condemned the UKs emergency surveillance legislation being rushed through parliament.

The legislation is due to be debated on Tuesday 15 July and complete all its parliamentary stages two days later.

If passed, it will reinstate powersstruck down by the European Court of Justice in April, enabling the government to force phone and internet firms to retain and hand over data.

Justifying the move, David Cameron said: I am simply not prepared to be a prime minister who has to address the people after a terrorist incident and explain that I could have done more to prevent it.

He emphasised that the data retained would not include the content of messages and phone calls, just details of when and whom the service providers customers had called, texted and emailed.

But Snowden (pictured) said he is concerned about the speed at which it is being done, the lack of public debate and increased powers of intrusion, in an interview with The Guardian in Moscow.

He said it is very unusual for a government to pass an emergency law such as this in circumstances other than a time of total war.

Snowden likened the move to the Protect America Act introduced by the US in 2007, which used concerns about terrorist threats to justify and preserve intelligence gathering operations.

The Protect America Act was passed at the request of the NSA after revelations about the agencys warrantless wire-tapping programme.

Snowden said the bill was introduced into Congress on 1 August 2007 and signed into law on 5 August without any substantial open public debate.

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Snowden slams UK emergency surveillance legislation