Snowden and the NSA
ConfirmedRECORDEDINDEXED · RT-001
In June 2013 former NSA contractor Edward Snowden gave journalists classified documents showing bulk collection of Americans' phone records and the PRISM internet program.
What the record shows
- The Guardian published a secret court order (6 June 2013) requiring Verizon to hand over phone metadata.
- PRISM collected communications from US internet companies under FISA Section 702.
- In 2015 the Second Circuit (ACLU v. Clapper) ruled the bulk phone-records program was not authorized by Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
- The USA FREEDOM Act (2015) ended bulk collection of phone metadata by the government. In 2020 the Ninth Circuit (US v. Moalin) found the program unlawful.
Claimed, but not shown
Claims that the government reads every citizen's messages in real time go beyond what the documents show.
Verdict
Confirmed by leaked documents, official acknowledgement and court rulings.
checked. real.
Sources
- The Guardian / Washington Post reporting, June 2013
- ACLU v. Clapper (2d Cir. 2015)
- US v. Moalin (9th Cir. 2020)
Connected files (red threads)
- COINTELPRO — Surveillance lineage: 1970s abuses led to FISA (1978)
- 9/11 "inside job" — Post-9/11 expansion of surveillance (Patriot Act, PRISM)
- Project SHAMROCK and Operation MINARET — The same agency, a different era of bulk collection
- The Pentagon Papers — A later case of leaked classified documents and the press
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