The U.S. government on Friday for the first time released data on the
scope of some of its most sensitive foreign intelligence-gathering
efforts, saying that it had targeted nearly 90,000 foreign persons or
organizations for surveillance through U.S. companies last year.
The release of the “transparency report,”
issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, follows
an order a year ago from President Obama to declassify and make public
as much information as possible about certain sensitive surveillance
programs.
Some privacy advocates said the figure was not as high
as they had expected, but that it was also artificially low. They also
said the report left out important data, such as the number of U.S.
persons whose phone calls or e-mails were collected accidentally or
because they were in contact with foreign targets.
“The
intelligence community is hiding the extent to which this surveillance
conducted without a warrant is impacting people in the United States,
who have constitutional rights,” said Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel for
the Center for Democracy and Technology.
MORE
patriotlink.tk - New World Order NEWS +12160 Rss Feed Machine
