Edward Snowden, 7 years later the judges agree: “The NSA surveillance program was illegal”

“I never imagined it would be lived see our courts condemn the activities of the Nsa come illegal and in the same sentence see me attribute the merit for having revealed them ”. Edward snowden, the former mole who took refuge in Russia and was accused of espionage in the U.S, so comment on Twitter the ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that ruled that the mass surveillance program of the National security agency (Nsa) in the American phone calls was illegal and perhaps even unconstitutional. It had been his to report Snowden, former contractor for Nsa, which with this judicial decision took revenge seven years after his explosive revelations. The ruling is undoubtedly a victory for associations that fight for the defense of civil rights and privacy, but also a test of the stability of the US system of “checks and balances”.

After the ‘Datagate’ scandal, Barack Obama promoted a reform of the surveillance rules but did not stop persecuting Snowden. Donald trump instead he was able to forgive him, allowing his repatriation: “I will examine the case very carefully,” he promised in mid-August, after having defined it in the past as “traitor worthy of being put to death. “But now he could turn him into a testimonial of his battle against intelligence and the ‘deep state’, which also “spied” on his campaign in 2016.

The pronunciation of American judges is clear: the mass surveillance program of the Nsa violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with possible profiles of unconstitutionality. But the ruling is also embarrassing for intelligence executives, who first denied the conscious collection of data and, after the revelations of Snowden, were justified by arguing that this spy system had played a crucial role in the fight againstdomestic extremism: in particular in the case of four residents a San Diego convicted in 2013 for his aid to the Somali terrorist group Shabaab. Claims “contrary to classified documents”, according to the appeals court, which was called to try this case, upholding the convictions because those illegal wiretapping did not undermine the other evidence. For himAmerican Civil Liberties Union However, the ruling is a “victory for privacy rights” and a blow to Nsa, which since last year has begun to suspend its controversial Program.