National Security Agency program that collects records of millions of Americans’ phone calls has been ruled lawful by a federal judge who called it a “counter-punch” to terrorism that does not infringe Americans’ privacy rights.
U.S. District Judge William Pauley decision on Friday in Manhattan differs from a ruling by another judge this month that questioned the program’s constitutionality, raising the view that the Supreme Court will need to resolve the issue.
Judge Pauley also referred often to the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people died, and said broad counter-terrorism programs such as the NSA’s could help avoid a “horrific” repeat of those events.
“This blunt tool only works because it collects everything,” Pauley wrote. “Technology allowed al Qaeda to operate decentralize and plot international terrorist attacks remotely. The bulk telephony metadata collection program represents the government’s counter-punch.”
Even if judge Pauley had ruled the NSA spying illegal, nothing would have changed at the NSA. Any U.S. government activity under the pretext of national security is above any
U.S. law and jurisdiction. National security is just a cow "too holy" to be touched by the U.S. courts. It is like U.S. national defense. Nikos Retsos, retired professor
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