The Guardian informs that a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Edward Snowden told the journalists that U.S. government violates the rights of the U.S. citizens. He claimed that the government program PRISM not only allows authorities to collect information about users of the nine major technology companies, but also offers direct access to the computer systems of these organizations.
Soon after the publication of controversial material U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper assured, that the reporters have significantly distorted the essence of PRISM. Clapper insisted that government did not collect citizens’ data uncontrollably.
Clapper said the Prism program with Internet companies is not unilateral and is conducted with congressional oversight and within the bounds of the law. The nature of the law, the secrecy under which it is interpreted and strength of oversight, meanwhile, are under debate.
“I think it’s important to recognize that you can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience,” the president noted. “Were going to have to make some choices as a society.”
Though the reporters claimed that the government had access to the servers of Apple, Google and Facebook, the companies denied this information.
Google CEO Larry Page and Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said Google had “not heard of a program called PRISM.”
Edward Snowden is now in Hong Kong and Washington has already sent a request for his extradition with charges.
“I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong. My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them. I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, but I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant", claimed Snowden.
