Full Text: The United States' Global Surveillance Record
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E-mail Xinhua, May 27, 2014
Nine major international civil liberties unions have issued a joint declaration that the U.S. federal government's secretive scrutiny program, PRISM, is a breach of international covenants on human rights. The joint declaration said, "Such vast and pervasive state surveillance violates two of the most fundamental human rights: the right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression."
In the United States, criticism and protests arose one after another. An American Civil Liberties Union official blasted the NSA, saying the spy agency had gone far beyond judicial authorization when it monitors private communications and "virtually every aspect of the Americans' lives."
American civil rights organizations have issued a statement to protest against the massive collection of mobile phone data by the NSA, and have expressed anxiety that so many Americans were being tapped by the government. Chris Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, said, "The only way to hide your location is to disconnect from all the modern communication devices and live in a cave."
In dealing with the U.S. global surveillance, the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly passed the resolution "Privacy in the Digital Age" which stressed that illegal or arbitrary surveillance, interception of communications, and illegal collection of personal data violates the rights to privacy and freedom of expression. Some countries spoke before the resolution was passed, denouncing the United States because it not only violated the right to privacy and other basic human rights, but also violated the principles of the Charter of the United Nations on mutual respect for national sovereignty, territorial integrity and the commitment of non-interference in each other's internal affairs.
After the NSA surveillance of Huawei was exposed, William Plummer, a Huawei executive, said that the company did not know it was an NSA target. "The irony is that what they are doing to us is exactly what they have always charged against China, " he said.
"Washington is losing its moral ground," the German magazine Focus quoted an expert on foreign policy as saying. "Over the years the United States has exerted pressure on China in the name of Chinese spies and hacker attacks. In fact, the United States itself is the true eavesdropper." The German news television said the United States was monitoring "the whole of China". "After all, it is because the United States fears China will overtake it to become the world's superpower."
Snowden said the U.S. government had "declared that (surveillance) would not target civilian facilities." The purpose of exposing the PRISM program was to reveal the U.S. government's hypocrisy.
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