NSA and GCHQ activities appear illegal, says EU parliamentary inquiry

[BelgianMadCow]

Source: The Guardian

Civil liberties committee report demands end to indiscriminate collection of personal data by British and US agencies.



Mass surveillance programmes used by the US and Britain to spy on people in Europe have been condemned in the "strongest possible terms" by the first parliamentary inquiry into the disclosures, which has demanded an end to the vast, systematic and indiscriminate collection of personal data by intelligence agencies.

The inquiry by the European parliament's civil liberties committee says the activities of America's National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart, GCHQ, appear to be illegal and that their operations have "profoundly shaken" the trust between countries that considered themselves allies.

The 51-page draft report, obtained by the Guardian, was discussed by the committee on Thursday. Claude Moraes, the rapporteur asked to assess the impact of revelations made by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, lsocondemns the "chilling" way journalists working on the stories have been intimidated by state authorities.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/09/nsa-gchq-illegal-european-parliamentary-inquiry

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Looks like Europe is picking a side. I did say sounds like - Merkel could have put het foor on the pedal for a new privacy directive but decided that she wouldn't speed it up. But his a parliamentary enquiry, and using no uncertain terms. We're about to see parliamentary democracy (with greens and socialists in significant parties) in action. Just in time for lip servive before the elections in may, maybe, but I think a lot of people are about to wake up.