US lawmakers vow to restrict surveillance
Iran Press TV
Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:43AM GMT
US lawmakers have vowed to step up their campaign against the government's massive spying program after the House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly defeated an amendment to curtail it.
The amendment, proposed by Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), would have required the government to identify a person under investigation before it could collect the person's call records.
The two congressmen said they will bring the issue up again for a vote at the earliest opportunity.
'We came close (205-217). If just 7 Reps had switched their votes, we would have succeeded. Thank YOU for making a difference. We fight on," Amash tweeted Wednesday evening.
Conyers told the Associated Press after the vote that 'As long as we have this many members in the House of Representatives that are saying it's OK to collect all records you want just as long as you make sure you don't let it go anywhere else, that is the beginning of the wrong direction in a democratic society."
This was the first attempt in the US House to curb the NSA's spying program since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details about the US surveillance program.
The US government has been "greatly embarrassed" by Snowden's exposure of NSA's "massive and illegal surveillance campaign," Jeffrey Steinberg, a senior editor of the Executive Intelligence Review told Press TV on Thursday.
Snowden is currently stuck in Moscow's main airport and is seeking temporary asylum in Russia. However, US officials have warned Russia against giving him refuge.
AHT/ISH
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
