'Documents to show Canada role in NSA spying'

Iran Press TV

Tue Nov 12, 2013 9:57AM GMT

Documents will be released outlining Canada's involvement in spying activities by the US National Security Agency (NSA), former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald has said.

"The documents are quite complex. There are a lot of them. There is enormous amounts of reporting to do in Canada, one of the most active surveillance agencies in the world, because of how closely they work with the NSA," Greenwald told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

"There are many, many, many more significant documents about Canadian surveillance and partnership with the NSA that will be reported and, I think, will be quite enlightening for the people of Canada," he added.

The 46-years-old American journalist dismissed claims that publishing classified documents would put people's security at risk, saying that having a government system "in which people can exercise great power in the dark" is what puts them in danger.

Greenwald said secret surveillance programs by the US NSA and Britain's eavesdropping agency GCHQ, and perhaps their Canadian counterpart have been directed on innocent people, not the terrorists and that is the reason they should be informed.

"Terrorists have long ago known that the U.S. and U.K. governments do everything possible to monitor their communications," he added.

British government agents forced The Guardian, which was at the center of revelations based on US whistleblower Edward Snowden's leaks, to destroy an unspecified number of its hard drives to get rid of the information Earlier in August.

According to Greenwald, the move showed how desperate the government was to suppress the information.

Last month, former head of the Communications Security Establishment of Canada (CSEC) John Adams admitted the agency has deliberately hidden information from the Canadian public about its operations for decades.

According to Adams, about 900 of the roughly 2,000 CSEC employees are involved in spying operations, both gathering intelligence and analyzing it.

Leaked documents by Snowden revealed previously that Canadian intelligence targeted Brazil's Mining and Energy Ministry.

According to the papers, Canadian Security Intelligence Service made a detailed outline of the Brazilian ministry's communications including phone calls, emails, and internet traffic.

MOS/HN