IN December 2013, United Nations special rapporteur on counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson launched "an investigation into the surveillance powers of American and British intelligence agencies following Edward Snowden's revelations."
The report on that investigation is about to be released. The Guardian:
Mass surveillance of the internet by intelligence agencies is “corrosive of online privacy” and threatens to undermine international law, according to a report to the United Nations general assembly.
The critical study by Ben Emmerson QC, the UN’s special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, released on Wednesday is a response to revelations by the whistleblower Edward Snowden about the extent of monitoring carried out by GCHQ in the UK and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US.
“Bulk access technology is indiscriminately corrosive of online privacy and impinges on the very essence of the right guaranteed by [the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights],” Emmerson, a prominent human rights lawyer, concludes. The programmes, he said, “pose a direct and ongoing challenge to an established norm of international law.”
Article 17 of the covenant, Emmerson points out, states that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home and correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation”.
The 22 page report warns that the use of mass surveillance technology, through interception programs developed by the NSA and GCHQ such as Prism and Tempora, “effectively does away with the right to privacy of communications on the internet altogether”.
Can't help but think this adds to the
growing and powerful arguments in support of a
pardon for Edward Snowden.
There's more.
I'l link to the report itself as soon as it becomes available.
Update: The UK's Daily Mail hogwhistles the anti-whistleblower pack:
Ballet date-night for a traitor: NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden enjoys date at the Bolshoi with pole dancer girlfriend
"Traitor" and "pole-dancer." Lovely folks, huh? (And why are Brits telling *us who's a traitor to our country?)
P.S. Bravo, Lindsay Mills. Very courageous of you. Happy for you both.
Late Update, October 15: Glenn Greenwald on this story at The Intercept, with a link to the report itself.