National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden took to Reddit Thursday, once again answering questions about surveillance reform, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s 10-hour filibuster, and whether or not he misses pizza in Russia.
Snowden answered numerous questions during a Reddit AUA, or
“Ask Us Anything,” which he participated in alongside American
Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer.
Snowden was asked how he felt seeing Republican Senator Rand Paul
stage a filibuster for almost half a day in
an attempt to block a clean renewal of the Patriot Act, which the
NSA has used to justify collecting Americans’ telephone data in
bulk.
“It represents a sea change from a few years ago, when
intrusive new surveillance laws were passed without any kind of
meaningful opposition or debate,” he responded.
“Whatever you think about Rand Paul or his politics, it’s
important to remember that when he took the floor to say ‘No’ to
any length of reauthorization of the Patriot Act, he was speaking
for the majority of Americans – more than 60% of whom want to see
this kind of mass surveillance reformed or ended.”
READ MORE: ‘I would have come forward sooner’ –
Snowden on NSA leak regrets
The House of Representatives has already passed legislation,
called the USA Freedom Act, which would reform the way the NSA
gains access to data. It would still allow intelligence officials
to view metadata – the time that a call was made, to whom it was
made, but not the actual content – but they would be required to
submit keywords to phone companies in order to do so.
Some have hailed this development as an important step towards
reforming NSA surveillance, while others claim the keywords can
be so broad that bulk collection would still happen. Even if it
passes, however, the language generally concerns one portion of
the Patriot Act, called Section 215.
One Reddit user asked Snowden if the NSA may revert to
surveillance regardless, without informing lawmakers or oversight
bodies.
“That’s no excuse for the public or Congress to turn a blind
eye to unlawful or immoral operations – and the kind of mass
surveillance happening under Section 215 of the Patriot Act right
now is very much unlawful: the Courts ruled just two weeks ago
that not only are these activities illegal, but they have been
since the day the programs began,” Snowden replied.
Asked what should be reformed after Section 215, if it is indeed
altered by Congress, Snowden pointed to a couple of different
items.
READ MORE: Al Jazeera journalist fires back at US
for placing him on terror list
“Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act conceals some of the
worst mass surveillance operations,” he said. “In basic
terms, the government here prefers to ignore that the 4th
Amendment prohibits not just the unwarranted search of private
records, but also the initial seizure of them as well. I suspect
that’s likely to haunt not only them, but all of us as
well.”
Snowden also pointed to Executive Order 12333, signed by
President Ronald Reagan in 1981, which requires government
agencies to comply with data requests made by the CIA. He said
the order, which has been used to justify the collection of
unencrypted material, is a “skeleton in the closet,” but
that changing it will be hard “because the White House argues
these operations are simply above the law and cannot be regulated
by congress or the courts.”
On a more lighthearted note, when asked whether he missed eating
pizza by a user who apparently didn’t know there actually was
pizza in Russia, Snowden responded:
“This guy gets it,” Snowden said. “Russia has Papa
John’s. For real.”
TIL Russia has Papa John’s. Also TIL, it’s Edward Snowden’s
favorite pizza. pic.twitter.com/DE105DgUDC
— Zack Whittaker (@zackwhittaker) May
21, 2015