donnay
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Snowden, Greenwald urge caution of wider government monitoring at Amnesty event
By Karl Plume
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Edward Snowden and reporter Glenn Greenwald, who brought to light the whistleblower's leaks about mass U.S. government surveillance last year, appeared together via video link from opposite ends of the earth on Saturday for what was believed to be the first time since Snowden sought asylum in Russia.
A sympathetic crowd of nearly 1,000 packed a downtown Chicago hotel ballroom at Amnesty International USA's annual human rights meeting and gave Greenwald, who dialed in from Brazil, a raucous welcome before Snowden was patched in 15 minutes later to a standing ovation.
The pair cautioned that government monitoring of "metadata" is more intrusive than directly listening to phone calls or reading emails and stressed the importance of a free press willing to scrutinize government activity.
Metadata includes which telephone number calls which other numbers, when the calls were made and how long they lasted. Metadata does not include the content of the calls.
Amnesty International is campaigning to end mass surveillance by the U.S. government and calling for Congressional action to further rein in the collection of information about telephone calls and other communications.
Continued...
By Karl Plume
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Edward Snowden and reporter Glenn Greenwald, who brought to light the whistleblower's leaks about mass U.S. government surveillance last year, appeared together via video link from opposite ends of the earth on Saturday for what was believed to be the first time since Snowden sought asylum in Russia.
A sympathetic crowd of nearly 1,000 packed a downtown Chicago hotel ballroom at Amnesty International USA's annual human rights meeting and gave Greenwald, who dialed in from Brazil, a raucous welcome before Snowden was patched in 15 minutes later to a standing ovation.
The pair cautioned that government monitoring of "metadata" is more intrusive than directly listening to phone calls or reading emails and stressed the importance of a free press willing to scrutinize government activity.
Metadata includes which telephone number calls which other numbers, when the calls were made and how long they lasted. Metadata does not include the content of the calls.
Amnesty International is campaigning to end mass surveillance by the U.S. government and calling for Congressional action to further rein in the collection of information about telephone calls and other communications.
Continued...
