Government espionage activities couldn’t stop Paris attack: Snowden

Rasa - In an interview with Dutch TV channel NOS, Edward Snowden said government mass-surveillance programs are ineffective because they are "burying people under too much data," citing the recent attacks in Paris as an example.

News ID: 2042

Date: 22 January 2015 - 16:37

RNA - In an interview with Dutch TV channel NOS, US whistleblower Edward Snowden said government mass-surveillance programs are ineffective because they are "burying people under too much data," citing the recent attacks in Paris as an example.

He added that mass surveillance has not stopped a single attack in the United States. “It didn’t stop the attacks in London, neither did it stop the attacks in Spain or Boston.”

Referring to the controversial French law passed in December 2013 that facilitated police and intelligence agencies’ access to telephone and Internet data, the US whistleblower said: “France passed one of the most intrusive, expensive surveillance laws in all of Europe last year and it did not stop the attack.

"The problem with mass surveillance is that you are burying people under too much data," he explained.

12 people were killed in a terrorist attack on the French satiric magazine, Charlie Hebdo, on January 6 this year by a group reportedly linked to ISIS terrorists.

Since June 2013, Snowden has disclosed thousands of classified documents he acquired while working as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA).

Snowden’s disclosures of NSA spying programs inside the US and around the world have led to a global uproar. His release of NSA files has been called the most significant leak in US history.

He is charged with espionage in the United States and was granted asylum by Russia in August 2013.

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