Deputy Director of the NSA John Inglis testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington.
WASHINGTON: A secret US court has renewed the government’s authority to carry out a controversial phone surveillance programme exposed by fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
The panel’s decision, made public on Friday in an unprecedented move, extends the programme, which affects millions of Americans, by three months, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, said in a statement. “In light of the significant and continuing public interest in the telephony metadata collection program, the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) has decided to declassify and disclose publicly that the government filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that the court renewed that authority,” it said. AFP
