Further Snowden Effect - in Europe

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has specifically targeted the telecommunications of human rights workers, former security contractor Edward Snowden said Tuesday at a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

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“This raises the very real possibility that our communications with confidential sources have been intercepted,” Michael Bochenek, senior director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International, said Tuesday in a statement. “Sharing this information with other governments could put human rights defenders the world over in imminent danger.”

In a separate statement, HRW General Counsel Dinah Pokempner said that the revelation was "indicative of the overreach that U.S. law allows to security agencies."

Also on Tuesday, the European Union’s highest court overturned a law forcing telecommunication operators to store users’ private telephone and email data for up to two years — a practice the NSA has been widely criticized for.

The European Court of Justice said that the 2006 Data Retention Directive “interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data.”

The law was enacted in the wake of deadly attacks in Europe, including the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 bombings in London.

  alJazeera