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unhappycamper
unhappycamper's Journal
unhappycamper's Journal
December 8, 2013
Japan’s controversial new state secrets law condemned as ‘the largest ever threat to democracy in postwar Japan’ by Nobel academics
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, December 7, 2013 12:09 EST
Japan’s controversial new state secrets law was condemned Saturday as “the largest ever threat to democracy in postwar Japan” by a group of academics, including two Nobel prize winners, reports said.
On Friday Japan’s parliament adopted a new law handing out stiffer penalties for those who spill state secrets, despite a public outcry over fears the legislation was draconian and would impinge on press freedom and the public’s right to know.
In a strongly worded attack on the new law, a group of 31 academics, including Nobel Prize winners Toshihide Maskawa and Hideki Shirakawa, accused the Japanese government of threatening “the fundamental human rights and pacifist principles” established by the country’s constitution.
The controversial bill, proposed by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was approved by the Senate on Friday evening, a few days after it was passed in the lower house.
Japan’s controversial new state secrets law condemned as ‘the largest ever threat to democracy in po
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/07/japans-controversial-new-state-secrets-law-was-condemned-as-the-largest-ever-threat-to-democracy-in-postwar-japan-by-nobel-academics/Japan’s controversial new state secrets law condemned as ‘the largest ever threat to democracy in postwar Japan’ by Nobel academics
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, December 7, 2013 12:09 EST
Japan’s controversial new state secrets law was condemned Saturday as “the largest ever threat to democracy in postwar Japan” by a group of academics, including two Nobel prize winners, reports said.
On Friday Japan’s parliament adopted a new law handing out stiffer penalties for those who spill state secrets, despite a public outcry over fears the legislation was draconian and would impinge on press freedom and the public’s right to know.
In a strongly worded attack on the new law, a group of 31 academics, including Nobel Prize winners Toshihide Maskawa and Hideki Shirakawa, accused the Japanese government of threatening “the fundamental human rights and pacifist principles” established by the country’s constitution.
The controversial bill, proposed by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was approved by the Senate on Friday evening, a few days after it was passed in the lower house.
December 8, 2013
Congress may throw wrench into Iran nuclear deal
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, December 7, 2013 12:03 EST
US lawmakers are preparing a possible vote on new sanctions against Iran, a move President Barack Obama and his P5+1 partners fear could sabotage the nuclear deal reached in Geneva.
Administration officials have beaten a path to Capitol Hill in recent weeks, warning Congress against short-circuiting the delicate negotiations.
Now that the talks have borne fruit in the form of an interim accord on Tehran’s nuclear program, officials are again encouraging a go-slow approach by lawmakers to allow the parties to reach a final deal.
But the public and private lobbying has not deterred many in Congress who are determined to tighten the noose on Iran’s oil sector and industries like mining, construction and engineering.
Congress may throw wrench into Iran nuclear deal
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/07/congress-may-throw-wrench-into-iran-nuclear-deal/Congress may throw wrench into Iran nuclear deal
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, December 7, 2013 12:03 EST
US lawmakers are preparing a possible vote on new sanctions against Iran, a move President Barack Obama and his P5+1 partners fear could sabotage the nuclear deal reached in Geneva.
Administration officials have beaten a path to Capitol Hill in recent weeks, warning Congress against short-circuiting the delicate negotiations.
Now that the talks have borne fruit in the form of an interim accord on Tehran’s nuclear program, officials are again encouraging a go-slow approach by lawmakers to allow the parties to reach a final deal.
But the public and private lobbying has not deterred many in Congress who are determined to tighten the noose on Iran’s oil sector and industries like mining, construction and engineering.
December 8, 2013
AT&T rejects ‘transparency report’ shareholder demand; FBI can secretly turn your laptop camera on
By George Chidi
Saturday, December 7, 2013 21:31 EST
In the age of modern digital surveillance, AT&T can keep its silence about what it tells the government, while the FBI can make your laptop keep its silence even while it’s secretly filming you.
Shareholders are pressing AT&T to disclose what it does with its customers’ data in light of NSA requests. But AT&T has flatly refused to do so, and sent a letter Thursday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to that effect.
The AP reported Saturday that AT&T said it protects customer information and complies with government requests for records “only to the extent required by law
Last month, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, an AT&T shareholder, filed a shareholder resolution calling on the telecom giant to be more transparent about the way subscriber data is shared with the government. The resolution calls for semi-annual reports detailing information about government data requests, similar to the transparency reports now being issued by Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
AT&T rejects ‘transparency report’ shareholder demand; FBI can secretly turn your laptop camera on
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/07/at-fbi-can-secretly-turn-your-laptop-camera-on/AT&T rejects ‘transparency report’ shareholder demand; FBI can secretly turn your laptop camera on
By George Chidi
Saturday, December 7, 2013 21:31 EST
In the age of modern digital surveillance, AT&T can keep its silence about what it tells the government, while the FBI can make your laptop keep its silence even while it’s secretly filming you.
Shareholders are pressing AT&T to disclose what it does with its customers’ data in light of NSA requests. But AT&T has flatly refused to do so, and sent a letter Thursday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to that effect.
The AP reported Saturday that AT&T said it protects customer information and complies with government requests for records “only to the extent required by law
Last month, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, an AT&T shareholder, filed a shareholder resolution calling on the telecom giant to be more transparent about the way subscriber data is shared with the government. The resolution calls for semi-annual reports detailing information about government data requests, similar to the transparency reports now being issued by Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
December 7, 2013
F-35 Contract May Be the Worst Deal the DOD Has Ever Made
Reese Schonfeld
Posted: 12/06/2013 5:05 pm
In June of 2013, Time magazine reported that the DOD will have spent $87.5 billion on R&D, Procurement and Initial Spare Parts on the F-35. It also reported that "there is a discernible trend in F-35 fabrication costs: they're clearly increasing." It adds that "Future years may prove even more costly: more stringent testing is still in the future and will not finish until 2019 at the earliest."
Worse news has just arrived. The DOD hopes that it may "eventually select one or multiple product support integrators (PSIs), lead contractors to assist the program office in F-35 sustainment." There is at least one more, perhaps unforeseen, problem. According to InsideDefense in a great piece of investigative reporting "F-35 PEO Says Program Fighting For Data Rights To Enable Comparison", "The government would have to own or have access to a large amount of proprietary data Lockheed and Pratt [Lockheed produces the F-35 airplane; Pratt manufacturers the jet's engine] have developed for the F-35.
Lt. Gen. Christopher Bodgan said that "little attention was paid to the F-35 data rights ownership issues until about 18 months ago and it is a high priority issue today." The "Pentagon and its lawyers are working with the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) program's main industry participants to sort out data rights ownership questions, many of which remain unresolved."
Bodgan added "We have been working with the current contractors and we have been working with, unfortunately, lawyers who get involved in this too, and we're going to try to stake out what the government really has and what the government really doesn't have. That is not an easy question to answer."
F-35 Contract May Be the Worst Deal the DOD Has Ever Made
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reese-schonfeld/f35-contractmay-be-the-wo_b_4400220.htmlF-35 Contract May Be the Worst Deal the DOD Has Ever Made
Reese Schonfeld
Posted: 12/06/2013 5:05 pm
In June of 2013, Time magazine reported that the DOD will have spent $87.5 billion on R&D, Procurement and Initial Spare Parts on the F-35. It also reported that "there is a discernible trend in F-35 fabrication costs: they're clearly increasing." It adds that "Future years may prove even more costly: more stringent testing is still in the future and will not finish until 2019 at the earliest."
Worse news has just arrived. The DOD hopes that it may "eventually select one or multiple product support integrators (PSIs), lead contractors to assist the program office in F-35 sustainment." There is at least one more, perhaps unforeseen, problem. According to InsideDefense in a great piece of investigative reporting "F-35 PEO Says Program Fighting For Data Rights To Enable Comparison", "The government would have to own or have access to a large amount of proprietary data Lockheed and Pratt [Lockheed produces the F-35 airplane; Pratt manufacturers the jet's engine] have developed for the F-35.
Lt. Gen. Christopher Bodgan said that "little attention was paid to the F-35 data rights ownership issues until about 18 months ago and it is a high priority issue today." The "Pentagon and its lawyers are working with the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) program's main industry participants to sort out data rights ownership questions, many of which remain unresolved."
Bodgan added "We have been working with the current contractors and we have been working with, unfortunately, lawyers who get involved in this too, and we're going to try to stake out what the government really has and what the government really doesn't have. That is not an easy question to answer."
December 7, 2013
Forbes Champions More Super Hornets; F-18 Vs. F-35, Round Two
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
on December 05, 2013 at 6:14 PM
WASHINGTON: The Boeing Super Hornet might have a new best friend in Congress. A year after the Saint Louis-built fighter jet’s biggest backer in Congress, then-Rep. Todd Akin, went down in electoral flames because of controversial remarks about “legitimate rape,” the influential chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on Seapower, Rep. Randy Forbes, has stepped up with a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel urging him to fund continued production.
“A lot of it will come down to Navy vs. OSD (the Office of the Secretary of Defense),” said Richard Aboulafia, a leading aviation industry analyst with the Teal Group. “OSD groans at the very possibility of more of these airplanes, because it undercuts the case for F-35? — Lockheed Martin’s much-delayed and over-budget Joint Strike Fighter — “and F-35 needs all the numbers it can get to ramp up to an economical rate (of production).”
The Navy plans to buy the last F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers, a radar-jamming variant, in the fiscal year 2014 budget now very much up in the air on Capitol Hill. “If nothing is done, the last order closes around 2016,” Aboulafia told me. The Saint Louis factory still has some guaranteed work through 2018, building F-15 Eagles for Saudi Arabia, though further F-15 sales are much in doubt. The Hornet/Growler production line shuts down in 2016, however, and the supplier base starts withering well before: Boeing told me they’ll have to make key decisions on long-lead items in early 2014. “When you lose a line,” said Aboulafia, “you almost never get it back.”
That’s why Forbes wants the Pentagon to consider keeping the line — and its options — open. Forbes doesn’t represent Missouri, where the Hornet is built, but his homestate of Virginia builds every Navy aircraft carrier and is homebase to half the fleet, so the he’s profoundly concerned about the aircraft those carriers launch. Once the Hornet/Growler line goes cold, he points out, “the Department will be left with a sole-source tactical aircraft program for the Navy.” In fact, when the F-15 line in Saint Louis shuts down in turn, Boeing will be out of the fighter business altogether, leaving a Lockheed Martin monopoly.
Forbes Champions More Super Hornets; F-18 Vs. F-35, Round Two
http://breakingdefense.com/2013/12/forbes-champions-buying-super-hornets-f-18-vs-f-35-round-two/Forbes Champions More Super Hornets; F-18 Vs. F-35, Round Two
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
on December 05, 2013 at 6:14 PM
WASHINGTON: The Boeing Super Hornet might have a new best friend in Congress. A year after the Saint Louis-built fighter jet’s biggest backer in Congress, then-Rep. Todd Akin, went down in electoral flames because of controversial remarks about “legitimate rape,” the influential chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on Seapower, Rep. Randy Forbes, has stepped up with a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel urging him to fund continued production.
“A lot of it will come down to Navy vs. OSD (the Office of the Secretary of Defense),” said Richard Aboulafia, a leading aviation industry analyst with the Teal Group. “OSD groans at the very possibility of more of these airplanes, because it undercuts the case for F-35? — Lockheed Martin’s much-delayed and over-budget Joint Strike Fighter — “and F-35 needs all the numbers it can get to ramp up to an economical rate (of production).”
The Navy plans to buy the last F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers, a radar-jamming variant, in the fiscal year 2014 budget now very much up in the air on Capitol Hill. “If nothing is done, the last order closes around 2016,” Aboulafia told me. The Saint Louis factory still has some guaranteed work through 2018, building F-15 Eagles for Saudi Arabia, though further F-15 sales are much in doubt. The Hornet/Growler production line shuts down in 2016, however, and the supplier base starts withering well before: Boeing told me they’ll have to make key decisions on long-lead items in early 2014. “When you lose a line,” said Aboulafia, “you almost never get it back.”
That’s why Forbes wants the Pentagon to consider keeping the line — and its options — open. Forbes doesn’t represent Missouri, where the Hornet is built, but his homestate of Virginia builds every Navy aircraft carrier and is homebase to half the fleet, so the he’s profoundly concerned about the aircraft those carriers launch. Once the Hornet/Growler line goes cold, he points out, “the Department will be left with a sole-source tactical aircraft program for the Navy.” In fact, when the F-15 line in Saint Louis shuts down in turn, Boeing will be out of the fighter business altogether, leaving a Lockheed Martin monopoly.
December 7, 2013
Pentagon sees "significant interest" in F-35 from Gulf
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON Fri Dec 6, 2013 6:55pm EST
Dec 6 (Reuters) - Strong demand from Gulf countries for Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet has prompted Washington to grapple with the thorny question about releasing the jet to the region sooner than expected, a senior U.S. defense official said.
Washington has already approved sales of the new stealth fighter to a range of allies, including Turkey, South Korea, Japan and Israel, but sales to the Gulf require a deeper review given U.S. policy guidelines that call for Israel to maintain a qualitative military edge in the Middle East.
Talk about selling the plane to the United Arab Emirates and other U.S. allies in the Gulf came into the open during the Dubai air show last month, with potential buyers weighing whether to buy existing planes or wait for the U.S. government to release the new radar-evading F-35.
Government officials and industry experts have said they do not expect Washington to allow the sale of the F-35 to Gulf countries until around 2020, just short of five years after Israel receives its first F-35 fighters in 2016.
Pentagon sees "significant interest" in F-35 from Gulf
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/06/lockheed-fighter-gulf-idUSL2N0JL29A20131206Pentagon sees "significant interest" in F-35 from Gulf
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON Fri Dec 6, 2013 6:55pm EST
Dec 6 (Reuters) - Strong demand from Gulf countries for Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet has prompted Washington to grapple with the thorny question about releasing the jet to the region sooner than expected, a senior U.S. defense official said.
Washington has already approved sales of the new stealth fighter to a range of allies, including Turkey, South Korea, Japan and Israel, but sales to the Gulf require a deeper review given U.S. policy guidelines that call for Israel to maintain a qualitative military edge in the Middle East.
Talk about selling the plane to the United Arab Emirates and other U.S. allies in the Gulf came into the open during the Dubai air show last month, with potential buyers weighing whether to buy existing planes or wait for the U.S. government to release the new radar-evading F-35.
Government officials and industry experts have said they do not expect Washington to allow the sale of the F-35 to Gulf countries until around 2020, just short of five years after Israel receives its first F-35 fighters in 2016.
December 7, 2013
5 Things You Should Know About The F-35 Basing
By Taylor Dobbs
VPR News Blog
Now that it's decided that F-35s are coming to Vermont, here is what you need to know about the jets, the basing and the heated local debate over the Air Force's choice.
~snip~
2. The F-35s won’t be flying as frequently as the F16s do
According to an Air Force analysis, the Vermont Air National Guard will perform 5,486 “airfield operations” per year under the chosen basing plan. That is almost a one-third reduction from the current 8,099 annual operations by the guard using F-16s. For scale, Burlington International Airport sees 112,224 total operations annually.
~snip~
3. The F-35s aren’t bringing any new jobs to the Vermont Guard
In an interview with VPR’s Neal Charnoff, the Adjutant General for the state of Vermont Steve Cray said the F-35s won’t lead to any new jobs for the Vermont Air National Guard, since staffing for the 18 F-35s would be equivalent to the staffing for the 18 F-16s the Guard already has. That doesn’t mean the new fighter jets won’t make a difference, he said. Without the new planes, Cray said the guard’s future would have been uncertain, as the F-16s they currently use will soon be too old to fly.
4. Opponents say F-35s are too loud and too new to fly in Burlington
The F-35s are louder than the F-16s the Guard uses now. According to the Final Environmental Impact Statement issued by the U.S. Air Force, “In all instances the F-35 generates noise levels greater than the F-16s.”
5 Things You Should Know About The F-35 Basing
http://digital.vpr.net/post/5-things-you-should-know-about-f-35-basing5 Things You Should Know About The F-35 Basing
By Taylor Dobbs
VPR News Blog
Now that it's decided that F-35s are coming to Vermont, here is what you need to know about the jets, the basing and the heated local debate over the Air Force's choice.
~snip~
2. The F-35s won’t be flying as frequently as the F16s do
According to an Air Force analysis, the Vermont Air National Guard will perform 5,486 “airfield operations” per year under the chosen basing plan. That is almost a one-third reduction from the current 8,099 annual operations by the guard using F-16s. For scale, Burlington International Airport sees 112,224 total operations annually.
~snip~
3. The F-35s aren’t bringing any new jobs to the Vermont Guard
In an interview with VPR’s Neal Charnoff, the Adjutant General for the state of Vermont Steve Cray said the F-35s won’t lead to any new jobs for the Vermont Air National Guard, since staffing for the 18 F-35s would be equivalent to the staffing for the 18 F-16s the Guard already has. That doesn’t mean the new fighter jets won’t make a difference, he said. Without the new planes, Cray said the guard’s future would have been uncertain, as the F-16s they currently use will soon be too old to fly.
4. Opponents say F-35s are too loud and too new to fly in Burlington
The F-35s are louder than the F-16s the Guard uses now. According to the Final Environmental Impact Statement issued by the U.S. Air Force, “In all instances the F-35 generates noise levels greater than the F-16s.”
December 7, 2013
World Trade Organisation reaches $1tn trade deal
Sat, Dec 7, 2013, 10:46
The World Trade Organisation reached its first ever trade reform deal today to the roar of approval from nearly 160 ministers who had gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali to decide on the make-or-break agreement that could add $1 trillion to the global economy
The approval came after Cuba dropped a last-gasp threat to veto the package of measures.
“For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered,” WTO chief Roberto Azevedo told exhausted ministers after the talks which had dragged into an extra day on the tropical resort island.
“This time the entire membership came together. We have put the ‘world’ back in World Trade Organisation,” he said. “We’re back in business...Bali is just the beginning.”
World Trade Organisation reaches $1tn trade deal
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/world-trade-organisation-reaches-1tn-trade-deal-1.1620923World Trade Organisation reaches $1tn trade deal
Sat, Dec 7, 2013, 10:46
The World Trade Organisation reached its first ever trade reform deal today to the roar of approval from nearly 160 ministers who had gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali to decide on the make-or-break agreement that could add $1 trillion to the global economy
The approval came after Cuba dropped a last-gasp threat to veto the package of measures.
“For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered,” WTO chief Roberto Azevedo told exhausted ministers after the talks which had dragged into an extra day on the tropical resort island.
“This time the entire membership came together. We have put the ‘world’ back in World Trade Organisation,” he said. “We’re back in business...Bali is just the beginning.”
December 7, 2013
Hollywood Without the Happy Ending: How the CIA Bungled the War on Terror
Thursday, 05 December 2013 09:50
By Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch | News Analysis
~snip~
Think of it as the CIA’s plunge into Hollywood -- or into the absurd. As recent revelations have made clear, that Agency’s moves couldn’t be have been more far-fetched or more real. In its post-9/11 global shadow war, it has employed both private contractors and some of the world’s most notorious prisoners in ways that leave the latest episode of the Bourne films in the dust: hired gunmen trained to kill as well as former inmates who cashed in on the notoriety of having worn an orange jumpsuit in the world's most infamous jail.
The first group of undercover agents were recruited by private companies from the Army Special Forces and the Navy SEALs and then repurposed to the CIA at handsome salaries averaging around $140,000 a year; the second crew was recruited from the prison cells at Guantanamo Bay and paid out of a secret multimillion dollar slush fund called “the Pledge.”
Last month, the Associated Press revealed that the CIA had selected a few dozen men from among the hundreds of terror suspects being held at Guantanamo and trained them to be double agents at a cluster of eight cottages in a program dubbed "Penny Lane." (Yes, indeed, the name was taken from the Beatles song, as was "Strawberry Fields," a Guantanamo program that involved torturing “high-value” detainees.) These men were then returned to what the Bush administration liked to call the “global battlefield,” where their mission was to befriend members of al-Qaeda and supply targeting information for the Agency’s drone assassination program.
Such a secret double-agent program, while colorful and remarkably unsuccessful, should have surprised no one. After all, plea bargaining or persuading criminals to snitch on their associates -- a tactic frowned upon by international legal experts -- is widely used in the U.S. police and legal system. Over the last year or so, however, a trickle of information about the other secret program has come to light and it opens an astonishing new window into the privatization of U.S. intelligence.
Hollywood Without the Happy Ending: How the CIA Bungled the War on Terror
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/20447-hollywood-without-the-happy-ending-how-the-cia-bungled-the-war-on-terrorHollywood Without the Happy Ending: How the CIA Bungled the War on Terror
Thursday, 05 December 2013 09:50
By Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch | News Analysis
~snip~
Think of it as the CIA’s plunge into Hollywood -- or into the absurd. As recent revelations have made clear, that Agency’s moves couldn’t be have been more far-fetched or more real. In its post-9/11 global shadow war, it has employed both private contractors and some of the world’s most notorious prisoners in ways that leave the latest episode of the Bourne films in the dust: hired gunmen trained to kill as well as former inmates who cashed in on the notoriety of having worn an orange jumpsuit in the world's most infamous jail.
The first group of undercover agents were recruited by private companies from the Army Special Forces and the Navy SEALs and then repurposed to the CIA at handsome salaries averaging around $140,000 a year; the second crew was recruited from the prison cells at Guantanamo Bay and paid out of a secret multimillion dollar slush fund called “the Pledge.”
Last month, the Associated Press revealed that the CIA had selected a few dozen men from among the hundreds of terror suspects being held at Guantanamo and trained them to be double agents at a cluster of eight cottages in a program dubbed "Penny Lane." (Yes, indeed, the name was taken from the Beatles song, as was "Strawberry Fields," a Guantanamo program that involved torturing “high-value” detainees.) These men were then returned to what the Bush administration liked to call the “global battlefield,” where their mission was to befriend members of al-Qaeda and supply targeting information for the Agency’s drone assassination program.
Such a secret double-agent program, while colorful and remarkably unsuccessful, should have surprised no one. After all, plea bargaining or persuading criminals to snitch on their associates -- a tactic frowned upon by international legal experts -- is widely used in the U.S. police and legal system. Over the last year or so, however, a trickle of information about the other secret program has come to light and it opens an astonishing new window into the privatization of U.S. intelligence.
December 7, 2013
Following resolution by Green Party, Snowden to give testimony to European Parliament on NSA mass surveilance
Snowden: Indicted by US, Key Witness for EU
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
Published on Friday, December 6, 2013 by Common Dreams
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower indicted by the United States government, is slated to testify by video to the European Parliament later this month about the mass surveillance of EU citizens.
Jan Philipp Albrecht, German member of the European Parliament, announced Thursday that Snowden will present to the Committee on Legal Affairs possibly as early as December 18, Deutche Welle reports.
Snowden's statement, and his responses to questions provided in advance, will be pre-recorded and shown by video, due to the danger that a live stream could reveal his location, EU Observer reports.
The Green Party of the European Parliament passed a resolution in July calling for Snowden to testify about NSA spying.
Snowden: Indicted by US, Key Witness for EU
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/06-1Following resolution by Green Party, Snowden to give testimony to European Parliament on NSA mass surveilance
Snowden: Indicted by US, Key Witness for EU
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
Published on Friday, December 6, 2013 by Common Dreams
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower indicted by the United States government, is slated to testify by video to the European Parliament later this month about the mass surveillance of EU citizens.
Jan Philipp Albrecht, German member of the European Parliament, announced Thursday that Snowden will present to the Committee on Legal Affairs possibly as early as December 18, Deutche Welle reports.
Snowden's statement, and his responses to questions provided in advance, will be pre-recorded and shown by video, due to the danger that a live stream could reveal his location, EU Observer reports.
The Green Party of the European Parliament passed a resolution in July calling for Snowden to testify about NSA spying.
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