The NSA’s posture on collecting your private data: “We collect it all, sniff it all, process it all and exploit it all” (video)

US Secretary of State John Kerry has labelled intelligence leaker Edward Snowden a fugitive from justice who should “man up” and return home. Mr Kerry added that if Mr Snowden, 30, “believes in America, he should trust the American system of justice”.

His comments come in the wake of an interview with NBC in which Mr Snowden said he sought asylum in Russia because the US revoked his passport.

Mr Snowden also described himself as a trained spy, not a low-level analyst.

BBC News 29 May 2014

Kerry’s comments come just days before Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald is due to publish further significant revelations about how the NSA has operated in the collection of private citizens’ electronic data and shortly after the publication of his book “No place to hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the US surveillance state”.

Here is what he had to say when interviewed by Stephen Colbert on 12 May 2014.

Due to copyright restrictions to watch the clip you need to type or copy and paste the password: imincorrigible
Video © Comedy Central

The assault by the NSA and GCHQ on private citizens privacy in the US and the UK is deemed necessary by the spooks because they say it helps to keep us safe from terrorism. However, recent research by The New America Foundation, has found that “NSA bulk surveillance programs have no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism”.