14 DAY TRIAL // Edward Snowden suggested during his testimony in front of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that there was a need for new laws to constrict the powers of the intelligence community.
Wondering why there’s a need for new rules when old ones are already instated, one member of the Assembly addressed this question to Snowden.
In his reply, Edward Snowden said that while that might be true, it was also a fact that the NSA, for instance, had over 100 lawyers that were asked to reinvent definitions of the words used in old laws, so that they could find loopholes that allowed them to continue doing what they had been doing.
Hansjörg Geiger, former head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, said that the world needed a common code for intelligence services that would put an end to unfettered mass surveillance practices. If the countries would not comply with the code of conduct, they should be accused of wrongful doings by their allies and friends.
Snowden said during his intervention that there were currently no laws in place to stop the NSA from engaging in mass surveillance.
The testimony in front of PACE has been awaited for many months.