An unusual coalition of U.S. political advocacy and religious groups has filed suit contesting the legality of the government's surveillance of Americans' telephone records.The coalition, represented by a digital rights advocacy group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation, filed the lawsuit Tuesday. It claimed that the spying by the country's clandestine National Security Agency is "an illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet electronic surveillance."
The lawsuit is the sixth filed against the government seeking to end its vast collection of telephone and Internet records in the aftermath of former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaking details of two secret NSA surveillance programs last month. The NSA collects what it calls "metadata" about the phone calls -- the phone numbers Americans are calling and the length of the calls.
The 30-year-old Snowden fled first to Hong Kong, and then, after the United States accused him of espionage, flew to Russia. He is now encamped for a fourth week in a transit zone of a Moscow airport.
Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena says Snowden applied Tuesday for temporary asylum in Russia, even though he still wants to eventually travel to Latin America, where leftist governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered him asylum. But Snowden is blocked from leaving Moscow as the U.S. has revoked his passport.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he does not know how the fugitive's case will play out. He said the U.S. "frightened other countries" into not accepting Snowden.
Mr. Putin said Snowden's case is "in limbo right now," but that he expects he will leave for another country "as soon as he has an opportunity to move elsewhere."
The Russian leader has rejected the U.S. request to extradite Snowden to stand trial on the espionage charges. But with Snowden seeking Russian asylum, Washington renewed its bid for his return.
The White House said Snowden is not a human rights activist or dissident, and that he is accused in the "leaking of classified information."
"How should I know? (laughs) It's his life and his fate. He arrived in our territory without invitation. We haven't invited him. He wasn't actually flying towards us, he was travelling to other countries as a transit passenger. But as soon as he was airborne and this became known, our American partners had basically blocked his further movement. They frightened other countries. Nobody wants to receive him. So they have blocked him in our territory themselves. Initially we told him - you can stay if you want, but you must stop your political activities. We have certain relations with the United States and we do not want your activities to damage our relations with the U.S. He said no. You are laughing, but I am being serious. He said he wanted to continue his activities, he wanted to fight for human rights and he thought that the U.S. violated certain norms of international law and interfered in private lives, and his goal was to fight that. We said: do so, but without us. We have other things to fight. It is in limbo right now, but as soon as he has an opportunity to move elsewhere he will certainly do so. He knows the terms of granting political asylum and, judging from his latest statements, he is changing his position, but the situation is not completely clear yet."
The lawsuit is the sixth filed against the government seeking to end its vast collection of telephone and Internet records in the aftermath of former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaking details of two secret NSA surveillance programs last month. The NSA collects what it calls "metadata" about the phone calls -- the phone numbers Americans are calling and the length of the calls.
The 30-year-old Snowden fled first to Hong Kong, and then, after the United States accused him of espionage, flew to Russia. He is now encamped for a fourth week in a transit zone of a Moscow airport.
Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena says Snowden applied Tuesday for temporary asylum in Russia, even though he still wants to eventually travel to Latin America, where leftist governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered him asylum. But Snowden is blocked from leaving Moscow as the U.S. has revoked his passport.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he does not know how the fugitive's case will play out. He said the U.S. "frightened other countries" into not accepting Snowden.
Mr. Putin said Snowden's case is "in limbo right now," but that he expects he will leave for another country "as soon as he has an opportunity to move elsewhere."
The Russian leader has rejected the U.S. request to extradite Snowden to stand trial on the espionage charges. But with Snowden seeking Russian asylum, Washington renewed its bid for his return.
The White House said Snowden is not a human rights activist or dissident, and that he is accused in the "leaking of classified information."
"How should I know? (laughs) It's his life and his fate. He arrived in our territory without invitation. We haven't invited him. He wasn't actually flying towards us, he was travelling to other countries as a transit passenger. But as soon as he was airborne and this became known, our American partners had basically blocked his further movement. They frightened other countries. Nobody wants to receive him. So they have blocked him in our territory themselves. Initially we told him - you can stay if you want, but you must stop your political activities. We have certain relations with the United States and we do not want your activities to damage our relations with the U.S. He said no. You are laughing, but I am being serious. He said he wanted to continue his activities, he wanted to fight for human rights and he thought that the U.S. violated certain norms of international law and interfered in private lives, and his goal was to fight that. We said: do so, but without us. We have other things to fight. It is in limbo right now, but as soon as he has an opportunity to move elsewhere he will certainly do so. He knows the terms of granting political asylum and, judging from his latest statements, he is changing his position, but the situation is not completely clear yet."