SEARCH AND READ - ACLU opens database of leaked NSA documents

The ACLU has launched its own database of documents leaked by Edward Snowden as well as other disclosures regarding at activities of the NSA. The ACLU says the documents will serve as a primary source for understanding the government's interpretation of its authority under the law.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A new ACLU database will serve as a publicly-accessible repository of up-to-date documents leaked and disclosed by Edward Snowden, the media, and government sources regarding the NSA and government monitoring activities.

A year ago, former NSA contractor and now fugitive, Edward Snowden risked his freedom and his life to release documents to the media that revealed the National Security Agency's spy myriad programs. Those programs were ostensibly targeting foreign intelligence targets however the methods they used to gather data often included a massive "by catch" of domestic traffic.

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Later revelations showed that the NSA had little regard for the privacy of American's data and the Fourth Amendment, sweeping up the records of nearly all Americans without regard. American telecommunications companies were required to hand over volumes of data and back-doors into email servers were routinely exploited.

The NSA also managed to construct and open a facility in Utah which is widely thought to give them real-time monitoring capability.

The executive has long maintained these actions are legal, as certified by a secret court within the department itself.

Despite these claims, the NSA has been caught abusing its monitoring power which seems only to grow. Included in those abuses are tips secretly provided to the IRS and law enforcement agencies, against the rule of law. In at least one case, the IRS falsified documents before a court to conceal the source of their information on the suspect of an audit.

In other cases, individual agents have been accused of using the power of the agency to spy on love interests and to possibly harass others.

The ACLU says the documents regarding NSA activity should have never been secret in the first place. Critics also say there is no evidence the massive NSA programs have made Americans safer or stopped even a single terror attack. Instead, it's about power, according to Edward Snowden.

You can search the database here.

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