Protesters call for end to US spying

Demonstrators holding signs supporting fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as they gather for the “Stop watching us: a rally against mass surveillance” near the US Capitol in Washington yesterday.

AFP

Washington

Several thousand protesters gathered yesterday in Washington to demand a new American law limiting the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programmes seen as encroaching on private life.

The protest comes amid a widening scandal revealing sweeping US surveillance on the communications of ordinary citizens and global leaders that has sparked outrage worldwide.

Exactly 12 years to the day after Congress passed the Patriot Act to expand anti-terror intelligence gathering in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the protesters called for an end to “mass spying”.

“Hey hey, ho ho, the NSA has got to go,” chanted the protesters, estimated to number 4,500 people according to organisers.

To cries of “stop secret government, stop US spying, stop lying”, the demonstrators brandished banners reading “stop watching us” under the windows of the US Capitol that houses Congress.

They handed to Congress an online petition signed by 575,000 people urging lawmakers to “reveal the full extent of the NSA’s spying programmes”.

The agency has been under fire by critics since fugitive leaker Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s vast snooping on Internet searches and telephone records of millions of Americans and top world leaders, including from stalwart allies France and Germany.  Pages 19, 32