Edward Snowden NSA Scandal: 'Agency Out of Control and Violates Constitution'

An American journalist has accused the NSA of "violating the US constitution" and claimed President Barack Obama is allowing it do so.

Rob Kall, executive editor at OpEdNews.com, told Press TV that the NSA is engaged in activities that are illegal and is "out of control".

"The NSA is also totally controlled by the executive branch, or so we're supposed to believe, either way we have a problem," Kall told the channel.

"We have an agency that is violating the constitution and is offending our friends all over the world. It is clear that the people who run the NSA don't care about the constitution. They have repeatedly and aggressively violated the law."

'Obama is Part of the Problem'

He blamed the Obama administration for the mismanagement of the agency, adding that the president is not going to shut down or change the practices at the NSA.

"Obama is not going to shut down the NSA, it's his tool, he's using it. Obama is part of the problem, a big part of the problem," Kall said.

Earlier, author and radio host Stephen Lendman told Press TV in an interview that Obama is not going to reform the agency's surveillance.

"Obama is a serial liar - he hardened, he intensified NSA spying during his first term; he wants nothing to do with messing with what's already in place," Lendman said.

Furthermore, he accused the top officials at the agency for hiding matters from the US Congress.

"Many of the leaders at the top of the intelligence system have lied to Congress and every one of them should be terminated from their jobs and jailed for lying to Congress," Kall said.

The NSA has been widely criticised over its surveillance programme that spied on politicians, bureaucrats, and businesses across the world via phone calls and internet activity.

The revelations about the NSA surveillance came from top-secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden, a former contractor at the agency, who is currently in exile in Russia.

Monitory People without Criminal Background

The Guardian newspaper, which broke the news for the first time, reported on 30 September that the NSA obtains and keeps information on innocent American citizens accumulated off the Internet without ever issuing a search warrant or opening an investigation into that person.

The information is obtained using a programme codenamed Marina, according to the leaked documents obtained by the newspaper. The programme "tracks a user's browser experience, gathers contact information/content and develops summaries of target."

According to earlier disclosures, the massive amount of metadata collected by the NSA through its snooping activities is used to create complex graphs of social connections for foreign intelligence purposes.