It looks as though Mr. Snowden's allegations are headed for the US Supreme Court.

Is al-Qaeda still real or has it become a catch phrase for the excuse of snooping? See, if I were al-Qaeda and hiding from detection as we know bin Laden was, why would the organization continue to operate under the same name? Are there card carrying members? Or is al-Qaeda a designation now by some arbitrary classification by The West? Do they have to have attended training camps or is anyone suspected as a potential threat to Western civilization considered al Qaeda?

This is also New York so did anyone expect a different ruling? What is astounding to me is how a US District Judge can lump metadata into the same category of al-Qaeda. There is something profoundly "W"rong with that. In this judge's mind there is no difference between billions and billions of data taken from Americans and Europeans and elsewhere and the idea there is information about al-Qaeda in there. That is a hideous idea. It is looking for a needle in a haystack and the stack keeps getting bigger and bigger all the time.

There is something very "W"rong about that thinking. A District Judge doesn't see the danger of innocent people in all that? Beyond his imagination that the US government will make a mistake. Wow. That is victimization. That is the issue with the NSA, they are ACTIVELY victimizing all those they collect data from. People don't feel safe and it is because of the NSA. People are CURRENTLY victimized by this operation within the NSA. NOW. TODAY. THIS VERY MINUTE. People, millions of people are victimized and feeling unsafe by their own government. That should mean something. Obama needs to stop making excuses for the practice. 

This data supposedly is COMING INTO the USA traffic. Well, then we need strong alliances with other nations seeking end violence in the civilized world. Threatening people with their own words and actions collected by the NSA is not the way to do this.

THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

New York District Judge William Pauley (click here) said the snooping was a "counter-punch" against al-Qaeda.

He said the National Security Agency (NSA) programme might even have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

Last week a Washington DC federal judge said the surveillance was "likely unconstitutional" and "Orwellian".

But in Friday's decision, Judge Pauley, of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, said "the balance of equities and the public interest tilt firmly in favour of the Government's position"...