NSA Spy Program Legal: Judge Says Program Is Terrorism 'Counter Punch'

The National Security Agency's data collection program has been ruled legal by a New York judge. The ruling rejects the challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union that the program, which monitered the telephone calls of millions of Americans, was unlawful and unconstitutional. US District Judge William Pauley ruled on Friday that the NSA program "represents the government's counter-punch" to eliminate terrorism and that the program's lawfulness "is ultimately a question of reasonableness".

The decision came in the form of a 54-page document which explained that the NSA's surveillance program was used exclusively for the investigation and prevention of terrorist activities. Judge Pauley furthermore concluded that the NSA programme could have prevented the attacks on September 11. "The government learned from its mistake and adapted to confront a new enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the world,'' Pauley wrote.

The ruling contradicts the December 17th ruling by a US District Court which found that the NSA's program directly violated the 4th ammendment rights of US citizens. The NSA's complex surveillance program, leaked by former analyst Edward Snowden this year, included data collection across the US and around the world.

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