Posted on 12/18/2013 4:43:05 PM PST by kronos77
Russia’s Foreign Minister has compared the way NSA obtains permission for its surveillance with the way Soviet people received sentences in Stalin-era courts.
Sergey Lavrov said the judicial entities which gave permission for NSA surveillance reminded him of “troikas,” or extrajudicial bodies that existed in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge of 1937-38. They consisted of only three people who passed sentences very quickly, based on very scanty evidence.
"Without any control, they just dropped their signatures on inquiries the NSA representatives brought them,” Lavrov said, while speaking Wednesday at Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, Interfax reported.
Sergey Lavrov has spoken of the NSA activity as of “unlimited and uncontrolled” intervention into private lives. “It is necessary to draw a distinctive borderline between what law enforcement agencies really need for carrying out their work, for protecting citizens, and what appears to be intrusion into private life without any limits and control. And it’s exactly the latter, as far as I understand, which took place in the case with the American NSA,” Lavrov said.
Russia’s Foreign Minister reminded of the Monday ruling by a federal court judge in Washington, DC according to which the US’s National Security Agency’s controversial practice of routinely collecting the telephone records of millions of Americans could turn out to be unconstitutional.
Lavrov has promised to lobby for an international condemnation of the practice.
“We are going to press for all members of the OSCE to work out a political commitment to protecting the right to a private life,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
Thanks for noticing, Sergey!
/johnny
Those gulags, summary executions and show trials sure bring back memories of the Soviet Union. Funny how Lenin’s Tomb is still located prominently in the Red Square. Compared to what the Russians wrought upon the world in the 20th century, al Qaeda was a case of the sniffles compared to the Russian bubonic plague.
Impeachment File for the 2014 Impeachment of “B. Hussein Obama,” aka Barry Soetoro, a documented legal citizen of the Sovereign Nation of Indonesia.
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Documentation File for the 2014 Impeachment of John Boehner for Dereliction of Congressional Duty by Speaker Boehner for failure to appoint a Special NSA Investigator.
Many of your boy Putin methods are reminiscent of those used in USSR under Stalin too.
Bah.
This is probably a Russian plot anyway. Up yours Ivan.
Gee, ya think?
Gulag system was dismantled in a period of 1953-1956. They have rarely practiced death penalty ever since. And since about 1970s US always had more prisoners than the entire Soviet Union. Their judicial system has changed dramatically after 1950s numerous times for better. Last major reform was in 2002 and to some extent it brings more legal guaranties than US legal system. For example it is impossible to be charged for trafficing something if either side of your deal is an undercover agent, posing as a dealer. It is considered provocation under Russian law and actually brings LEOs to prison, that is why they are so vocal about Victor Bout case. Wiretapping a person without a court order is a felony there. It may not be used as an evidence to back a charge.
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