Edward Snowden appears via video at Toronto debate

 

AP A file image (made from video) of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Edward Snowden, the former U.S. intelligence contractor who has been leaking information about government data collection programs, says entire populations, rather than just individuals, now live under constant surveillance.

Mr. Snowden appeared via video link at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall during a Munk Debate about state surveillance on Friday night.

Former U.S. National Security Administration director General Michael Hayden and well-known civil liberties lawyer and Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz, argued in favour of the debate statement — “Be it resolved state surveillance is a legitimate defence of our freedoms.”

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist whose work based on the Mr. Snowden leaks won a Pulitzer Prize last month and Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of social media website reddit, were in opposition.

The debate ended with 59 percent of the audience siding with Mr. Greenwald and Mr. Ohanian.

Treason case: Farogh Naseem appears on behalf of Musharraf today

ISLAMABAD: Barrister Farogh Naseem has been appointed as the new counsel of the former president Pervez Musharraf being tried by the special court in treason case on Monday here, Geo News reported.

Sources said that the team of Pervez Musharraf’s counsels having taken the stand that they do not recognize this special court as it was dissolved after Justice Faisal Arab had declined to further hear this case during the previous hearing, Barrister Farogh Naseem hurriedly filed his power of attorney to represent Pervez Musharraf today.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here said that All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) leader and a member of Pervez Musharraf’s team of counsels, Ahmad Raza Kasuri has been stopped from entering the premises of the court by the security men on the pretext that as the hearing has already started, no one would be allowed to enter the court premises for security reasons until the proceeding continues.