US Spy Program Exposed by Snowden Ruled Illegal

In 2013, Edward Snowden exposed a secret program by the US National Security Agency (NSA) that was collecting phone records from millions of Americans, tracking whom they called and when they called them. Seven years later, that program has now been ruled illegal.

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On September 2, a US federal court ruled that the NSA's surveillance program violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The court further said that US intelligence leaders who defended the program had not told the truth.

Until Snowden's leaks were published by The Guardian, officials had publicly said that the NSA never knowingly collected information on Americans. But Snowden, who had been working at the NSA for an external contractor, revealed that there was, in fact, a program that collected and analyzed data from US phone calls. The Guardian described Snowden's revelations as "one of the most significant leaks in US political history."

Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia, and still faces espionage charges if he returns to the US, where he could spend 20 years in jail.

Responding to the court's decision, Snowden wrote on Twitter: "Seven years ago, as the news declared I was being charged as a criminal for speaking the truth, I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA's activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them. And yet that day has arrived."

The American Civil Liberties Union, a prominent US civil rights group, wrote on Twitter that the ruling was "a victory for our privacy rights."

After the NSA program was exposed, US officials had defended it by saying it had helped stop domestic terrorism, citing four people in San Diego who were convicted of funding an extremist group in Somalia. The new ruling will not affect those convictions.

In August this year, President Donald Trump said that he would "take a look" at the possibility of pardoning Snowden. Snowden, now 37, is still in Russia, where he is trying to extend his permit to stay for another three years.

【注释】

revelation

an act of making something known : an act of revealing something in usually a > > surprising way

Espionage
is the activity of finding out the political, military, or industrial secrets of your enemies > or rivals by using spies.

condemn
to say in a strong and definite way that someone or something is bad or wrong

credit
to give honor or recognition to (someone or something) for doing something or for making something happen

prominent
important and well-known

citing
cite 引用 to write or say the words of (a book, author, etc.) : quote

【原文】
US Spy Program Exposed by Snowden Ruled Illegal

Myanmar's Military Takes Power in Coup

On February 1, Myanmar's military staged a coup and detained senior politicians, including Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

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An announcement on military-owned Myawaddy TV said Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. It said the move was necessary because the government had not acted on the military's claims of fraud in November's elections, in which Suu Kyi's ruling party won a majority of seats.

The takeover came the morning the country's new parliamentary session was to begin. The military says its actions are legally justified, citing a section of the constitution that allows it to take control in times of national emergency.

Myanmar had been emerging from decades of strict military rule and international isolation that began in 1962. Suu Kyi had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy, and then became its de facto leader after her National League for Democracy won elections in 2015.

While Suu Kyi had been a fierce opponent of the army while under house arrest, since her release and return to politics, she has had to work with the country's generals, who never fully gave up power.

While the 75-year-old has remained extremely popular at home, Suu Kyi's deference to the generals — going so far as to defend their crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that the US and others have labeled genocide — has severely damaged her international reputation.

The first signs that the military was planning to seize power were reports that Suu Kyi and Win Myint, the country's president, had been detained before dawn.

A spokesman for Suu Kyi's party told online news service The Irrawaddy that members of the party's Central Executive Committee, many of its lawmakers and other senior leaders had also been taken into custody.

Many countries have called for the release of the detained leaders. US President Joe Biden called the military's actions "a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy," and said Washington would not hesitate to reimpose sanctions.

【注释】

staged a coup
a situation when a government is overthrown suddenly, often in a violent way

detained
to officially prevent (someone) from leaving a place : to hold or keep (someone) in a prison or some other place

Commander-in-Chief
总司令

ruling party
执政党

parliamentary session
议会会议

the constitution
宪法

emerging
to become known or regarded as something

house arrest
the condition of being forced to stay in your home rather than in prison as a form of punishment

de facto
existing in fact, although not legally or officially

deference
behaviour that shows that you respect and have considered someone's opinion

crackdown
If people in authority crack down on a group of people, they become stricter in making the group obey rules or laws.

Rohingya Muslims
罗兴亚人是居住于缅甸若开邦阿拉干地区北部的一个回教徒族群，缅甸称其为“孟加拉人”，主要居于近孟加拉国边界的貌夺和布帝洞镇一带。在2016至2017开始的罗兴亚难民危机前，有大约100万罗兴亚人居住在缅甸。根据缅甸现行国籍法，罗兴亚人无法获得公民身份。 2010年代开始，罗兴亚人与缅甸政府的双方冲突再次爆发。

genocide
the murder of a large number of people belonging to a particular national, ethnical, or racial group

The Irrawaddy
《伊洛瓦底》是一个由伊洛瓦底出版集团出版的缅甸新闻杂志，于1992年由缅甸流亡者在泰国创立。它是由在1988年反对军政府的抗议活动中遭到残酷镇压而流亡国外的活动家创立的，它一直与亲民主运动密切联系。

custody
the state of being kept in a prison or jail

assault
a violent physical attack

reimpose
impose (something, especially a law or regulation) again after a lapse

sanction
an official rule that prevents or limits trade with a particular country, usually as a punishment

【原文】
Myanmar's Military Takes Power in Coup