Edward Snowden, former staff member of the U.S. National Security Agency, through the British Guardian on June 6, disclosed that the agency perpetrated such serious human rights abuses as massively gathering information by tapping phone messages and internet usage of Americans.

He produced a directive issued by a U.S. court as evidence. It called for collecting all information about phone calls inside the U.S. and between it and other countries and provide it to the U.S. National Security Council on a daily basis.

Pursuant to this directive, contents of e-mails and phone calls made by millions of Americans have reportedly been gathered by the agency until now since April last.

Earlier, the Chinese Xinhua News said the agency gathered 1.7 billion information pieces about phone callers and netizens every day and among them are even information about family secrets.

This is clear evidence showing the true colors of the U.S. as a criminal state where human rights abuses are organized and legitimatized.

When recalling that U.S. Congress adopted a law on allowing the government to gather information about private matters of people through wiretapping and electronic communication media from long ago, such crimes committed by the agency pursuant to the directive of the said court is nothing surprising.

The U.S. Department of Justice secretly gathered phone calls made by AP and the tax authorities investigated and monitored some suspected persons by the same method. There are too many instances of disclosure of tapping of private messages in the U.S.

What is surprising is the attitude taken by the high-ranking U.S. officials towards the state-sponsored human rights abuses.

On June 7 U.S. President Obama, when interviewed by reporters as regards what the U.S. National Security Agency has done, unblushingly answered that the agency's actions were approved by U.S. Congress and it contributes to combating terrorism.

A senior official of the agency blustered gathering of phone messages serves as an important means to protect the country from the threat of the terrorists.

This clearly indicates the brazen-faced nature of the U.S., which openly justifies the human rights abuses perpetrated under the signboard of "anti-terror" as its policy.

The world people have already branded the "war on terrorism" of the U.S. as an unpardonable crime against humanity as it has mercilessly encroached upon the sovereignty of other countries and nations in a bid to protect the security and interests of the privileged who account for just one percent of the population.

What the U.S. dignitaries uttered is no more than a declaration that it may encroach upon the independent rights of the popular masses if it is for the sake of the interests and security of the privileged.

This is the real picture of the U.S.