Microsoft Pens 'Unusually Dramatic' Letter on PRISM

Brad Smith tells Eric Holder 'the Constitution is suffering'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 17, 2013 1:05 PM CDT
Microsoft Pens 'Unusually Dramatic' Letter on PRISM
Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith in 2007.   (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Add Microsoft's general counsel to the list of people not happy about PRISM and other government surveillance programs. Brad Smith wrote a letter to Eric Holder yesterday—a letter Business Insider calls "unusually dramatic" in its tone—asking the attorney general to convince President Obama that he should be more open with the public about the program, or at least allow Microsoft to be more open. The lack of openness thus far goes against the principles of the Constitution, Smith writes.

"The Constitution itself is suffering, and it will take the personal involvement of you or the President to set things right," Smith writes. In a blog post expanding upon the letter, he adds: "We believe the US Constitution guarantees our freedom to share more information with the public, yet the Government is stopping us. ... The United States has been a role model by guaranteeing a Constitutional right to free speech. We want to exercise that right. With US Government lawyers stopping us from sharing more information with the public, we need the Attorney General to uphold the Constitution." (More PRISM stories.)

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