The United States Senate voted 67 to 32 to replace the controversial Patriot Act with the Freedom Act, a measure that was then immediately signed into law by President Obama. The new law eliminates Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which means that the National Security Agency will no longer be able to keep the telephone records of United States citizens. This will now be done by the telephone companies. The new law does allow the NSA to keep all the electronic communications, such as e-mails. This is seen as a victory for Edward Snowden and a victory for all the institutions that defend civil liberties and citizen privacy. Republicans who wanted to keep the Patriot Act as it was, say that the new law compromises national security. Jorge Gestoso reports from Washington for teleSUR.
