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Washington (CNN) -- Republican opponents of White House-backed legislation that would rein in NSA surveillance programs narrowly blocked the Senate from taking up the bill Tuesday after warning it could help terrorists escape detection.

On a tally of 58 to 42, a procedural vote failed to get the supermajority 60 votes it needed to advance.

Supporters of the USA Freedom Act, a rare mix of liberal Democrats and libertarian Republicans, hoped public outrage over the secret mass collection of phone and Internet records -- revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden -- would lead to passage of the reforms. But many opponents argued the changes would hamper the National Security Agency's ability to track nimble and elusive terrorists.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell led the charge against the bill, saying the new rules would prevent the United States from capturing the terrorists who killed Peter Kassig, a U.S. citizen doing aid work in Syria. Kassig was executed over the weekend.

"Many of these fighters are familiar with America's intelligence capabilities, and many are savvy with communications. These are terrorists who know how to use encryption, and they how to change devices quickly," he said. "This is the worst time to be tying our hands behind our backs."

"It basically takes us back to a pre-9/11 lack of capacity to identify terrorists making telephone calls in the United States, said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican. "I think that sort of unilateral disarmament would be bad for the country."

McConnell also argued the measure should be debated and voted on in the new Congress next year, not by lawmakers in a lame duck session who are leaving Washington.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the bill's principal author, disputed the critics saying that while it puts checks on the NSA's powerful capabilities, it "does so responsibly."

"The bill contains key reforms to safeguard Americans' privacy by prohibiting the indiscriminate collection of their data. It also provides for greater accountability and transparency of the government's surveillance programs," he said. "The bill also ensures that the intelligence community has the tools it needs to keep our country safe."

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Senate blocks NSA surveillance curb

Exclusive: Top NSA Surveillance Official Is A Multi-Millionaire

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Exclusive: Top NSA Surveillance Official Is A Multi-Millionaire - Video

Tech Giants Provide "FULL ASSISTANCE" in NSA Spying Program
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Geoffrey Stone on the NSA
How can the United States government protect our national security and advance our foreign policy while also respecting our commitment to privacy and civil liberties? After the leaks by Chelsea...

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Rep. Sensenbrenner on the USA Freedom Act: Making the NSA More Transparent and Accountable
Learn more at: http://madison.opengovfoundation.org/USA-Freedom-Act-ih On November 19, 2013 Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) delivered remarks at Georgetown University Law School on his ...

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Rep. Sensenbrenner on the USA Freedom Act: Making the NSA More Transparent and Accountable - Video

WASHINGTON The Senate on Tuesday blocked a bill to end bulk collection of Americans' phone records by the National Security Agency, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama's primary proposal to rein in domestic surveillance.

The 58-42 vote was two short of the 60 needed to proceed with debate under Senate procedural rules. Voting was largely along party lines, with most Democrats supporting the bill and most Republicans voting against it. The Republican-controlled House had previously passed its ownNSAbill.

The legislation would have ended theNSA'scollection of domestic calling records, instead requiring the agency to obtain a court order each time it wanted to analyze the records in terrorism cases, and query records held by the telephone companies. In many cases the companies store the records for 18 months.

The revelation that the spying agency had been collecting and storing domestic phone records since shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was among the most significant by Edward Snowden, a former agency network administrator who turned over secretNSAdocuments to journalists. The agency collects only so-called metadata numbers called, not names and not the content of conversations. But the specter of the intelligence agency holding domestic calling records was deeply disquieting to many Americans.

The bill had drawn support from technology companies and civil liberties activists. Its failure means there has been little in the way of policy changes as a result of Snowden's disclosures.

Pressured to act, Obama in January proposed curbing theNSA's authority and the House in May passed a bill to do so. While the measure was pending, theNSAcontinued to collect American landline calling records, though the program does not cover most mobile phone records.

The law authorizing the bulk collection, a provision of the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, will expire at the end of 2015. That means Congress would have to pass legislation re-authorizing the program for it to continue.

For that reason, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, abandoned her previous opposition to the bill. "If we do not pass the bill, we will lose this program," Feinstein said on the Senate floor.

"This bill increases trust and confidence and credibility of our intelligence system," said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

But Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, called the bill "totally flawed" and said theNSAneeds the ability to sift through domestic calling records and hold the records. "We have under surveillance any number of Americans who are committed to jihad," Chambliss said.

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Senate Republicans block bill: NSA will continue monitoring your calls

Senate lawmakers working to reform NSA surveillance were struck a fatal blow tonight when a critical bill that would have curbed some of the spy agencys controversial activity failed to obtain enough votes.

In one of their last acts before the year sunsets, pro-reform Senators attempted to advance the USA FREEDOM Act but failed by just two votes to obtain the 60 votes needed to move the bill forward.

Democrats, who maintain the majority in the Senate, were eager to push the bill through during the end-of-year session before Republicans assume the majority position next year. Civil liberties groups, which support reforms currently laid out in the bill, considered tonights vote the last-gasp chance for the bill to move forward before some of its staunchest supporters hand over seats lost in the November elections.

The bill would have put an end to the governments controversial bulk collection of phone records from U.S. telecomsa program first uncovered by USA Today in 2006 but re-exposed in 2013 in leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The bill would instead have kept records in the hands of telecoms and forced the NSA to obtain court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gain access to them. It would also have required the agency to use specific search terms to narrow its access to only relevant records.

Additionally, the bill would have allowed service providers more transparency in disclosing to the public the number and types of requests they receive from the government for customer data. The government in turn would have had to be more transparent about the number of Americans caught up in its data searches. The NSA has said in the past that it has no idea how many Americans are caught up in national security collection efforts that target foreign suspects.

But lawmakers unhappy with the bill feared letting it get even that far, saying the USA FREEDOM Act would handicap the NSA and allow terrorist groups to prosper. Former NSA and CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey called it the kind of NSA Reform That Only ISIS Could Love, referring to the militant group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that has terrorized parts of the Middle East.

The White House, however, supported the bill, saying it balanced the need for surveillance while still preserving the constitutional protections of Americans. Attorney General Eric Holder and even the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper both have expressed support for it.

The bulk-records collection program still faces problems next summer when Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act are scheduled to expire. The government has used Section 215 to authorize collection of the records, and reformers in the Senate and House have vowed to fight re-authorization of this and other sections of the Act next year and let them expire. They had hoped, however, in passing USA FREEDOM Act, to put an end to some of those powers now.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D California), a supporter of the bulk-records collection program, initially opposed the USA FREEDOM Act but changed her mind out of fear that if the Senate didnt pass this bill allowing a revised version of collection program to continue the program was at risk of being cancelled entirely next year if Section 215 is allowed to expire next year. She viewed the compromise offered under the USA FREEDOM Act preferable to the alternative.

I do not want to end the program, she told her fellow lawmakers today. Im prepared to make the compromise, which is that the metadata will be kept by the telecoms.

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Critical NSA Reform Bill Fails in the Senate

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly defeated a bill designed to overhaul the National Security Agency by halting the collection of phone records of Americans who are not suspected of a crime.

The bill was two votes shy of getting the 60 it needed to pass the USA Freedom Act.

Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., supported the defeat of the bill.

"This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs," he said prior to the Tuesday vote.

Under the potential legislation, the NSA would not have been able to collect phone records of Americans not suspected of a crime. Instead, phone companies would hold on to the records only as long as they currently do under the normal course of business.

The USA Freedom Act isn't likely to pass the next time Congress convenes now that Republicans have control of both houses. It is likely to come up for debate though, as part of discussions about parts of the Patriot Act anti-terrorism law, which are set to expire in June.

The NSA came under fire in 2013 after former CIA worker Edward Snowden leaked classified information about the agency's widespread practice of collecting phone records.

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NSA reform bill dies in the Senate

Senate Republicans rose to the defense of the National Security Agency on Tuesday by filibustering a bill that would have halted the agencys phone-snooping program, saying it is now more critical than ever amid advancing terrorism in the Middle East and fears of homegrown terrorism in the U.S.

The vote, in which 41 Republicans and one Democrat banded together for the filibuster, leaves the most controversial part of the Patriot Act in place.

It also ends efforts to rein in the NSA program for the foreseeable future because Republicans will take control of the chamber early next year and are unlikely to revisit the issue.

This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs, said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who pointed to the advance of Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria. The threat from ISIL is real. Its different from what weve faced before. And if were going to overcome it if our aim is to degrade and destroy ISIL, as the president has said then thats going to require smart policies and firm determination.

Pressure will now build on President Obama to make changes on his own. He has put some limits on the NSA, but asked Congress for guidance and said he strongly supported the legislation the Republicans defeated.

Still, the NSAs snooping days may be numbered. The controversial sections of the Patriot Act are up for renewal next year, and unless Congress can reach an agreement, those powers will expire.

Tuesdays vote was a blow for privacy advocates, who won overwhelming support in the House this year for a bill that dramatically curtailed NSA snooping and other bulk-records collection by the government.

The advocates tried to build a similar conservative-liberal coalition in the Senate, but most Republicans balked.

Tonight, Senate Republicans have failed to answer the call of the American people who elected them, and all of us, to stand up and to work across the aisle, said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who pressed for the vote, fearing GOP infighting would doom chances for a bill next year.

Mr. Leahy accused Republicans of scare tactics to try to preserve the Patriot Act authority.

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NSA phone snooping upheld by Senate Republicans' filibuster

Legislation to keep most Americans' phone records out of government hands was defeated in the Senate, dooming for now prospects of national security reforms that supporters said would protect the privacy of law-abiding citizens.

A motion failed Tuesday to get the necessary 60 votes needed to cut off debate on the bill sponsored by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), with most Republicans voting against. The final vote was 58 to 42.

One of its most outspoken foes was incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said stopping the National Security Agency from collecting telephone dialing records "would end one of our nation's critical capabilities to gather significant intelligence on terrorist threats."

Citing the recent beheadings of U.S. citizens in Syria, McConnell said: "This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced just before the vote that she strongly supported the bill, dubbed the USA Freedom Act. Feinstein's support had been in doubt.

"I supported the USA Freedom Act because it may be the best opportunity to reform the metadata collection program while maintaining the government's ability to use this tool to prevent terrorist attacks at home and abroad," she said.

Born of Edward Snowden's revelations that the NSA was secretly archiving data from nearly every telephone call made in the United States, the Leahy bill would have required the NSA to request such records from telephone companies rather than collect and store the information itself.

Except in emergencies, U.S. intelligence agencies and the FBI would have had to seek approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to access and use the data, and only in cases involving suspected terrorism or espionage. A similar procedure is used now to access the NSA database, but critics said the current system is open to abuse.

"The bill contains key reforms to safeguard Americans' privacy by prohibiting the indiscriminate collection of their data," Leahy said. "It also provides for greater accountability and transparency of the government's surveillance programs."

At issue are telephone company records of customers and the phone numbers they have dialed, including date, time and duration of calls, but not the conversations themselves.

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NSA surveillance bill defeated in Senate

FILE: An aerial view of the NSA's Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah.(AP)

The Senate on Tuesday blocked a bill to end bulk collection of American phone records by the National Security Agency, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama's primary proposal to rein in domestic surveillance.

The 58-42 vote was two short of the 60 needed to proceed with debate. Voting was largely along party lines, with most Democrats supporting the bill and most Republicans voting against it. The Republican-controlled House had previously passed its own NSA bill.

The legislation would have ended the NSA's collection of domestic calling records, instead requiring the agency to obtain a court order each time it wanted to analyze the records in terrorism cases, and query records held by the telephone companies. In many cases the companies store the records for 18 months.

The revelation that the spying agency had been collecting and storing domestic phone records since shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was among the most significant by Edward Snowden, a former agency network administrator who turned over secret NSA documents to journalists. The agency collects only so-called metadata numbers called, not names and not the content of conversations. But the specter of the intelligence agency holding domestic calling records was deeply disquieting to many Americans.

The bill had drawn support from technology companies and civil liberties activists. Its failure means there has been little in the way of policy changes as a result of Snowden's disclosures.

Pressured to act, Obama in January proposed curbing the NSA's authority and the House in May passed a bill to do so. While the measure was pending, the NSA continued to collect American landline calling records, though the program does not cover most mobile phone records.

The law authorizing the bulk collection, a provision of the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, will expire at the end of 2015. That means Congress would have to pass legislation re-authorizing the program for it to continue.

For that reason, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, abandoned her previous opposition to the bill. "If we do not pass the bill, we will lose this program," Feinstein said on the Senate floor.

"This bill increases trust and confidence and credibility of our intelligence system," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

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Key GOP senators oppose NSA phone records measure

The U.S. Senate has voted against a bill that would rein in the National Security Agencys bulk collection of telephone records within the country, possibly killing any NSA reforms until next year.

Supporters of the USA Freedom Act, in a Senate vote late Tuesday, failed to get the 60 votes needed to end debate and move toward a final vote on the legislation. Fifty-eight senators voted to end debate, while 42 voted against it.

While supporters said the legislation is needed to restore public trust in U.S. intelligence services, opponents said the NSAs widespread collection of U.S. phone records is needed to keep the country safe from terrorism.

The legislation, sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, would have gutted the NSA phone records collection program at a time when the U.S. faces major threats from homegrown terrorists, said Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican. If the U.S. has another terrorist attack, the first question we will be asked is, why didnt we know about it, and why didnt we prevent it? he said.

Supporters cannot cite a single example of this program ever being abused, Rubio said. We are dealing with a theoretical [privacy] threat.

Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, countered that the bill is needed to restore confidence in U.S. intelligence gathering services, after the public learned about widespread surveillance programs through leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The public is concerned that the NSA had been collecting and storing enormous amounts of information about American citizens, he said. The data collection at issue was not limited to those suspected of terrorist activity.

Leahy criticized opponents of the bill for using scare tactics to defeat the legislation. He promised to keep fighting for NSA reforms.

The bill had support from President Barack Obamas administration and a wide range of U.S. tech companies and civil rights groups.

The Senate bill would require the NSA to use specific targeting terms when collecting U.S. telephone records, and would require the government to issue reports on the number of people targeted in surveillance programs.

It would give communications providers options for how to report the number of surveillance requests they receive, and require the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to appoint a panel of advocates to argue in support of individual privacy and civil liberties during consideration of surveillance requests.

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US Senate fails to move forward on NSA reform bill

A bill to limit the National Security Agencys surveillance has failed in a night vote by the U.S. Senate. The USA Freedom Act, created in the wake of Edward Snowdens NSA revelations, was unable to garner the minimum 60 votes to move forward. The final result was 58-42 against.

It was the first attempt at reining in the NSA during the post 9/11 era. Its failure means the agency will continue to have access to U.S. citizens phone records, despite support for the bill from the House of Representatives, the White House and even the NSA.

Tech companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo also supported the bill.

In addition to stopping the mass collection of phone records, the bill would have forced the government to disclose the number of people whose data had been collected and if they were American or not. It also would have created a panel of advocates for privacy and civil liberties in the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Court that would have ruled if law enforcement officials could spy or not.

For detractors of the bill, the victory is merely part one of a bigger fight to retain powers for data-collecting national security agencies. On June 1, 2015, section 215 of the Patriot Act will expire, which will curtail the NSAs legal ability to continue its data collection.

Its unclear whether Congress will reauthorize Section 215.

Tuesday nights vote to retain the status quo is an indication Section 215 may be in the balance, especially given that the House passed the Freedom Act in May.

In a fierce yet short debate prior to the vote, senators gave their thoughts on the act.

"This is theworst possible timeto be tying our hands behind our backs," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The substance of this bill is totally flawed, said Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. Fellow Republican from Indiana Dan Coats asked: Why do we have to rush this through in a lame-duck session? Id urge my colleagues to think through something that were going to regret later.

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NSA Surveillance To Continue: Senate Votes Against USA Freedom Act

LA BODA DE GABY MENA Y CRISTIAN - NSA ESTUVO PRESENTE EN LA FIESTA
LA BODA DE GABY MENA Y CRISTIAN - NSA ESTUVO PRESENTE EN LA FIESTA.

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Jacob Appelbaum - One Hour Of The Best Interviews and Talks - Tor, NSA, Mass Surveillance
Jacob Appelbaum - One Hour Of The Best Interviews and Talks - Tor, NSA, Mass Surveillance In this video we see a compilation of Jacob Appelbaum interviews. Jacob Appelbaum is lead developer...

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Jacob Appelbaum - One Hour Of The Best Interviews and Talks - Tor, NSA, Mass Surveillance - Video

Capt. Dexter Matthews NSA Panama City Fire Department @ Marina Cantina PCB, Fl.
Capnhollywood singing Karaoke Sara Smile at Marina Cantina in Panama City, Florida Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message:

By: Dexter Matthews capnhollywood@gmail.com Date:...

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NSA Surveillance Network in Sweden
Look what we found on the WLAN Network close to Olivedal in Gothenburg, Sweden ... November 2014. This has obviously happened before, read some here: ...

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NSA Surveillance Network in Sweden - Video

As a lame-duck member of Congress, the Coloradan has the unique ability to expose CIA and NSA lawbreakingwithout breaking the law himself.

Rick Wilking/Reuters

When Mark Udall lost his Senate seat in the midterm elections, civil libertarians familiar with his efforts to inform Americans about the CIA and NSA had the same thought: Before leaving office, the Colorado Democrat should tell the public about the abuses the government is trying to hide. National-security officials are able to violate the Constitution and various statutes with impunity in large part because they classify their misbehavior as a state secret. It's a neat trick. To expose their lawbreaking, one must first break the law.

But there is a check on this unscrupulous trick.

Members of Congress can reveal classified information in their capacity as legislators without facing legal consequences. As the U.S. Constitution puts it, "The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place."

This "Speech or Debate Clause" was most famously invoked in 1971, when Senator Mike Gravel called a late-night subcommittee meeting and entered the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record, liberating them for the public and thwarting executive-branch officials who insisted that they should be suppressed.

Today, it's CIA torture and mass surveillance of innocent people that the executive branch wants to hide. It's beyond dispute that Bush administration interrogation tactics were illegal, as is the fact, documented in FISA Court opinions, that the NSA knowingly violated the Fourth Amendment on many occasions. Yet there is a lot about torture and surveillance that Americans still don't know.

Using the Speech or Debate privilege to reveal abuses could be costly for a sitting senator, who'd risk being stripped of his or her clearance to see classified information or even expelled from the Senate for violating its rules. Udall is a lame duck, so his calculus is simpler. He only needs to ask himself what is right. What fulfills his obligations to his constituents, his country, and the oath of office he took to support and defend the Constitution? Preserving his ability to fight for civil liberties another day is no longer an option.

That frame is clarifying: He is now obligated to speak out. I do not reach that conclusion lightly. As a general rule, I believe legislators should be wary of revealing classified information, but the abuses being covered up are clear, radical and corrosive to a democratic society. Consider the details of the torture issue alone:

Until and unless the report is released, the prevailing narrative on torture will remain influenced by the misleading propaganda of torture proponents, increasing the chance that the U.S. will adopt immoral, ineffective, illegal interrogation techniques in a future war or national emergency.

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The State Secrets That Senator Mark Udall Should Reveal

Technology companies lobby Senate to pass USA Freedom Act to curb NSA surveillance powers and enhance transparency disclosures. Photograph: Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images

A coalition of technology and internet companies is lobbying to curb US National Security Agency surveillance powers and for more transparency on government data requests.

The Reform Government Surveillance coalition, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Apple, added its support for the race to pass a bill through the US Senate before the end of the year, which would inhibit mass data collection from emails and internet metadata.

The Senate has an opportunity this week to vote on the bipartisan USA Freedom Act, said the coalition in an open letter sent to the Senate. We urge you to pass the bill, which both protects national security and reaffirms Americas commitment to the freedoms we all cherish.

The bill would also allow technology companies to disclose the number and types of data demands from government as part of the continued transparency push from the industry.

If the USA Freedom Act fails to pass through the Senate before the end of the year the process will have to restart in January, and will be scrutinised by a new Congress controlled a Republican party more favourable to government surveillance.

The USA Freedom Act was passed through the House of Representatives in May with bipartisan support and is now set for a vote in the Senate after Nevada Democrat and Senate majority leader Harry Reid filed a procedural motion to have the bill heard.

Privacy advocates and technology groups championed the bill originally but many revoked their support after compromises expanded the definition of what data the government can collect.

The Senate vote on 18 November will allow debate on amendments to begin on the bill, although whether enough senators will vote in favour is unknown.

Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents hundreds of technology companies globally and hosts the largest electronics trade show in the world International CES, wrote an open letter urging support for the bill.

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Facebook, Google and Apple lobby for curb to NSA surveillance

Shailene Woodley in talks to play Lindsay Mills, the girlfriend of Edward Snowden. Photograph: C Flanigan/FilmMagic

Shailene Woodley is in talks to play Edward Snowdens girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, in Oliver Stones upcoming film about the NSA whistleblower, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The star of blockbuster dystopian sci-fi saga Divergent and hit weepie romance The Fault in Our Stars is tipped to appear opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has already signed up to portray Snowden. Stones biopic is based on Guardian journalist Luke Hardings book The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the Worlds Most Wanted Man, as well as Time of the Octopus, an upcoming novel from Snowdens lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, which is based on her experiences working with the whistleblower in Russia.

The mystery of Mills whereabouts was resolved via a documentary on Snowden, Citizenfour, that premiered in New York last month. Laura Poitrass film revealed the one-time dancer has been living with her boyfriend in Moscow since July. The revelation torpedoed the impression regularly recycled in the media of a woman abandoned in the wake of the biggest leak in US intelligence history. Reports suggested Mills had fled Hawaii, where the couple had been living prior to the NSA revelations, in a fit of pique following Snowdens departure for Hong Kong, and eventually Russia. It was thought the dancer and blogger went to stay with her parents in the US mainland.

But Snowden hinted to the Guardian that the two were not in fact estranged during an interview in July and later revealed that the pair had reconciled. Now Stones film promises to reveal what really happened in the intervening period.

She was not entirely pleased but at the same time it was an incredible reunion because she understood me. That meant a lot to me, Snowden (speaking via video link) told an audience at the New Yorker festival last month.

Snowdens revelations, first reported in the Guardian, lifted the lid on a culture of mass government surveillance and sparked a global furore. The former NSA employee has been granted temporary asylum in Russia but faces a 30-year prison sentence if he returns to the US.

Stones still-untitled film could compete with a rival project titled No Place to Hide after the book by Glenn Greenwald, the freelance journalist to whom Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents in June 2013. That film is being brought to cinemas by James Bond producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, though the Stone version looks likely to arrive on the big screen first. It goes into production in Munich in January.

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Shailene Woodley in talks to star in Oliver Stone's Snowden film