Brazilian president rails against US surveillance at UN assembly

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff railed against US surveillance programs at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Rousseff took the extraordinary step of calling off a state visit over allegations of US spying against Brazil, and used her UN remarks to rebuke the US for its surveillance activities. "[The US has created] a situation of grave violation of human rights and of civil liberties; of invasion and capture of confidential information concerning corporate activities, and especially of disrespect to national sovereignty," Rousseff said. She added that NSA spying is "unacceptable" and not justified by claims that it prevents terrorism calling on the UN to “play a leading role in the effort to regulate the conduct of States with regard to” information and telecommunication technologies so that they do not become “the new battlefield between” countries.