U.S. gov't steps up surveillance of citizens: report

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government continues to step up surveillance of ordinary Americans, seriously violating the freedom of citizens, says a report on the U.S. human rights record released on Sunday.

The U.S. congress approved a bill in 2012 that authorizes warrantless wiretapping and electronic communications monitoring by the government, a move that violates people's rights to privacy, the report says.

Documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union in September 2012, reveal that federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring American's electronic communications.

Between 2009 and 2011, the U.S. Justice Department's combined number of original orders for "pen registers" and "trap and trace devices" used to spy on phones increased by 60 percent, from 23,535 in 2009 to 37,616 in 2011, the report says.

The National Security Agency collects purely domestic communications of Americans in a "significant and systematic" way, intercepting and storing 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other types of communications, it adds.

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2012 was released by China's State Council Information Office in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 issued by the U.S. State Department.

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