US Spymasters are defending their methods, as the Obama administration declassifies documents on America’s vast phone-snooping and makes part of them public.

Washington says the three documents are now declassified in the “interest of increased transparency”, but significant portions including details on “selection terms” used to search the massive data stores were blacked out - redacted.  They include a court order describing how the data from the phone-snooping program would be stored and accessed, plus two reports to US lawmakers.

But the release pales in comparison to the latest bombshell from the UK Guardian newspaper and reporter Glenn Greenwald.  A new report revealed details of a National Security Agency search tool called “X-Keyscore” which allows NSA analysts to search through the agency’s enormous databases of calls and emails, all without getting any prior authorization from the US Justice system.

The NSA’s own boastful training materials says it is the “widest-reaching” system for developing intelligence from the Internet.

The details are part of the trove of US spy secrets smuggled out of the country and revealed by Edward Snowden, the fugitive former NSA contractor still holed up at the Moscow airport.

Snowden’s father says his son should probably stay in Russia.  Lon Snowden says he has turned down an offer from the FBI to fly him to Moscow to try and meet with his son.  But the Snow-Dad says he did not want to be used as an “emotional tool” to try and get Edward to surrender to US authorities.  Lon Snowden does not trust the US to give his son a fair trial.