On the heels of Thursday's news that revealed government agencies have been using a secret program to collect various types of data from some of the largest digital companies – including Google, Apple, and Facebook – so as to monitor Americans communications, "Piers Morgan Live" invited Glenn Greenwald to offer his perspective.

One of the reporters credited for delivering the scoop, the columnist for "The Guardian" shared specifics of a program that we now know to be called "PRISM":

"There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal," he told Piers Morgan. "And that is to destroy privacy and anonymity not just in the United States but around the world."

Visibly impassioned, and notably distressed by what he's uncovered, Greenwald called for action, insisting something must be done to address the movements of the National Security Agency:

"It's well past time that we have a debate about whether that's the kind of country and world in which we want to live," he declared. "We haven't had that debate because it's all done in secrecy and the Obama administration has been very aggressive about bullying and threatening anybody who thinks about exposing it or writing about it or even doing journalism about it. It's well past time that that come to an end."

Watch the clip, and listen to the interview, as Greenwald goes on to explain his inspiration for digging deeper into the scandal, in the process detailing the bravery he feels his sources have shown in coming forward with information in the interest of privacy and freedom.

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