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Dec 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. governments gathering of Americans phone records is likely unlawful, a judge ruled on Monday, raising serious doubts about the value of the study Security Agencys so-called metadata counterterrorism program.I cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and arbitrary invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually either single citizen, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, appointed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2002, wrote in a 68-page sentiment.The U.S. Department of Justice said it was surveiling the ruling in a case brought by Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, described in court documents as the father of a cryptologist technician for the NSA who was killed in Afghanistan in 2011. The judge ordered the government to stop collecting data about the two plaintiffs, who were Verizon Communications Inc customers. Verizon declined comment.We believe the program is original as p revious judge pee-pee found, Department of Justice spokesman Andrew Ames said in a statement.Leon suspended enforcement of his injunction against the program in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues pending an expected appeal by the government. A U.S. official said an appeal was likely.Leon expressed disbelief of the programs value, writing that the government could not cite a single instance in which the bulk data actually stopped an imminent attack.I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism, he wrote.That ... ...Glenn Greenwald, a former columnist for The defender who wrote about the metadata collection program based on documents leaked to him by Snowden, praised the court ruling.This is a huge vindication for Edward Snowden and our reporting. Snowden came forwa rd precisely because he knew that the NSA was secretly violating the constitutional rights of his fellow citizens, and a federal court ruled today that this is exactly what has been happening, Greenwald said in an email.A committee of experts appointed by the Obama Administration to review NSA activities is expected to recommend that the spy agency give up collection of masses of metadata and instead require telephone companies to hold onto it so it can be searched. But intelligence officials and the phone companies themselves are said to oppose such a plan. found in nature, for example peptide nucleic acids.