White House proposes to end NSA bulk data collection
AFP
March 26, 2014, 6:57 am
Washington (AFP) - The White House outlined plans Tuesday to end the National Security Agency's bulk telephone data collection on Americans, aiming to reassure a public outraged by revelations about widespread surveillance.
The plan would keep the data outside of government while allowing access for national security reasons, officials said.
Key US lawmakers welcomed the proposal, and one group put forward reform legislation along the same lines, with bipartisan support.
President Barack Obama -- in The Hague for a nuclear security summit -- called the White House plan "workable" and said it would protect privacy rights as well as national security.
"I am confident that it allows us to do what is necessary in order to deal with the dangers from a terrorist attack, but does so in a way that addresses some of the concerns that people had raised," he said.
A senior administration official said earlier that Obama had considered the results of a study he ordered in January into how the NSA could protect national interests without storing citizens' private data.
The comments came after reports in the New York Times and Washington Post that a major reform of data collection by US intelligence agencies was imminent.
The Times reported that the records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would, and that the NSA would obtain specific records with permission from a judge, using a new kind of court order.
A trove of documents leaked by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sparked outrage in the United States and abroad about the vast capabilities of America's intelligence programs.
Officials have defended the methods as necessary to thwart terror attacks, but US public opinion was shocked by the extent of the NSA's activities on home soil.
- 'Cosmetic change' -
James Lewis, a senior fellow who follows national security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Obama proposal appeared to be "a cosmetic change" to NSA authority.
"This will pacify domestic critics, but we don't know how it will play overseas," Lewis told AFP.
"If it's done right, there will be no impact on national security."
Zeke Johnson at Amnesty International USA meanwhile warned that "the devil is in the detail."
"The key questions are whether dragnet collection ends altogether and whether judicial review is sufficient," Johnson said in a statement.
In either case, he added, "far more must be done to uphold the privacy rights of non-Americans -- the vast majority of the world."
Joseph Wippl, director of graduate studies at Boston University's Department of International Relations and a 30-year CIA operations officer, said the measure could allay public fears about NSA surveillance, but added: "There is nothing here which protects foreign nationals, which is the way it has always been."
Some said the proposals unveiled so far did not go far enough
"If the president's proposal only addresses the phone collection program, it would continue to allow bulk collection of other information, like Internet metadata, location information, and financial records," said Harley Geiger at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights group.
"The president and Congress must end bulk collection authority entirely, for all types of records, and replace it with surveillance directed at specific targets."
- Lawmakers positive -
In Congress, a group of lawmakers unveiled a bipartisan-backed bill to end bulk collection of telephone, email, and Internet metadata.
"We have found a way to end the government's bulk collection of telephone metadata and still provide a mechanism to protect the United Sates, and track those terrorists who are calling in to the United States to commit acts of terror," said Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Senate Intelligence Committee chief Dianne Feinstein said her panel would review the House bill as well as the president's proposal.
"I have said before that I am open to reforming the call records program as long as any changes meet our national security needs and address privacy concerns, " she said.
Senator Ron Wyden, a critic of NSA surveillance, hailed the efforts and said it would lead to "the end of dragnet surveillance in America."
