- Apr 24, 2013
- 1,200
President Obama will call Friday for ending the National Security Agency’s ability to store phone data from millions of Americans. Instead, he will ask Congress and the Justice Department who should hold these records, according to White House sources.
Obama is expected to argue the merits of the metadata program and unveil much-anticipated changes to the NSA’s surveillance programs exposed by leaker Edward Snowden, following a months-long review of the controversial spying practices by the White House.
The president is likely act on recommendations for modifying the nation's vast surveillance network put out last month by an advisory panel tasked with examining the heavily scrutinized programs, including the NSA's bulk collection and use of Americans' phone records.
In previewing Obama's speech, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that the president believes the government can make surveillance activities "more transparent in order to give the public more confidence about the problems and the oversight of the programs."
Privacy groups have been pressing for guidelines that significantly narrow the amount of data collected from Americans. Obama's own advisory panel recommended changes to the NSA's authority to hold Americans' phone records.
In December, the panel proposed moving the records to the phone companies or another third party and requiring the NSA to get separate authority from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court each time it wants to access the data.
The president is expected to announce that the phone records program will be changed immediately "so that a judicial finding is required before we query the database," according to a senior administration official.
The official said Obama will not say who should ultimately hold the data. Instead he will call on the intelligence community and Congress Friday to consult on where it should be maintained.
The leaks from Snowden, which keep coming, have painted a picture of a clandestine spy program that indiscriminately scoops up phone and Internet records, while also secretly keeping tabs on the communications of friendly foreign leaders, like Germany's Angela Merkel.
On Thursday, The Guardian reported that the NSA collects nearly 200 million text messages a day from people around the world as part of a program code-named "Dishfire." The program allows the agency to collect data on people's travel plans, contacts and financial transactions, according to documents leaked by Snowden.
The latest disclosure came on the heels of a New York Times report claiming the NSA has implanted software on nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the U.S. to conduct surveillance on those machines using radio frequency technology.
The NSA calls the effort an "active defense" and has used the technology to monitor units of China's Army, the Russian military, drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and sometime U.S. partners against terrorism like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan, the Times reported.
Obama is expected to argue the merits of the metadata program and unveil much-anticipated changes to the NSA’s surveillance programs exposed by leaker Edward Snowden, following a months-long review of the controversial spying practices by the White House.
The president is likely act on recommendations for modifying the nation's vast surveillance network put out last month by an advisory panel tasked with examining the heavily scrutinized programs, including the NSA's bulk collection and use of Americans' phone records.
In previewing Obama's speech, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that the president believes the government can make surveillance activities "more transparent in order to give the public more confidence about the problems and the oversight of the programs."
Privacy groups have been pressing for guidelines that significantly narrow the amount of data collected from Americans. Obama's own advisory panel recommended changes to the NSA's authority to hold Americans' phone records.
In December, the panel proposed moving the records to the phone companies or another third party and requiring the NSA to get separate authority from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court each time it wants to access the data.
The president is expected to announce that the phone records program will be changed immediately "so that a judicial finding is required before we query the database," according to a senior administration official.
The official said Obama will not say who should ultimately hold the data. Instead he will call on the intelligence community and Congress Friday to consult on where it should be maintained.
The leaks from Snowden, which keep coming, have painted a picture of a clandestine spy program that indiscriminately scoops up phone and Internet records, while also secretly keeping tabs on the communications of friendly foreign leaders, like Germany's Angela Merkel.
On Thursday, The Guardian reported that the NSA collects nearly 200 million text messages a day from people around the world as part of a program code-named "Dishfire." The program allows the agency to collect data on people's travel plans, contacts and financial transactions, according to documents leaked by Snowden.
The latest disclosure came on the heels of a New York Times report claiming the NSA has implanted software on nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the U.S. to conduct surveillance on those machines using radio frequency technology.
The NSA calls the effort an "active defense" and has used the technology to monitor units of China's Army, the Russian military, drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and sometime U.S. partners against terrorism like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan, the Times reported.
