Politics Obama Says N.S.A. Curbs Would Address Worries By CHARLIE SAVAGEMARCH 25, 2014 WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday publicly endorsed a plan that Justice Department and intelligence officials have developed for a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Agency’s phone call records program, saying that he believed it would resolve privacy concerns without compromising the program’s utility as a counterterrorism tool. “They have presented me now with an option that I think is workable,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “I’m confident that it allows us to do what is necessary in order to deal with the dangers of a terrorist attack, but does so in a way that addresses some of the concerns that people had raised.” Mr. Obama made his remarks at a news conference in the Netherlands. The administration has not yet formally unveiled the plan, but it was detailed in a New York Times article that was based on accounts from senior administration officials. If Congress approved the plan, the N.S.A. would no longer collect records about Americans’ calling habits in bulk. Instead, the data would stay with phone companies, which would not be required to retain it any longer than they normally would. A judge’s order would be required before the N.S.A. could obtain records of callers who are linked to a suspect. The order would require the companies to swiftly provide the data in a standard technological format and allow the government to obtain the phone records of people up to two calling links, or “hops,” from a suspect, even if they had different providers. The question of whether judges should review each request ahead of time is a major difference between the administration plan and a new bipartisan bill unveiled on Tuesday by the chairman and ranking leader of the House Intelligence Committee, Representatives Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan, and C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Democrat of Maryland. Their plan would also keep the bulk data in phone companies’ hands without new retention mandates, but government analysts could subpoena records without prior judicial review. Instead, the surveillance court would review the requests afterward, expunging data if it did not meet the standard. “Our concern is that it would take too long” to require analysts to get court approval ahead of time, Mr. Ruppersberger said. “You need flexibility in the process.” But senior administration officials noted that Mr. Obama in January started requiring prior court approval, except in emergencies, as an important check. They said the N.S.A. had found the arrangement workable. In January, Mr. Obama had given Justice Department and intelligence officials a deadline of March 28 to come up with a way to end bulk collection of phone data while preserving the program’s utility. The officials familiar with the resulting review said there were about five “deputies’ meetings” in the White House Situation Room, led by the White House counterterrorism adviser, Lisa O. Monaco, with representatives from the affected agencies. At a lower level, lawyers and operators from the agencies worked through the details in a process run by Stuart Evans, an aide to Ms. Monaco. Federal regulations generally require phone companies to retain call records for at least 18 months, though some choose to hold on to them longer. Among the issues the administration examined was whether to impose a longer retention mandate. Both the industry and privacy advocates opposed that idea. The question, the officials said, was how much the value of the program would be diminished from its current form, in which the N.S.A. keeps the data for five years, without a longer mandate. They said intelligence operators, looking back at more than a dozen years of experience with the program, reported that the data’s utility fell off after two or three years. The administration looked at the marginal operational gain of requiring the companies to retain the data six to 18 months longer than the current minimum, and compared it with the added resistance that such a legislative proposal would engender. They concluded that it would be wiser not to push for such a step, the officials said. Consensus around the plan coalesced in a March 4 “principals meeting” in the Situation Room run by Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, the officials said. On March 19, Mr. Obama met with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and leaders of the intelligence agencies to hear their views, they said. Some longtime critics of the bulk collection greeted the White House’s plan with praise. “This is the start of the end of dragnet surveillance in America,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and a member of the Intelligence Committee. He and several others, including Senators Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado, and Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, argued that the administration should end the existing program without waiting for congressional action. Still, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, a Democrat on the Intelligence Committee who also has sought greater privacy practices, said that other proposals, like creating a rigorous adversarial process in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which hears only cases from the Justice Department, remained a “very heavy lift.” Officials have been unable to identify any thwarted attacks that would have succeeded but for the program, but have argued that it is a valuable tool. The program came to light in June in the first disclosure based on leaks from Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, who has been indicted and is living under asylum in Russia. In a statement distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday, Mr. Snowden claimed vindication. “This is a turning point, and it marks the beginning of a new effort to reclaim our rights from the N.S.A. and restore the public’s seat at the table of government,” he said. Mr. Obama was also asked Tuesday whether he would take similar steps to restrict N.S.A. spying on non-Americans abroad. He also defended the need for surveillance to battle transnational threats, but also said there was a need for more checks and balances as technology becomes more powerful. “I recognize that because of these revelations that there’s a process that’s taking place where we have to win back the trust, not just of governments but, more importantly, of ordinary citizens,” he said. “And that’s not going to happen overnight, because I think that there’s a tendency to be skeptical of government and to be skeptical in particular of U.S. intelligence services.” Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting. A version of this article appears in print on March 26, 2014, on page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Obama Says N.S.A. Curbs Would Address Worries. Order Reprints|Todays Paper|Subscribe
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 02:50:58 +0000
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