Obama clips NSA's wings but bulk collection to continue

Google – AFP, Stephen COLLINSON (AFP), 17 January 2014

US President Barack Obama speaks about the National Security Agency (NSA)

 and intelligence agencies surveillance techniques at the US Department of Justice

in Washington, January 17, 2014 (AFP, Jim Watson)

Washington — President Barack Obama curtailed the reach of massive US National Security Agency phone surveillance sweeps Friday, but argued that bulk data collection must go on to protect America from terrorists.

In a long-awaited speech designed to quell a furor over the programs exposed by Edward Snowden, Obama also said he had halted spy taps on friendly world leaders and proposed new protections for foreigners caught in US data mining.

"Given the unique power of the state, it is not enough for leaders to say: trust us, we won't abuse the data we collect," Obama said at the US Justice Department.

Civil liberties activists hold a rally against

 surveillance of US citizens as US President

 Barack Obama is expected to announce

reforms of the National Security Agency

(NSA) at the Justice Department in

Washington, DC on January 17, 2014

(AFP, Nicholas Kamm)

Obama's proposals represented a search for common ground between the intelligence community's resistance to reform and civil liberties advocates who view phone and Internet data trawling as a mass invasion of privacy.

They emerged from a prolonged period of reflection by the president and a comprehensive White House review of the national security superstate that sprung up hurriedly after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

"America?s capabilities are unique," Obama said.

"The power of new technologies means that there are fewer and fewer technical constraints on what we can do.

"That places a special obligation on us to ask tough questions about what we should do."

It is doubtful however that the reassessment would have happened were it not for explosive disclosures by Snowden in one of the greatest security breaches in US history.

In the most significant reform, the president committed to ending the NSA's hoarding of telephone "metadata" detailing the duration and destination of hundreds of millions of calls but not their content.

He stressed that he did not believe that abuses had occurred or that US spies had been "cavalier" about civil liberties.

But he agreed with critics who say the program could yield information about private lives and open the door to more intrusion.

"I believe we need a new approach. I am therefore ordering a transition that will end the Section 215 bulk metadata program as it currently exists, and establish a mechanism that preserves the capabilities we need without the government holding this bulk meta-data."

Obama called on Attorney General Eric Holder and the NSA to come up suggestions for an alternative way to hold the material within 60 days.

Possible alternatives include keeping records with telecommunications firms, which are currently compelled to turn it over to the NSA, or to deposit it with a third party.

Obama also said that from now on, NSA agents would need the endorsement of a special intelligence court before accessing data on a specific target.

The NSA will also now only be permitted to access call data from people at two removes from a suspect in an investigation. Previously it could probe three "hops."

But the president made clear that the retention of phone data could provide a vital tool for US spies to trace links between terror suspects and must continue.

"Being able to quickly review telephone connections to assess whether a network exists is critical to that effort," Obama said.

The president also said that he had already ordered a halt to dozens of phone tap operations targeting friendly foreign leaders.

"I have made clear to the intelligence community that -? unless there is a compelling national security purpose ?- we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies," he said.

The move followed a furor over claims by fugitive contractor Snowden, now exiled in Russia, that US spies snooped on the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders.

But he also took a swipe at the chorus of complaints about US activities from some allies, saying US spies will carry on about their business.

"We will not apologize simply because our services may be more effective," he said, and noted that rivals like Russia and China would not undertake such an open debate.

Obama is also taking the unprecedented step of extending personal protections enjoyed by Americans to foreigners caught in US phone and Internet data sweeps.

The measures include restrictions on how long data can be held and to introduce restrictions on its use.

The president, who has demanded Snowden return home to face trial, only mentioned the US nemesis in passing.

"The sensational way in which these disclosures have come out has often shed more heat than light, while revealing methods to our adversaries that could impact our operations in ways that we may not fully understand for years to come," Obama said.

Civil liberties activists hold a rally against

 surveillance of US citizens as US President

 Barack Obama is expected to announce

reforms of the National Security Agency

(NSA) at the Justice Department in

Washington, DC on January 17, 2014

(AFP, Nicholas Kamm)

The reforms got a guarded welcome from privacy advocates, questions about how they would work -- and some disappointment they did not go further.

"President Obama's announced solution to the NSA spying controversy is the same unconstitutional program with a new configuration," said Republican Senator Rand Paul, a prominent libertarian critic of government surveillance overreach.

"We are incredibly thankful that the President recognizes that the government should eventually stop collecting bulk data on innocent Americans, but the key question is, what's next?" said Kevin Bankston of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute.

Steven Hawkins, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA said that privacy still remained under threat.

"President Obama?s recognition of the need to safeguard the privacy of people around the world is significant, but insufficient to end serious global concern over mass surveillance, which by its very nature constitutes abuse," he argued.