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)
|
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.
The reforms
got a guarded welcome from privacy advocates, questions about how they would
work -- and some disappointment they did not go further.
 |
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)
|
"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.
No comments:
Post a Comment