Obama ponders limiting spying on US allies
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US President Barack Obama is expected to rein in spying on foreign leaders and is considering restricting National Security Agency access to Americans’ phone records, according to people familiar with a White House review of the government’s surveillance programs.
Obama could unveil his decisions as early as next week. Yesterday, he met with congressional leaders at the White House, while his top lawyer plans to meet with privacy groups. Representatives from tech companies are meeting with White House staff today.
The White House says Obama is still collecting information before making final decisions.
Among the changes Obama is expected to announce is more oversight of the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, a classified document that ranks US intelligence-gathering priorities and is used to make decisions on scrutiny of foreign leaders. A presidential review board has recommended increasing the number of policy officials who help establish those priorities, and that could result in limits on surveillance of allies.
Documents released by former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden revealed that the US was monitoring the communications of several friendly foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The revelations outraged Merkel as well as other leaders, and US officials say the disclosures have damaged Obama’s relations around the world.
Obama and Merkel spoke by phone on Wednesday, but US officials would not say whether they discussed the NSA issues.
Obama also is said to be considering one of the review board’s most aggressive recommendations, a proposal to strip the NSA of its ability to store telephone records from millions of Americans and instead have phone companies or a third party hold the records. The NSA would be able to access the records only by obtaining separate court approval for each search, though exceptions could be made in the case of a national security emergency.
It’s unclear whether Obama will ultimately back the proposal or how quickly it could be carried out if he does.
A House Intelligence Committee member, Peter King, a Republican, said he believes the surveillance changes under consideration go too far. But he said if Obama does decide to transfer US phone metadata to a third party, he would work to salvage what he could of the program.
“It would be a question of the lesser of two evils,” King said. “If by doing that, it protects the program or preserves it, I would do it, even though I don’t think these reforms are necessary.”
Before making his final decisions, Obama was supposed to receive a separate report from a semi-independent commission known as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which was created by Congress. However, that panel’s report has been delayed without explanation until at least late January, meaning it won’t reach the president until after he makes his decisions public.
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