Exclusive Report: Obama Will Take on the NSA's Surveillance State in 2014 [View all]

[kpete]

Obama’s Defining Fight: How He Will Take On the NSA’s Surveillance State in 2014
Before he left for Hawaii, the president was sending signals that government surveillance programs need an overhaul to restore the public’s faith on issues of national security.

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Meeting with the review group, Obama had shown a little more leg [than what he showed in his final press conference of the year]. As he walked briskly into the Situation Room last Wednesday, he characteristically wasted little time on small talk. He said he had five points he wanted to make and, without notes, began ticking them off, according to two people who were in the room. Much of what he had to say involved process--now that the recommendations were on the table, he would have to lead an interagency debate to develop a new set of policies. According to one panel member, Obama said he needed to hear whatever objections there were and "probe them." And he wanted to make sure that those who objected to the recommendations fully understood them.

But he also talked about the substance of the proposals and assessed their viability within the administration. He said he believed the bulk of the 46 recommendations would be acceptable to the intelligence community. He also said that many of the recommendations toward the back end of the panel's report could be easily adopted, including new procedures for establishing secure networks without infringing Internet freedom, and improving vetting and security clearances in hiring. He even mentioned a specific number, amounting to roughly 75 percent of the 46 recommendations, that he thought could be adopted without any problem.

A number of panel members, speaking anonymously, said they had the clear impression that Obama was personally inclined to back their proposals on ending the metadata program, as well as many of the other recommendations that would rein in the NSA's surveillance capabilities. "The question is whether he will be able to resist whatever pushback comes from the intelligence community," said one panel member.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/31/obama-s-defining-fight-how-he-will-take-on-the-nsa-s-surveillance-state-in-2014.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/31/1266232/-Exclusive-Report-Obama-Will-Take-on-the-NSA-s-Surveillance-State-in-2014