The Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies set a proposal of about 46 recommended changes to NSA operations in a report to President Obama, which the White House released on Wednesday. Among the suggestions are the removal of the NSA’s enormous phone database, and the institution of a new process to allow only certain, high-level officials sign off on the monitoring of foreign leaders.
“I do believe as a 33-year veteran intelligence officer that the recommendations will not undermine in any way the intelligence community’s ability keep the country safe,” Michael Morell, a former deputy CIA director, told reporters.
Just this week, a federal judge essentially deemed the mass collection of phone data unconstitutional, and the president has been receiving pushes from multiple sources to make some drastic changes to the surveillance system.
“We are not saying that the struggle against terrorism is over or that it has declined to such an extent that we can dismantle the mechanisms we have put in place to safeguard the country,” advisory panel member Richard Clarke said. “What we are saying is those mechanisms can be more transparent, that they can have more independent outside judicial oversight and there can be more mechanisms for protecting civil liberties.”
