U.S. Senators Implore Obama to Rein in NSA Surveillance

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By Fran Berkman2014-01-12 16:35:12 UTC

Three U.S. senators say they think it's time for U.S. President Barack Obama to rein in the National Security Agency's surveillance tactics.

The three Democrats, Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, wrote a letter to Obama earlier this week, urging him to follow the advice of an independent panel that recently recommended ending the NSA's bulk telephone metadata collection and storage program, as well as other proposed NSA reforms. Each of the three senators sits on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

See also: Edward Snowden: Mission Accomplished, 'I Already Won'

"While we have served on the Intelligence Committee for varying lengths of time, all three of us can attest that our nation's intelligence professionals are overwhelmingly dedicated and patriotic men and women who make real sacrifices to help keep our country safe and free," the senators wrote. "We believe that they should be able to do their jobs secure in the knowledge that their agencies have the trust and confidence of the American people."

The senators said that trust in American surveillance organizations has been "undermined by overly intrusive domestic surveillance programs and misleading statements made by senior officials over a period of many years."

They added that intelligence officials have wrongly used such "misleading statements" as justification for continuing certain programs. Chief among these justifications is that the telephone metadata program has helped the NSA prevent terrorist attacks.

"We have yet to see any evidence that the bulk phone records collection program has provided any otherwise unobtainable intelligence," the senators wrote.

Udall, Wyden and Heinrich said the NSA should rely on telecom providers to store data. These companies store records for at least 18 months, in accordance with Federal Communications Commission regulations, and sometimes even longer. Secret documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA can store such data for up to five years.

"We have asked intelligence community officials on numerous occasions to identify examples of cases in which they have derived unique value from NSA's bulk meta data collection program using records that were no longer held for normal business purposes by the telecom providers," the senators wrote. "We have yet to receive an answer."

In addition to ending the metadata collection program, Udall, Wyden and Heinrich recommended that Obama make several other reforms. First, they said he should require probable cause for intelligence agencies to search through the contents of collected communications to obtain information about U.S. citizens. They also said he should establish a "public interest advocate" to represent the privacy interests of American citizens in the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, where the NSA must often obtain authorization to carry out its surveillance.

Obama himself discussed wanting to employ many of these measures in an August news conference.

"Given the history of abuse by governments, it is right to ask questions about surveillance, particularly as technology is reshaping every aspect of our lives," the president said.

As a first step, Obama commissioned an independent panel to review U.S. intelligence organizations. The panel delivered a 300-page report to the president last month, which outlined 46 recommended reforms, most notably ending the dragnet telephone data collection program.

Obama has not yet taken action on any of the panel's recommendations, but he met with lawmakers to discuss the topic earlier this week. The president also announced that he would deliver a speech on surveillance on Jan. 17.

The speech, and any reforms it sparks, cannot come soon enough for Udall, Wyden and Heinrich, who wrote to Obama: "We believe you have the authority to make many of these changes now, and we urge you to do so with reasonable haste to protect both our national security and the personal rights and liberties of U.S. citizens."

Read their entire letter, below:

Udall, Wyden, Heinrich Press White House to Make Common-Sense, Constitutional Reforms to NSA Surveillance,... by Mark Udall

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Image: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages

Topics: Barack Obama, Mark Udall, Martin Heinrich, NSA, Ron Wyden, surveillance, U.S., US & World