Obama Weighs Limiting NSA Access To Phone Records

[Cali_Democrat]

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 highly anticipated decisions as early as next week. On Thursday, the president is expected to discuss his review with congressional lawmakers, while his top lawyer plans to meet with privacy groups. Representatives from tech companies are meeting with White House staff on Friday.

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 U.S. 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.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/obama-nsa_n_4567195.html

[RC]

1. Is Obama replacing Clapper and General Keith Alexander?

If not, why not? Clapper for lying to Congress and the dear general for building his own voyeuristic fiefdom to control the world.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. It's still possible they could be replaced

The review announcement will happen next week.

[Savannahmann]

3. Forgive me for being the cynic but...

Not until we have true oversight of those agencies will any real changes happen. Think about it, during the 1960's and going into 1970's, it was COINTELPRO. Before that, who knows what it was called, before that, it was the Venona project. Venona wasn't even known to the President before Eisenhower, because the Military leaders didn't think the President needed to know what they were up to.

Don't get me wrong, this may be a great first step, but I can't help thinking of all the programs that were exposed, and then later replaced with something even more intrusive.

Carnivore, operational in 1997, replaced in 2005. So when the FBI said they weren't using it anymore, they were telling the truth, they were using something even better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore_(software)

Look at the history, every time something is shut down, something even more outrageous is fired up. The world was shocked at the audacity of Project Jennifer. But the secret of the Submarine Halibut and her underwater spying technology was kept. So they started invading Soviet waters to tap telephone cables. Later, other submarines would take up the mantle, and are certainly still tapping underwater cables possibly even today.

The CIA got in trouble for regime changes and dirty tricks. So now, they use "rendition" to kidnap and torture people. New words, new program names, same old story.

So forgive me if I don't jump for joy and declare job done when or if President Obama says he's reforming the NSA/CIA/DHS/FBI cabal. If you really want me impressed, start prosecuting those assholes for violating the civil rights of the citizens. Until then, it's just more smoke and mirrors.

[ProgressSaves]

4. After he ushers in this dramatic overhaul of the NSA,

some assholes will just move the goalposts, but they risk exposing themselves as people that are more interested in damaging the President than preserving civil liberties, whilst maintaining the safety of the nation. We can't allow the crimes of the Bush administration to let us be so cynical about national security.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. No, he's weighing passing the buck over to the phone companies and ISPs.

The end result is practically guaranteed to be the same.