Obama calls for reform to NSA
Iran Press TV
Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:53PM GMT
US President Barack Obama has called on Congress to quickly reform the National Security Agency's controversial spying program, a senior official said.
Obama said phone records should be kept by phone companies and not be held at the NSA for five years, which has been the practice so far, an administration official stated on Thursday.
The White House is hopeful that Congress will pass legislation 'expeditiously,' he added.
However, critics say the proposed reforms do not address some major issues regarding the NSA's spying programs, like the collection of data related to online communications of people around the world.
Obama is expected to announce the details of his reform proposal soon and suggest that Congress pass a bill enacting them.
The proposal would end the NSA's in-house retention of US citizens' phone records, according to a statement issued by the White House Thursday.
Except in emergencies, the NSA would need individual Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approvals before it can take records from phone companies.
In addition, the package will "include a provision clarifying whether Section 215 of the Patriot Act … may in the future be legitimately interpreted as allowing bulk data collection of telephone data."
Edward Snowden, who revealed that the US has been spying on millions of people and politicians across the globe, said in a statement that his disclosures have caused even the US president to acknowledge that the mass surveillance program is "unnecessary."
Obama gave the intelligence community and Justice Department until March 28, when the current court order authorizing the phone records collection program expires, to come up with a plan that would introduce reforms to the way Americans' phone records are gathered and stored.
AT/ARA
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