Instead of using a Friday news conference to press items on his legislative agenda or emphasize his recent speeches on economic themes, President Obama laid out a four point plan to bring more transparency and oversight to work of the National Security Agency.
"In other words, it’s not enough for me, as President, to have confidence in these programs," Mr. Obama told reporters in the East Room of the White House. "The American people need to have confidence in them as well."
While the President used words like "reform" in talking about the NSA, other than describing a plan to clarify how the NSA accesses bulk telephone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, Mr. Obama made clear he is not looking to stop the NSA from doing its intelligence work.
"Our laws specifically prohibit us from surveilling U.S. persons without a warrant," the President said in defense of NSA surveillance. "And there are a whole range of safeguards that have been put in place to make sure that that basic principle is abided by."
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Here are the four points laid out by the White House:
(2) The Administration will work with Congress to improve the public's confidence in the oversight conducted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Specifically, steps can be taken to make sure civil liberties concerns have a greater voice in appropriate cases by ensuring that the government's position is challenged by an adversary.
(3) The President directed the Intelligence Community to make public as much information about these programs as possible. Already, the Administration has declassified unprecedented information about the activities of the NSA. On July 31, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) made public three documents dealing with the section 215 program. The NSA is taking steps to put in place a full time Civil Liberties and Privacy Officer, and has released information that details its mission, authorities and oversight. The Intelligence Community is creating a website that will serve as a hub for further transparency. This will give Americans – and the world – the ability to learn more about what our intelligence community does; how it does it; and why.
(4) The President called for a high-level group of outside experts to review our intelligence and communications technologies. The President is tasking this group to step back and review our capabilities – particularly our surveillance technologies. They will consider how we can maintain the public's trust, and how this surveillance impacts our foreign policy – particularly in an age when more and more information is becoming public. They will provide an interim report in 60 days, and a final report by the end of this year, so that we can move forward with a better understanding of how these programs impact our security, our privacy, and our foreign policy.
Also, the NSA issued its own statement, with a web title of "The NSA Story," that supports its work and the legality of it.
You can find that document on the NSA website.
