White House Committed to Section 215, FISA Court Reform, Obama Says

"It’s not enough for me as president to have confidence in these programs,” Obama said. “The American people have to have confidence in them as well.” The U.S. government is “not interested in spying on ordinary people,” he added, instead pointing to the desire to protect the country and its allies. The steps are “not all-inclusive” but are “specific” and move the conversation forward, he said. The programs are working well and without what Obama would call “abuse,” but “some bolts need to be tightened up,” he said. He acknowledged the fairness of those voicing concerns: “I would be, too, if I wasn’t inside the government."

Obama expressed a desire to “work with Congress to pursue appropriate reforms to Section 215 of the Patriot Act.” The section is important in the government’s attempts “to disrupt terrorist plots” and doesn’t allow listening to phone conversations without a warrant, but there are enough concerns swirling around it that it “could be subject to abuse,” he said. He called for an independent voice focused on the FISC representing civil liberties concerns. “We can and must be more transparent,” he said, noting the U.S. Department of Justice will make public its interpretation of Section 215. There will be new resources devoted to civil liberties and a website to “serve as a hub for further transparency” to “give Americans and the world” more information about how these programs work, he said. An independent review group will produce an interim report on the surveillance activities within 60 days and a final report by the end of this year, he said.

The Senate Intelligence Committee plans major hearings on the surveillance programs, Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a press release. “This will be the primary order of business for the committee this fall and will be used to develop proposals to increase transparency and improve privacy protections for these vital national security programs,” Feinstein said in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/16Aox0h). “As I have said before, if changes are necessary, whenever feasible, we will make them. To the extent possible, I hope these hearings will better delineate the purpose and scope of these programs and increase the public’s confidence in their effectiveness.” She denied that Section 215 should be characterized as a domestic surveillance program but did cite her recommended reforms. Her reforms include requirements that “the number of database queries and the number of warrants obtained by the FBI be released annually [by the National Security Agency]; the retention period of phone records be reduced from five years to two or three years; and the ideological diversity of the FISA court be increased, among other changes,” her office said.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., praised Obama’s call for “appointing a special advocate to the FISA courts, an idea that is at the heart of legislation I introduced last week,” his office said in a statement Friday. “Recent revelations about the size and scope of the nation’s foreign surveillance activities prove -- once again -- that the Constitution needs a zealous advocate.” The Obama reforms would make the court “more like other federal courts and less like a secret court, making secret law through secret opinions.”

Obama slammed the leaks that precipitated the announcement while giving credence to their influence. “No, I don’t think Edward Snowden is a patriot,” he said, noting that the former NSA contractor should return to the U.S. with a lawyer if he believes he acted correctly. Public confidence in U.S. programs and checks and balances were “undermined” by the Snowden leaks this summer, which pushed Obama to act more aggressively, he said. “There’s no doubt that Mr. Snowden’s leaks triggered a much more rapid and passionate response than would have been the case if I had simply appointed this review board to go through and I had sat down with Congress,” Obama said, but stressed these reforms would have always been the goal: “I think we actually would have gotten to the same place and without putting at risk our national security and some very vital ways we need to get intelligence to secure the country.” The leaks raised the questions “in the most sensationalized manner possible,” and rather than have information come out in “dribs and drabs,” Obama prefers to talk about the issues directly, he said: “Let’s just put the whole elephant out there."

House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Terrorism Chair Peter King, R-N.Y., slammed the proposed reform. He called it “a monumental failure in presidential wartime leadership and responsibility,” according to a statement released by his office. “These programs are legal, transparent and contain the appropriate checks and balances among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government. These intelligence tools keep Americans safe every single day.” He cited the threat of al Qaeda and the country’s “war with Islamist terror groups” that should compel Obama’s defense of the intelligence programs.

"This is an important first step -- but I will keep fighting to ensure it’s not the Administration’s last in this direction,” Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Friday on the president’s remarks. “The administration must do a better job balancing our national security with our constitutional privacy rights.” His office noted the senator’s critiques of the NSA surveillance and a meeting with Obama last week.

The White House met with representatives from tech companies and privacy advocates last week. The New America Foundation confirmed the Tuesday meeting and released a statement calling for more government disclosures of surveillance (CD Aug 7 p13). Obama told The Tonight Show host Jay Leno that he has “been talking to Congress and civil libertarians and others” about ways to “make sure that people know nobody is listening to your phone call,” during a Tuesday night interview. “We don’t have a domestic spying program,” Obama told Leno. “What we do have are some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or an email address that we know is connected to some sort of terrorist threat. And that information is useful. But what I've said before I want to make sure I repeat, and that is we should be skeptical about the potential encroachments on privacy. None of the revelations show that government has actually abused these powers, but they're pretty significant powers.” He emphasized the balance of liberty and security.