White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced that President Obama will deliver a much anticipated speech to address key reforms of the National Security Agency (NSA) on Tuesday.
The Obama administration has faced surmounting pressure from civil liberties advocates whom continuously challenge the legality of the alleged massive domestic surveillance program. The NSA domestic surveillance program became a subject of intense debate in mid-2013 when former government contractor Edward Snowden allegedly released information to global media outlets regarding activities by the U.S. government. Since then, Snowden has not been seen on U.S. soil and is purportedly seeking aslyum in Russia.
Over the past several weeks, senior Obama administration officials have convened with top intelligence staff to perform an internal review, in order to add language which addresses transparency and privacy concerns. At the heart of the controversy is the collection of personal data, commonly referred to as “metadata”, which leaves some critics concerned about the government having easy access to the records.
Obama asserts that he will not unilaterally dismantle the NSA program but will consider adding protections and a possible appointment of a privacy advocate. Although it is anticipated that Mr. Obama will allow corporations or third-party organizations to collect the information, The White House will not specify what actions will be taken, prior to the President’s upcoming speech this Friday. At press time, the venue for Friday’s announcement was still undetermined.
“He will be remaking remarks to discuss the outcomes of the work that has been done in the review process,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
The domestic surveillance program has created controversy in the international arena as well. Last summer, Germans were outraged to learn about alleged spying activities of the NSA on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Reports surfaced that the U.S. government had been collecting cellphone data from the German president.
In response to the brouhaha which erupted once reports of surveillance on Merkel surfaced, President Obama will call for additional oversight of the National Intelligence Priorites Framerwork. This document ranks intelligence goals and is a guidebook that is reportedly used by the NSA prior to making decisions to collect data on heads of state around the world.
In a letter to the President last week, Senators Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) challenged Obama to stop the collection records and reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court which oversees top-secret intelligence gathering operations.
