Politics
Obama bans spying on leaders of U.S. allies, proposes new limits on NSA phone collections program
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff postponed a state visit to Washington in protest at the NSA spying on her email and cellphone.
“The leaders of our close friends and allies deserve to know that if I want to learn what they think about an issue, I will pick up the phone and call them, rather than turning to surveillance,” Obama said.
Still, he said, U.S. intelligence will continue to gather information about the intentions of other governments, and will not apologize simply because U.S. spy services are more effective.
Obama is trying to balance public anger at the disclosure of intrusion into Americans’ privacy with his commitment to retain policies he considers critical to protecting the United States. In doing so he bucked the advice of some of U.S. intelligence leaders.
One of the biggest changes will be an overhaul of the government’s handling of bulk telephone “metadata” – lists of millions of phone calls made by Americans that show which numbers were called and when. Obama said the program will be ended as it currently exists.
In a nod to privacy advocates, the government will not hold the bulk telephone metadata, a decision that could frustrate some intelligence officials.
While a presidential advisory panel had recommended that the data be controlled by a third party such as the telephone companies, Obama did offer a specific proposal for who should store the phone information in the future.
