Obama Contrite Over US Secrecy And Spying
Updated: 11:38pm UK, Friday 17 January 2014
By Dominic Waghorn, US Correspondent
This was a very different president to the one we saw in the immediate aftermath of Edward Snowden's first revelations.
Then, Barack Obama was dismissive and defensive. The balance between information and privacy he said was about right. "Trust us", was his message, "we're your government".
Seven months of bruising relentless revelations and he has changed his tone.
"Given the unique power of the state, it is not enough for leaders to say: 'trust us, we won't abuse the data we collect.' For history has too many examples when that trust has been breached."
This is Mr Obama the constitutional law professor, more than Mr Obama the president.
He dealt with broad principles but did not dwell on the policy detail. Far from it.
The most concrete proposals concern America's secret foreign intelligence surveillance courts.
The president wants new checks and balances. A panel of public defenders, lawyers who will champion ordinary Americans' rights. Until now intelligence agencies have been able to make their surveillance applications to judges, uncontested.
The president has issued a new directive outlining the parameters within which agencies can snoop on foreigners abroad, after the furore over spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Pope and commercial businesses. It is not clear how that directive will be enforced.
And there is little detail on resolving the biggest controversy to have been ignited by Edward Snowden, the collection of all American phone records.
"I am therefore ordering a transition that will end the Section 215 bulk meta-data programme as it currently exists, and establish a mechanism that preserves the capabilities we need without the government holding this bulk meta-data."
The president does not have any suggestions for what that mechanism should be. He is going to leave it to Congress and his intelligence agencies to work that out.
There were also some omissions.
The president said little about the NSA and internet snooping programmes, like Prism. The NSA's breach of cloud computing networks operated by Google and Yahoo were not mentioned, although that revelation has infuriated internet giants.
As has the NSA's manipulation of encryption technology which some have warned could cost the US tech industry billions.
The president did not mention content. He and his spies have repeatedly denied they've been reading emails, listening to phone calls. And yet it is known NSA agents have been accessing the correspondence of lovers and love rivals in well publicised abuses.
The president seems content to leave much of the detail to Congress and his intelligence agencies. But he knows ultimately he has the most to lose from the outcome of this process. The Snowden revelations have plagued his administration for seven months and there may well be plenty more to come.
The president was keen to deal with this issue before he gives his State of the Union address, but he knows one speech will not make it go away. It is the beginning of a long process of reform.
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