WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is expected to tighten restrictions on U.S. spying on foreign leaders and also is considering changes in National Security Agency access to Americans’ phone records, according to people familiar with a White House review of the nation’s surveillance programs.
Obama could unveil his highly anticipated decisions as early as next week, those privy to the review said. Ahead of that announcement, he is consulting with lawmakers, privacy advocates and intelligence officials who were invited to White House meetings Wednesday and today.
“He’s at that stage still where he’s listening and discussing with a variety of stakeholders and appreciates very much the opinions and counsel he’s getting on this matter,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Among the changes Obama is expected to announce is more oversight of the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, a classified document that ranks U.S. intelligence-gathering priorities and is used to make decisions on scrutiny of foreign leaders. A presidential review board recommended increasing the number of policy officials who help establish those priorities, and that could result in limits on surveillance of allies.
Documents released by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. was monitoring the communications of several friendly foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The revelations angered Merkel as well as other leaders, and U.S. officials say the disclosures have damaged Obama’s relations around the world.
Obama and Merkel spoke by phone Wednesday, but U.S. officials would not say whether they discussed the National Security Agency issues.
The president also is said to be considering one of the review board’s most aggressive recommendations, a proposal to strip the agency of its ability to store telephone records from millions of Americans and instead have phone companies or a third party hold the records. The agency would be able to access the records only by obtaining separate court approval for each search, though exceptions could be made for emergency national security matters.
It ’s unclear whether Obama will ultimately back the proposal or how quickly it could be carried out if he does.
Before making his final decisions, the president was supposed to receive a separate report from a semi-independent commission known as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which was created by Congress. However, that panel’s report has been delayed without explanation until at least late January, meaning it won’t reach the president until after he makes his decisions public.
Members of that oversight board did meet Wednesday with Obama and have briefed other administration officials on some of their preliminary findings. In a statement, the five-member panel said its meeting with the president focused on the phone collection program and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees the data sweeps.
It’s unclear why Obama will announce his recommendations before receiving the report from the privacy and civil liberties board. One official familiar with the review process said that some White House officials were puzzled by the board’s delay. But the official said the report probably would still have strong weight in Congress, where legislators are grappling with several bills aimed at dismantling or preserving the National Security Agency’s authority.
That official and those familiar with the White House review insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the process by name.
Obama also met at the White House on Wednesday with members of the U.S. intelligence community, which largely supports keeping the National Security Agency surveillance programs intact. The president will meet today with members of Congress, while his top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, will meet with representatives from privacy groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Open Technology Institute and Cato Institute.
Shortly after receiving the review board recommendations last month, Obama signaled that he could be open to significant surveillance changes, including to the bulk collecting of phone records.
The president also has backed the idea of adding a public-advocate position to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which rules on many of the domestic surveillance decisions. The court typically hears only from the government as it decides cases, and the advocate would be added to represent privacy and civil-liberties concerns.
The National Security Agency is exploring how it could relinquish control of the database of domestic phone logs, according to current and former officials briefed on the discussions.
The agency, in response to political and other pressures, is examining whether there are ways for third parties such as the phone companies to hold the data while still allowing the agency to exploit the records, the officials said.
The intelligence community is motivated, in part, because Congress likely will not renew the agency’s bulk collection authority when the statute it is based on expires in June 2015. It is also possible that Congress, which is debating legislation to halt the program, could take action sooner.
Describing one possible scenario, a former intelligence official said: “The phone companies would run the analytics and provide you the analysis. Hey, this bad guy is talking to this bad guy.”
There are many obstacles to such a shift - not least the phone companies’ stiff resistance. The companies have told the White House that they are opposed to being made to hold the data on behalf of the government for periods longer than they normally would. And key lawmakers in the Senate have studied the idea, including the possibility of paying companies to retain the data, and rejected it.
Meanwhile, at least eight researchers or policy experts have withdrawn from an Internet security conference after the sponsor reportedly used flawed encryption technology deliberately in commercial software to allow the National Security Agency to spy more easily on computer users.
RSA Security, owned by data storage giant EMC Corp., has disputed claims it intentionally introduced the flawed encryption algorithm, but otherwise has declined to discuss what a published report last month described as a $10 million government contract.
The published report said RSA received the contract from the National Security Agency to use the agency’s preferred method of number generation. The report said such a flawed algorithm in RSA’s Bsafe software tool generates random numbers in such a way that it creates “backdoors” into the company’s encryption products.
RSA said in a statement last month that as a security company, it “never divulges details of customer engagements, but we also categorically state that we have never entered into any contract or engaged in any project with the intention of weakening RSA’s products, or introducing potential ‘backdoors’ into our products for anyone’s use.”
The pullouts from the highly regarded RSA Conference represent early blow back by technology researchers and policy experts who have complained that the government’s surveillance efforts have, in some cases, weakened Internet security even for innocent users.
Some U.S. companies that have agreed or been compelled to turn over customer records to the government have complained that their business relationships with customers in Europe, Asia and elsewhere are increasingly becoming strained.
It was not immediately clear whether any researchers who still intended to make presentations at the conference would discuss the subject. Hugh Thompson, a conference organizer who works for security firm Blue Coat Systems, said the event is “an open venue where people can talk openly about security.” Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Stephen Braun and Jack Gillum of The Associated Press; by Chris Strohm and Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News; and by Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/09/2014